Two symbiotic sociopaths play obscurely deviant mind games with each other while engaging in perversely brutal acts of violence against victims apparently chosen at random.
Four unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous South American jungle.
Director:
William Friedkin
Stars:
Roy Scheider,
Bruno Cremer,
Francisco Rabal
Liberal district attorney decides to seek the death penalty for a man who slaughtered a family at Christmastime, then drank their blood. He escapes, though, and starts killing again.
Director:
William Friedkin
Stars:
Michael Biehn,
Alex McArthur,
Nicholas Campbell
It's a hot summer day in 1933 in South Philly, where 12-year old Gennaro lives with his widowed mom and his ailing grandpa, who sits outside holding tight to his last quarter, which he's ... See full summary »
Director:
James Foley
Stars:
Al Pacino,
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio,
Jerry Barone
A lawyer is forced to defend a guilty judge, while defending other innocent clients, and trying to find punishment for the guilty and provide justice for the innocent.
A serial killer brutally slays and dismembers several gay men in New York's S&M and leather districts. The young police officer Steve Burns is sent undercover onto the streets as decoy for the murderer. Working almost completely isolated from his department, he has to learn and practice the complex rules and signals of this little society. While barely seeing his girlfriend Nancy anymore, the work starts changing him.Written by
Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
The film only opens with the title in large letters, across the screen. It is only at the end where the filmmakers are credited. See more »
Alternate Versions
UK cinema and 1987 video versions were cut by 54 secs by the BBFC. The 1997 Maverick Directors video release was cut by 39 seconds to remove subliminal shots of anal sex during the murder scenes (one of which appears in the film though heavily darkened) and to edit a pan shot of a gay bar interior and shots of a knife being traced over a bound victims body. Although the uncut version was shown by Sky TV the film was resubmitted to the BBFC in 2003 for a FilmFour showing and many cuts were restored apart from a 1 sec edit to remove the subliminal shots. For the initial release on UK DVD in 2008 all the cuts were waived. See more »
What strikes me while watching the film, is that truth to reality is really refreshing. No editing in the world can make up to a camera catching a dark, rainy street as they could back in those days when equipment was not developed. Aristoleles claimed that cruelty should be committed outside the scene, that is, in the background. The imagination of the spectator is far more imaginative than a view of the actual event. Therefore, leaving out is stronger in terms of storytelling than showing. Quite the contrary to contemporary movies, I'd say. The advantage of this story is thus the suspense built up on lack of knowledge. There is no flirting with the audience; you do not know in advance who dunnit. There is no flirting with the audience on the task of staging one of the protagonists as a gay either. This is not the greatest movie, but really worth seeing.
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What strikes me while watching the film, is that truth to reality is really refreshing. No editing in the world can make up to a camera catching a dark, rainy street as they could back in those days when equipment was not developed. Aristoleles claimed that cruelty should be committed outside the scene, that is, in the background. The imagination of the spectator is far more imaginative than a view of the actual event. Therefore, leaving out is stronger in terms of storytelling than showing. Quite the contrary to contemporary movies, I'd say. The advantage of this story is thus the suspense built up on lack of knowledge. There is no flirting with the audience; you do not know in advance who dunnit. There is no flirting with the audience on the task of staging one of the protagonists as a gay either. This is not the greatest movie, but really worth seeing.