Tagarchief: Dungeon Classics

Dungeon Classics #47: IT

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

IT (1990, USA)

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Cast: Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Annette O’Toole, Tim Curry
Running Time: 192 mins.

Before the cinematic It movies from 2017 and 2019, there was this beloved TV mini-series adapted from Stephen King’s horror masterpiece ‘It’. IT revolves around an evil entity living in the sewers of Derry, Maine, which feeds on the fears of people – children especially – and usually appears as the terrifying clown Pennywise. The structure of this TV production is very well done. The story is told as the adult members of the Losers Club are called back to Derry by their old friend Mike Hanlon when Pennywise returns after 30 years (“It’s back!”) and begins killing children again. They have all forgotten their horrific childhood encounters with Pennywise and must relive them before returning to Derry to finish him off for good. It’s a very intelligent metaphor for traumatic childhood experiences and how the past – and its many fears – remains very much alive in adults. The youth cast is very impressive, drawing you in and making their experiences believable. Tim Curry is absolutely great as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Bill Skarsgård definitely had huge clown shoes to fill when he took on the role in the reboot. The effects are dated nowadays, but IT still retains that eerie atmosphere that makes it so effective as a horror experience. The only flaw is that ending with the fake spider doesn’t cut it anymore (it never really did). Still, there are some genuine scares, and it still has some of that Losers Club magic going for it.

Dungeon Classics #46: Bound

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Bound (1996, USA)

Director: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Cast: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano
Running Time: 109 mins.

Extremely tense and entertaining crime movie by the brothers (now sisters) who brought us The Matrix three years later. The movie kind of plays like a male fantasy. Two pretty girls called Violet and Corky meet on the elevator of an apartment building and make eye contact. Violet lives there with her Mafia boyfriend Caesar and Corky has just been released from jail and works in the building as a handygirl. Soon after, Violet starts seducing Corky. After some hot and steamy sex, they cook up the plan to steal two million dollars from Caesar. This is the start of a tense and bloody rollercoaster ride. Bound is kind of like the Wachowski’s Reservoir Dogs. It is their debut and mostly plays at one location – an apartment building – and is all the more exciting for it. After the set-up in the first half, the second half is a true edge-of-your-seat thriller. With lots of great twists and turns. It is not hard to spot the camerawork and visual touches that the Wachowski’s would later employ for the Matrix-films. The cast, consisting mostly of the central three leads, all portray believable and interesting characters. Pantoliano is hilarious in his mobster role (almost exactly his role in The Sopranos from years later) and Tilly and Gershon have some real chemistry going. If only the Wachowski’s could make a film like this every year.

Dungeon Classics #45: Eastern Promises

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Eastern Promises (2007, UK, Canada, USA)

Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Running Time: 100 mins.

The master of body horror David Cronenberg made an outing in the gangster genre with A History of Violence, one of the surprise hits of 2005. I guess he liked it, because he soon followed it up with another gangster movie called Eastern Promises, once again starring Viggo Mortensen. A young Russian girl dies in childbirth, leaving a diary found by nurse Anna (Naomi Watts), who wants to return the baby to its family. Unable to read Russian, Anna seeks help and meets Semyon, a restaurant owner and leader of the brutal Russian mob Vory v Zakone. His enforcers – Kirill (Vincent Cassel), a violent, closeted homosexual, and Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), a cunning newcomer – compete for Semyon’s approval. The diary reveals the girl was one of Semyon’s prostitutes, her life story unfolding in voice-over as the film’s central thread. The casting of non-Russians in the leading roles turns out very well. Mortensen speaks Russian like a pro. The details of the reality the filmmakers created are also spot-on: the underworld body tattoos that tell a person’s life story, the folk music, the accents, it is all very well executed. A few scenes stand out: Nikolai’s initiation ritual and a brutal fight in a bathhouse most notably. The characters are also beautifully realized, especially Cassel’s Kirill. You can feel the tension rise as his father swaps Nikolai for Kirill like he swaps a Ukrainian girl for a case of cheap booze. The cast and crew’s craftsmanship make Eastern Promises another small masterpiece by Cronenberg.

Dungeon Classics #44: A History of Violence

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

A History of Violence (2005, USA, Germany)

Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris
Running Time: 96 mins.

David Cronenberg, the master of body horror, has long been fascinated by duality and fractured identities – most brilliantly explored in Dead Ringers (1988). In A History of Violence, adapted from a graphic novel, family man Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) reassures his young daughter that monsters don’t exist. Yet, as fate would have it, two real monsters arrive in their quiet town of Millbrook, Indiana, intent on another murderous spree. Tom stops them, but the media frenzy that follows draws the attention of gangsters who expose his dark past as a Philadelphia mob enforcer. Meanwhile, Tom’s sharp-witted son outsmarts an alpha male schoolyard bully, sparking a reflection on humanity’s violent, primal nature – our constant lust for power and sex. This realization weighs heavily on the son, who soon finds himself drawn into the violent legacy of the man his father once was. The ‘history’ in the title is richly layered: Tom’s hidden past, the family’s shared burden, and, quite literally, a story steeped in bloodshed. The film boasts a stellar cast, with William Hurt delivering a standout performance as Tom’s weirdo brother, Richie. It’s a history worth uncovering.