Double feature of the week: Ode To Serial Killers

Today marks the 80^th anniversary of the premier of the mother of all serial killer films. Fritz Lang’s “M” is one of my all time favorites. If you haven’t seen it, stop what you are doing right now, get on your Netflix queue or hit up your local library and get it done. This film is one of the first classic foreign films I watched and I’ve loved it ever since. So, this week’s double feature is in its honor.

Up first is a film I’m sure we’ve all seen. However, I think David Fincher’s “Se7en” (1995) is one of those that probably deserves a second and closer look. As far as I’m concerned, this film is one of the finest to come out of the 1990’s all together. I watched it in the theaters and thought it was cool but never really gave it much of a second chance as I became a more experienced cinematic connoisseur. I had seen it a few more times on cable over the years so again; I never really felt the need to re-watch it. A couple years ago, I picked up the dvd and decided to revisit it. I was amazed at how haunting this film was to me. About two-thirds of the way through the film, I found myself alone in the dark, completely dreading the ending of this film. I was taken aback at how much affect this movie had on me. That is the mark of a great storyteller. How engaged the audience is, even when they know how the story ends. Some people give this film’s “What’s in the box?!?!?” ending a lot of flack. But, I maintain that this is still my favorite David Fincher movie.

Filmmaker Michael Powell was one half of the great Powell/Pressburger team of co-directors that brought us films in the in the 40’s and 50’s like “The Red Shoes”, “Black Narcissus” and “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp”. “Peeping Tom” (1960) was one of Powell’s earliest films as a solo director. It’s about a young sexually repressed man that’s obsessed with fear. He uses his camera to record himself terrorizing and killing women. I think the only reason this film is not more well known is that it was released in the same year as Hitchcock’s “Psycho”. I would contend though, that this movie is more disturbing and put together better. The cinematography is fantastic, at times showing the point of view of the killer, through his 16mm camera. One of the most interesting things about this flick is that, it is pretty clear that we are meant to empathize with the killer. The fact that he is not just some archetypical psychopath on a rampage gives this film an edge that you can’t soon forget.