Spotlight – Dee Wallace

Dee Wallace is one of my favourite ladies of horror, while a shrinking violet of a character she’s often overlooked for her contributions to horror. Often starring with her husband Christopher Stone (RIP), she has thrilled audiences with her great acting and made several cameos usually playing a sweet wife or mother. Personally I’d have preferred to see her as the mother in Lost Boys (1987) as she plays the perfect horror mother so well.

05.The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Playing a small part in this cult classic horror, Dee appears as the sensible elder daughter Lynne and mother to a young baby in Wes Craven’s ultimate family trip into hell. She manages to really pull out all the stops in this horrific mutated horror set in a desolate part of the American Desert.There is an epic scene which sees a lot of violence and Dee is one of the pivotal actors. She emotive in his role, and very convincing, Craven really managed to get the most out of all of his cast in this groundbreaking new wave of horror.

This must be the place (2011)

Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Sean Penn, Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch .UK/Ireland/USA. 1h 58m

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino emerges with some triumph as one of the masters of modern cinema with this English Language film This Must be the Place, starring Sean Penn as a Robert Smith inspired aged rock star Cheyenne. Retirement doesn’t bring as much action as the rocker passes his time living a non existent life in Dublin spending his days alone in his mansion or with his best friend Mary (Hewson) while his American wife (McDormand) is content with her job as a firefighter.

The approach is superbly elegant and has a mix of looming camera movements and bursts of dynamic action mixed with Penns dry humor that sinks into a hallucinatory landscape, which at points is so massive swallows up the characters.