Se7en (1995)

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Director: David Fincher
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt . USA. 2h 6m

Only one year after The Crow (1994) darkened cinema screens with a midnight gothic punk industrial wild decent into grief, loss and revenge, David Fincher hit back and an equally hard hitting film which was often likened to the Crow in the early headlines as popular cinema tried to refocus on what was happening, somehow subvergent underground ideas from comics and madmen were becoming popular and adjustments had to be made. These dark worlds filled with grimy stress, rain and a heavy oppressive atmosphere often mimic the inner depression and rage of one or more of their characters. Eric Draven’s depression at losing the love of his life is mimicked by the dark night and rain, his tears, but what is creating the dark dirty polluted rain filled world within Fincher’s, unnamed metropolis it’s certainly not from lost love.

El día de la bestia / The Day of the Beast (1995)

Click the banner for the full listDirector: Alex de la Iglesia .
Starring: Alex Angulo, Santiago Segura and Armando de Razza. Spain. 1h 43m.

I stumbled on this movie by total accident and I’m shocked that it’s been out for more than 2 years before I became fully aware of it’s awesomeness. Some plucky young soul used a gif from the movie in a twitter discussion and it looked so freaking amazing, I knew this film was made for me, and thus my search began. Luckily it only took a year or two to track it down. Now that I’ve finally watched this almost perfect movie I am only bitter that it has taken me this long to discover it.

Safe (1995)

Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Juilanne Moore, John Apicella, Xander Berkeley, Dean Norris .USA/UK. 1h 59m

After watching Todd Haynes’s masterful macabre paperwork drama, Dark Waters I can’t help but think back to one of his more impressive and less talked about movies, Safe; featuring all of the key elements that Haynes loves to explore, showing how we are negatively affected by “forever” chemicals. He takes a more sensitive approach in this mid nineties movie before breaking the doors down years later with the harder hitting Mark Ruffalo biopic.

I hired Safe out many years ago from Blockbusters, it was cheap, because it’s a bit too art house for some and slow and boring for the rest, but for me it really struck a chord, and later on after years of talking to people about it, that chord resonated more as there’s a surprising divide between the sexes about how real or relevant this movie is, I don’t believe it was the aim of the film but maybe a byproduct of Haynes ability to paint Julianne in a certain light while she battles invisible illness. Something that we’re all a little bit more aware of despite these damning warnings.

Castle Freak (1995)

Director: Stuart Gordon.
Starring. Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Jessica Dollarhide, Jonathan Fuller. USA. 1h 35m.
Based on The Outsider by H. P. Lovecraft.

The mashed up face on the movie poster for this lose Lovecraftian movie was somewhat intriguing to me as a youngster but I imagined the film was nothing more than a Quasimodo horror, later on I discovered the DVD in CEX I actually read the back and found that Jeffrey Combs was involved therefore this must be an HP Lovecraft story and I gave it a shot.

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Director: Bryan Singer Writer Christopher McQuarrie.

Starring. Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Pete Postlethwaite, Sizy Amis, Benicio Del Toro. USA. 1h 44m.

First time I saw the Usual Suspects I was lucky enough to see it alongside a piece by Mark Kermode and the film finished with a short from writer Christopher McQuarrie about how he brainstormed the story, not that I needed any more convincing that the film is totally awesome the extra depth really cemented the film as being one of my all-time greatest and one I find myself returning to from time and time again.

Starting with a dark film noir style introduction which is slightly confusing, two silhouetted men talk, light a cigarette, one is injured and the other walks away as an explosion engulfs a ship and the wounded man..  the dark undertones shift to something more gangster as the film opens and builds in two timelines, Verbal (Spacey) has been pulled into a police office to be questioned by the sly agent Kujan (Palminteri), the shifty club footed criminal is forced to give up valuable information before he’s set free, reluctantly he begins to talk but once he gets started he lives up to his name sake and the verbal diarrhea  starts to flow. After some threats from Kujan, the past is unlocked up in audacious little chapters, almost like a 50’s crime comic, it’s slick and witty, and at times it’s on a higher level of brainy than the average movie.

Judge Dredd (1995)

Director: Danny Cannon.

Starring. Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Rob Schneider, Jurgen Prochnow, Max Von Sydow, Diana Lane, Joan Chen. USA/UK. 1h 36m.

Long ago in a not so mega city a wee girl used to spend most of her pocket money  on her comic addiction.. 2000AD used to be the regular poison of choice, and maybe a few things by Dark Horse on special occasions.. The weekly dedication soon turned into two and three magazines a week and specials for Christmas and birthdays at at the height of this the comic boosted that fans were finally going to get a movie! the intensity of this new chapter of comics was a big matter, fan art and letters features in specials, speculations hung alongside with wishes and dreams of the Mega cities coming alive with our most amazing (anti)hero. I was too young to see the film but I saw it anyway, hell it was the Odeon, everyone goes in there under aged.. it’s part of its charm.. as for the film it was a bit of a charmless adventure.