It’s that time of the year again.. where I struggle every week because my horror knowledge is still limited. It’s gotten better! But it’s still not enough to fill four weeks of horror related context. In other words, let’s get ready for my struggle! First up, home invasion horror films that make us feel a lot less safe at our homes.
1. HIGH TENSION (2003)
The only horror film I had seen before making this list was High Tension. It’s a French movie, where two women get kidnapped from a house in the beginning and things get awfully bloody. I saw this years ago, and hardly remember most of the film. The only thing I do recall is the fact that the ending was very strange, and felt too big of a stretch. But it works well for this week, so I’m recommending it anyway!
2. HUSH (2016)
When I saw the theme for this week, I scrambled to online lists of invasion movies and found Hush. Immediately it reminded me a little of A Quiet Place, with the main character being deaf. The movie was of course completely different and a lot bloodier. But the concept for the film is simple, and it works well. A writer lives in a secluded house, and suddenly a masked killer starts to torment her. Also, Kate Siegel, who plays the lead, co-wrote it with her husband, who directed it.
3. DON’T BREATHE (2016)
Again, I had to watch this before posting this week’s picks. In a way, it made me watch two horror movies in a span of two days, which is always a nice treat. Don’t breathe has a similar concept to Hush, except the main characters break into a blind man’s house, and the blind man turns out to be the villain. Out of the two new movies I saw, Don’t Breathe was definitely a favourite. It simply had a much richer plot, and Fede Alvarez’s direction is more straight forward. The dark basement scene was one of the high lights of the film for me!
THIS SERIES IS CREATED BY WANDERING THROUGH THE SHELVES
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Hush is so popular this week! I’m not surprised though as the film is great. I haven’t see the other two.
I’m at a loss with yours this week having seen none though the last two look to be quite popular this go round. I’m sure they’re good for people who enjoy this type of film but by and large that’s not me.
With that in mind I struggled for my choices but did manage to find the requisite number…barely!
He Ran All the Way (1951)-After a failed stickup during which he kills a cop Nick Robey (John Garfield) ducks into a local public pool house where he strikes up an acquaintance with Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters). Upon leaving he offers her a cab ride to her home and she invites him in. Discovering he’s pursued he takes Peg and her family hostage leading to a tense standoff holding the police at bay while terrorizing the family. This was the great Garfield’s final film before the stress of being blacklisted lead to his fatal heart attack at only 39.
The Desperate Hours (1955)-On the run after a prison break Glenn Griffin (Humphrey Bogart), his brother Hal (Dewey Martin) and Sam Kobish (Robert Middleton) break into the suburban Indianapolis home of businessman Dan Hilliard (Fredric March) and his family and take them hostage while they wait for Griffin’s moll to show up with loot for a getaway. What is supposed to be only a few hours stretches into nerve jangling days as the woman doesn’t show. William Wyler directed thriller is a tense suspenser. Badly remade in the 80’s.
Cul-de-sac (1966)-George (Donald Pleasance) and his much younger French wife Teresa (Françoise Dorléac) live in an isolated castle on a remote tidal island. American gangster Dickey (Lionel Stander) fleeing a botched robbery with his wounded sidekick Albie (Jack MacGowran) cross the causeway at low tide and take over the castle but then the tables turn. Roman Polanski directed this strange thriller with both dramatic and comic overtones. Leading lady Dorléac was Catherine Deneuve’s sister and a rising international star before she was killed in a car crash the year after this was made.
We match on Hush and Don’t Breathe! I enjoyed both of those. I forgot about High Tension. I only saw that movie once in theaters, and I’m still shocked to this day the town I lived in at the time even got that movie to begin with lol.
I’ve, for the first time ever, seen all three of someone’s picks, and I think they are all incredibly solid. I don’t exactly remember High Tension, outside of it being gory as Hell. And barbed wire, perhaps? Not sure about that.
As for the other two, like the comment I left for Brittani, those two are absolute hallmarks of the home-invasion genre. The fact that the lead wrote it with her husband makes it even cooler, as I’m not sure I knew that at the time I saw it.
You should tweet some love to Fede Alvarez. He’s quick to reply…(or he was…pretty sure he retweeted my review years back). I can’t believe he’s making another one.