Dementia/Daughter of Horror Streaming
Vendredi, septembre 10th, 2010 |
Dementia/Daughter of Horror Streaming.
Movie Title: Dementia/Daughter of Horror Dementia/Daughter of Horror is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download Dementia/Daughter of Horror |
After years of poor-condition 16mm prints and blotchy video copies, Kino Video’s DEMENTIA/DAUGHTER OF HORROR disc delivers sharp image and sound, for a neglected oddity. DEMENTIA was made in the early 1950’s by John Parker. Based on a strange dream experienced by his secretary, Parker tells the story of “the gamine,” who wanders the streets of a nightmare town, haunted by fear and guilt. Murder and insanity stalk the back alleys of the surrealist cityscape. Although filmed on a low-budget, DEMENTIA is filled with a variety of interesting visual effects and effective horror moments. One of the latter, in which a character severs the hand of a corpse, helped to get DEMENTIA banned in the state of New York. Tame in comparison to today’s standards, this one scene is still potent and eerie. DEMENTIA runs just over an hour, and is without dialogue. George Antheil composed a score for the film, notable for its arias done by Marni Nixon. There’s a Beat/Bop jazz club sequence for which Antheil pauses for the sounds of Shorty Rogers and His Giants. Kino has supplied this disc with Parker’s second cut of the film, the retitled DAUGHTER OF HORROR, in which he added an absurd but intriguing narration. Buffs will recall that this is the film shown in the movie theatre sequence of the Steve McQueen version of THE BLOB (1958). Extra features include the trailer, pressbook blurbs, a stills gallery, and written information concerning DEMENTIA’s history, cuts made for distribution, and the like. All of which giving this rarity its due.
Like others, I had read about this film for years, and seen the clips in The Blob, but never actually saw the whole movie until buying this DVD. It’s such an anachronism, coming from the early 1950s, that it took a couple of viewings for me to be able to be objective about it. Compared to 99% of movies of its time it’s quite avant-garde, from it’s lurid content to its circular, dreamlike story structure, its complete lack of dialogue, expressionist use of photography and locations, Freudian symbolism, etc. There are moments of brilliance, and comparisons to Bunuel, Cocteau, Lynch, and Welles are not wholly unwarranted. (Is it possible that David Lynch never saw the ‘chicken eating’ scene?) On the downside, it suffers in some of the same ways that other low-budget indies of the time do, particularly in the pacing and the acting. The female lead in particular (the director’s neice) just doesn’t have any charisma whatsoever, and she and others mug broadly at times, attempting to convey emotion and plot without words. This could have been a landmark film with a capable actress in the lead. As it is, it’s an extremely interesting experiment that also holds up to multiple viewings. John Parker definitely gets an A for effort, daring, and vision. The execution’s just a little uneven.
Kino’s DVD presents both the silent, unedited Dementia and the minimally narrated, edited Daughter of Horror. I found the narrated version not necessarily much worse (except of course for the cuts) but just different in tone, more ‘campy.’ Purists will probably stick with the original cut. The supplements include a trailer (for Daughter of Horror), still gallery, and detailed production history. The prints show some light speckling, but otherwise exhibit very good tonal values, sharpness, and detail. This movie is not for everyone, but if you’re into avant-garde, film noir, B&W 50s indies, exploitation, or offbeat horror you’ll probably find it rewarding.
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