dibot Blog

I loved Night Breed when I was younger, but was afraid that it wouldn't hold up. However, writer/director Clive Barker ("Lord of Illusions)'s vision of a home for monsters holds up quite well. The story revolves around Boone, a man with horrible nightmares, whose shrink, played by David Cronenberg, convinces him that he's actually committed the murders from his dreams. But Boone has also been dreaming of Midian, where the monsters live. He then finds himself leading them against the humans bent on their destruction. And there's a love story. The effects are done with make-up so they haven't really aged. And the story doesn't spend a long time on set up, you're just taken into Boone's plight. The inhabitants as well as the mythology of Midian are fascinating. So I still love it.

Murder Set Pieces has absolutely no redeeming qualities. There's a Nazi photographer who kills people, mostly women, in supposedly very violent ways. And only a little girl can figure it out and stop him. Terrible acting, production, dialogue. Even the gore is lame. I just felt bored and mildly disgusted by the whole thing. And they talk in German with no subtitles quite a bit. It only gets one star for good music. Otherwise, it would have no stars.

Director Mary Harron ("The Notorious Bettie Page") brings style to Brett Easton Ellis's novel of 1980s yuppie serial killer Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale, "Rescue Dawn"). The color scheme, the way people and places blend together so it becomes more and more difficult to find anything original, add to the emptiness I felt while reading the book. Bale is perfectly normal as he rattles off facts and reviews of pop bands while preparing to kill, and crazed as he compares business cards.

It's hard to say anything about this film that hasn't been said. Yes, it's a satire. Yes, it's startlingly violent. But I'm drawn to it because it always leaves me thinking.