The Fury (1978) Review

Happy Birthday to Kirk Douglas, who turns 100 today! I recently did a list of My Top Ten Michael Douglas Movies & commented that I’d only seen one of his father’s films (Paths Of Glory, and that was also quite recently for my defunct IMDB Top 250 Project). I know – it’s shameful to be a movie blogger & to have seen so few movies from someone who has been around as long as Douglas! So I vowed to watch Spartacus & review it on his birthday. Well, Spartacus isn’t very “me” and I shamefully still haven’t watched it. However, I did watch one of his films. Brian De Palma is more my speed so let’s have a look at The Fury, my second Kirk Douglas movie! Maybe I’ll do Spartacus for birthday 101… 🙂

The Fury (1978)

Directed by Brian De Palma

Based on The Fury by John Farris

Starring: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning, Amy Irving, Andrew Stevens, Rutanya Alda, William Finley

Music by John Williams

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDB)
A government agent is determined to come to his son’s rescue when a sinister official kidnaps him to harbor his extremely powerful psychic abilities.

My Opinion:

Well, damn, I guess I should’ve watched Spartacus… The Fury is honestly not very good. 😉 How disappointing! I’ve wanted to see this for years, ever since a scene from it was shown as part of an art installation I saw at the Tate Modern. I don’t remember the artist now but it was a series of scenes from movies involving psychic powers and I’d never heard of The Fury before then. I know De Palma’s filmography is a bit all over the place but I’m a fan of quite a few of his films, especially his Seventies ones such as Carrie & Phantom Of The Paradise. Even Sisters (1972) was better than this. Considering that The Fury is dealing with the similar supernatural/horror themes that I enjoy, I guess I was hoping for something better. Heck, even Firestarter was a better look at telekinesis & the secret government study of individuals who possess these powers. But I do love Stephen King (and Drew Barrymore!). Unfortunately, The Fury pales even further in comparison to De Palma’s adaptation of King’s telekinetic masterpiece Carrie.

I guess I’ll start with Kirk Douglas since I watched this in honor of his birthday. He plays the man whose powerfully telekinetic son is kidnapped by government baddies who want to harness this power. The movie starts out well with the action-packed kidnapping but later turns silly as a half-naked Douglas humorously steals some clothes from a couple & friendly elderly mother and then hitches a ride with Dennis Franz going against character & playing a cop. By the way – Douglas is half naked a lot in this. Is this a Douglas thing? I assume he’s half-naked in Spartacus a lot too. Anyway, the movie has such an uneven tone for a while there with some almost comic relief going on. It was bizarre as there’s none of this whatsoever in the rest of the movie, which has a serious & more horrific tone than I was expecting. Because, you see, using your telekinetic powers on people makes them bleed profusely out of every motherf*%#ing orifice! It was super gross. Well, until the end… The special effects for the big climactic moment were so hilariously bad that I genuinely laughed out loud (I’m not a “LOL”er). And I’m not a special effects snob! I grew up on dodgy old effects. DAMN the end of this was funny as shit, though.

Oops – I went off topic. I was talking about Douglas! Well, he does what he can with a dodgy script, I guess. I’ll give a more “worthy” film of his a go at some point. I was excited to see Amy Irving in another De Palma/psychic ability film after Carrie & it’s cool that she has the ability this time. She’s probably the best thing about the movie, actually, along with the love interest of Douglas (played by Carrie Snodgress). It probably helped that their roles didn’t contain any weird-ass humor while the male roles in this film were lame (especially the son of Douglas – I’m surprised that the kidnappers didn’t want to give that moody, whiny fucker back to him).

My review is as off-the-rails as this film’s plot. I admit my mind wandered & I fucked around on my phone instead of paying much attention to the movie after it got silly. No wonder it had all that orifice bleeding! That’s the only time it got interesting & distracted you from the meandering plot and the fact that you didn’t really care about Douglas finding his asshole son or not. I’m trying to remember what I did on my phone while this movie was on… I think I wrote my review for Stephen King’s Mr Mercedes (Good book. Hey – King connection!). I’m pretty sure I added a bunch of pointless shit to my Amazon Wish List as well. I currently have a variety of those Japanese good luck cats knocking about in my wish list. Why do I do that? It’s not like I’ll ever BUY myself that kind of stuff. I also have an insane amount of Studio Ghibli toys & Kokeshi dolls in there. Someone buy me this stuff for Christmas so I can take them off my Wish List!

Speaking of Dennis Franz above (honestly – I did mention him in my rambling), my favorite thing about watching old movies like this is spotting celebrities that I grew up watching. At least I got something out of The Fury – there were some great obscure actors! I’m pretty sure I saw that chick who was on ER for years (Dr. Weaver) and freaking Nikki Newman from The Young & The Restless!!! HA! I miss that stupid fucking soap opera since moving to the UK. Is Nikki still married to Victor? God those two were annoying. Oh! And when I looked up The Fury at IMDb I saw that I missed Daryl Hannah in this as well as Large Marge from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure! Now THAT’S a good movie.

Um. Screw it – this “review” is going nowhere. Happy 100th Birthday, Kirk Douglas! I’m sorry I’ve not watched more of your films as I’m sure most of them were better than The Fury. But, hey – I still think De Palma is cool & like even some of his “bad” films (other than Mission To Mars – that truly sucked). No shame in being in a De Palma film! I have no doubt that The Fury has a cult following & feel bad that it didn’t work for me. I’m now going to give this a halfway decent rating since, hell, I guess I did get some fun out of it. And a good laugh at that ending!

My Rating: 6/10

Nikki Newman!

Daryl Hannah & the ER chick!

Brad Pitt!

The No Face figure from Spirited Away which has been in my wish list for years! Years! He’s lonely. He needs someone to buy him for me.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968) IMDB Top 250 Guest Review

Today we have the wonderful Anna of Film Grimoire reviewing a horror favorite of mine. Anna got really excited about this brilliant film & posted a little about it along with some amazing images from the movie HERE. Anna is passionate about film and writes excellent reviews on a wide variety of genres. Anna – it may not seem like it as I’ve not been commenting on anything on WordPress lately due to a busy schedule but I love your reviews & you’ll wake up one day to suddenly find a million comments from me where I’ve made time to thoroughly raid your blog! I must really annoy people when I do that… 😉

There are still some movies up for grabs if anyone wants to do a guest IMDB Top 250 review. You can find the list HERE.

Now let’s turn things over to Anna to get her full review of Rosemary’s Baby, IMDB rank 229 out of 250…

The second film in Roman Polanski’s famed Apartment Trilogy, Rosemary’s Baby (1968) is a film synonymous with the horror genre. After moving in to a beautiful yet spooky apartment building, Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse become close with their annoying neighbours Roman and Minnie, whether they like it or not. Rosemary becomes pregnant under mysterious circumstances, and with her mothering instincts kicking in, she must fight to protect her unborn child against supernatural forces.

Where does one start with a film that is so iconic, and so ubiquitous? Where do you start writing a review of a film that is so universally loved, and after you finish watching it, you have to sit in silence for a moment to pay it the respect it deserves? It may come as no surprise to say that I love this film. It’s been in my top 10 films of all time list ever since I started thinking about a top 10.

Firstly, the music and sound design are two of my favourite elements of this film. From the very beginning, when the camera is panning over the metropolis of New York City, we hear a simple lullaby that is at once comforting and threatening. This immediately sets the tone of the film, and when the camera rests on the creepy building that Rosemary and Guy seek to make their home, the audience instinctively knows there’s something wrong with it. The repetition of this lullaby during key moments increases that feeling of being threatened. In addition to the music, the sound design is perfect in general. During scenes inside the building, we can hear city sounds, creaking floorboards, kids screaming from outside, taps dripping, traffic noises – all of these sounds combine to create an environment that seems both protected from the outside, but also vulnerable to it. The sound design is as much a storyteller as the characters are.

In terms of the acting, Mia Farrow is charming as Rosemary from the very beginning. She plays her character with such innocence, but also a rawness that’s difficult to pinpoint exactly. At times she’s childlike, at times lustful. As her body changes during pregnancy and she becomes confused by her condition and physical decline, she portrays the conflict between wanting to be healthy and wanting to keep her baby in such a heartbreaking way. Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer portray Minnie and Roman, the suspicious neighbours, perfectly. Particularly Ruth Gordon, who scored a Best Supporting Actress for her role, and whose intrusion into and influence upon Rosemary’s daily life and pregnancy is played with such well-meaning menace. John Cassavetes’ performance as Guy is fraught with his own secret conflict and can be frustrating to watch for this reason, but is also very good.

There are a number of moments in Rosemary’s Baby where I just throw my hands up and say, “That’s it, this is a perfect film.” One particular moment, where Rosemary and Minnie are washing dishes in the kitchen after a dinner party, and Guy and Roman are smoking together in the living room. Rosemary looks back from the kitchen toward the living room to see where Guy is, and we can’t see or hear them, but all we see in that shot is smoke curling across the air from where they’re sitting. Something so simple can be so threatening, and Polanski’s direction nails it every time.

Speaking of which, the direction and cinematography in Rosemary’s Baby are top notch. The camera work adds to the overall feelings of tension as it looks through the apartment slowly and creepily. Any scene where the camera is following Rosemary and another character through the apartment seems strange because it feels like there’s an extra person hanging around watching them. Later in the film, there is some interesting handheld camera work, which adds to the frenzy of certain scenes. The film’s dream sequences are also directed impeccably, in such a way that they do seem like real dreams, rather than ‘movie dreams’ that can be a bit too linear to be realistic.

Meanwhile, the cinematography is amazing. The way the film is constructed visually is just as impressive as the camerawork. Early on in the film, Rosemary and Guy paint the apartment white to make it feel lighter – later in the film, as Rosemary’s pregnancy progresses, the use of shadows and angles makes the apartment look just as dark as before, even though the colour scheme is light. This is but one example of the amazing coexistence between the film’s cinematography and story.

Rosemary’s Baby also has a lot of good rewatch value. Small looks, clever elements of cinematography, and symbolic props add another layer to the film that you might not catch upon first viewing. One example of this is where Rosemary and Guy are looking at baby clothes – revulsion quickly flits across Guy’s face when Rosemary holds up a small jumper. Having already seen the film, something so simple as a facial expression can have a strong impact on the viewer. These smaller moments are so rewarding when you watch the film for a second, or even a third, time.

Finally, the ending of the film is one of the more perfect film endings. The final scene of the film (no spoilers here) is one of the best. Even though some elements of it can be cheesy, purely due to the supernatural elements at play in the film, the “big reveal” is so sinister that I tend to forget about them. Rosemary’s character arc is complete, and as a viewer it can be difficult to reconcile her actions throughout the film with the actual ending of the film. But the film raises an interesting question about what it means to be a mother, and the kind of protective instincts that might arise in a mother upon giving birth to a child.

You might be able to tell that I am a big fan of this film. I honestly could write a lot more about it but I should probably stop before I write a whole book. Rosemary’s Baby is a film that will stay in my top 10 for a very long time. It is a slow burner, but it develops at a steady pace and certainly gathers a lot of momentum. Please watch it, if you haven’t already. It is absolutely worthy of its place in IMDb’s Top 250, and is probably one of the best horror films ever made.

5/5
Watch the trailer here.