Reviews

As for the subplot, Falling Down may be a more fitting companion piece to this movie because like Duvall's subplot, it seems to belong in another movie for a long time.

The movie wears its love for Jaws on its sleeve - the pool party is essentially the movie's July 4th - but I wish it had not followed its rule of not showing the villain too much because the silver-suited primate's screen time is perhaps too limited.

Again, this movie earns its classic haunted house movie status despite how tangential Hill House seems to the story in retrospect.

While our hero is an American major, I am used to the Americans in movies like this being treated with kid gloves even when they are at least partly responsible for the monster's existence.

Oh, and there are babies and animals in this movie, and as someone who becomes anxious whenever either is on screen in movies like this one, that should not dissuade because I would not say it ventures into bad taste.

The blood, guts and well, other mature content is more shocking than I've come to expect from the studio and even from today's average horror movie, yet it surprisingly manages to do it tastefully despite animals and the young being involved.

My favorite thing about this movie is its awareness of one of its genre's main appeals: guessing who the killer is.

If the story sounds less like an Indiana Jones movie and more like the one in another "magnificent" movie, i.e., Seven, you're not wrong.

This movie works just as well as a classic western as it does a drug addiction tale, with the drug of course being staging robberies since the best drama comes from whether or not Miner will fall off the wagon, no pun intended.

The performances are fine, especially Clark's, who obviously had fun with his caricature of American greed, and Morgan's, who excels at leaving you guessing about his intentions until just the right moment.