Robert Emmett Murphy, Jr.

  Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)   This Japanese film is a true masterpiece of post-Millennial Horror cinema. It was clearly influenced by another Japanese film, the landmark “Ringo” (1998). Two share some imagery, notably scary, long, black hair, but that was a key image in Japanese Horror even before I was born. Far more importantly, both embrace the idea Supernatural Evil can take the form of something almost a public health emergency, that once the Monsters get loose even a little bit, they want to be an epidemic. Never-the-less, “Ju-On: The Grudge” is a unique film, defying more than a century of narrative assumptions as it gave us a feature-length film that had a strong conceit, but (close to) no plot.   It reminded me to a degree of Director William Castle’s whimsical Spookers – open a door and “BOO!” – except that Castle films, despite a few moments of real suspense, were often happy to be nothing more than theme-park rides, while here Writer/Director Takashi S...

  Mulholland Drive (2001)     The most defining aspect of American cinema, and why it is frequently more powerful but often less inventive than the European, is our implicit faith that it is a Populist Art form. Yes, we have our “Art” films, but they are looked upon as an “and also,” they exist to be mined by others reaching the larger audience, while all our pinnacle achievements are those that first-and-foremost aspire to the largest audience with “Art” only tagging along for the ride.   World renowned Film Theorists have called Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” (1937) “the most perfect motion picture ever made,” and I suspect that a Children’s movie would be so elevated says something about to power and the specificity of the American Aesthetic. America has both its Charles Dickenses and its Thomas Manns, but on some level, we view our Dickenses are more “American” than our Manns.   And that, more than anything else, is why Davi...

  “Nosferatu” (1922) Very likely, this is the Greatest Vampire Movie Ever Made. It was the first of many score of adaptations of Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” (1897) and until the somewhat obscure BBC version starring Louis Jordan (1977 and quite excellent) it is the one which displayed greatest fidelity to the original text. This is ironic because … well … that’s a long story. because many of the themes were almost in opposition of Stoker’s vision. More ironic still, because it tried (vainly) to pretend it wasn’t an adaptation at all. The novel is about horrors emerging from the cracks in British rationalism and sexual repression. Slasher movie style, Stoker’s response to the recognition to reality of repression was to shift blame onto the wantoness of the (more often than not) female victim. Consistent with this pathology (which is recognizable most of his literary output) after Stoker allowed Mina to be is as smart as the male characters (she assembles a fair amount of the...