PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Wednesday: Cat O’ Nine Nails (1971) & Halloween (1978)
It’s Hump Day, folks! We’re halfway through the week, and what better way to celebrate than with a couple of textbook slasher films, beginning with Dario Argento’s Giallo thriller, Cat O’ Nine Tails. The plot wraps itself around a fairly conventional detective story. There’s a conspiracy involving a research facility, a mysterious killer lurking around and a brave, eccentric blind man (Karl Malden) determined to solve the whole thing.
On the other side of the screen, there’s John Carpenter’s masterpiece babysitter stalker film, Halloween (1978). These two ’70s classics go peanut butter and chocolate for each other because of two key elements. Both films would be lukewarm milk without their directors’ keen visual sense and composers’ phenomenal scores. Argento and Carpenter know how to make the camera into a character. Their respective, distinct visions put you in the mind of the killer, in the body of the victim, and in the window watching it all. Add to that Carpenter’s instantly recognizable score for Halloween and the masterful Ennio Morricone’s work on Cat O’ Nine Tails and you’ve got everything you need to survive another Wednesday.
