1984: The Year in Bedlam
Continuing with my Year in Bedlam year-end overviews, we arrive at 1984
THE NUMBER 23
This 2007 thriller was the last major release by the late journeyman director Joel Schumacher (1939-2020)
TOTAL THERAPY
From Austria, a quasi-art film treatment of horrific themes that also works as a satire of psychiatry (although just barely)
THE ETERNAL MASK
This interesting but largely forgotten 1935 Swiss-German production was a landmark in the expressionist film cycle
2019: The Year in Bedlam
What is there to say about 2019? A lot, albeit not on the movie screens
EDITH’S DIARY
A late period novel by the great Patricia Highsmith that showcases its author’s past-her-prime pedigree all too well
THE PREMISES OF OTTO GAST
An impressively wrought exercise in surreal delirium that has yet to receive its proper due
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS
The legendary Grand Guignol Theatre provided the source material for this silent drama from 1929
SIX-HUNDRED & SIXTY SIX
An evangelical film with a difference, which is to say that unlike most such films SIX-HUNDRED & SIXTY SIX, hailing from 1972, is almost good
TWINS
You probably know this novel as the inspiration for David Cronenberg’s DEAD RINGERS (1988), which was a rare instance of a film adaptation surpassing its source novel