Monday, August 26, 2013

The Cherry Psychomaniac and the Darkest Corner of Paradise

Cinemania has my reviews of Cherry, The Death Wheelers, and The Darkest Corner of Paradise.

Cherry and The Darkest Corner Of Paradise both felt like concept overreach to me. They seemed like they had big ideas in the back of their creators' minds which didn't end up actually translating to the screen. In Cherry, this was a meditation on the destructive capacity of human relationships and the "nice guy" myth which got muddied by the general unlikability of all its characters, while Paradise aspired to Taxi Driver but ended up with lots of scenes of a guy walking around in the dark (albeit attractively shot, and with a neat soundtrack) that led up to nothing much.

The Death Wheelers (originally and confusingly titled Psychomania) is an entirely different kettle of fish - an amazing 70s-kitsch time capsule and a great piece of English spooky-pagan horror. Sadly (I looked it up) the charmingly brutal Nicky Henson who plays the lead seems to have come to nothing in particular. This was also the last movie for George Sanders* before his suicide, and there's some suggestion that its poor reception at the time contributed to his depression.

Really the only downsides to Death Wheelers are its over-reliance on now-dated car chase scenes, and (on the version I got at least) the poor sound quality. Otherwise I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's into that sort of thing.

* The voice of Shere Khan in the Disney Jungle Book, amongst many many other things.

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