The Amityville Horror (1979)

Eric Winick

May 19, 2024

We're not 30 seconds from having hit play, and we already know this is going to be something else entirely. Why? Three things. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, American International Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Why The Amityville Horror? This, for me, is the definitive horror film. It's also the definitive 70s horror film. The Amityville Horror is writ large all over my childhood. Growing up, early 80s, it was big, big news. This was a real inflection point. This was “Based On a True Story,” every one of those words, capital. This was based on a book, this was based in a double distance, almost Brechtian way on a book about a real-life series of events in the lives of two families in one Long Island, New York home.

Eric Winick

February 4, 2024

The Mephisto Waltz (1971)

Eric Winick

February 4, 2024

Frankly, it's not hard to see the similarities between the two, between Rosemary's Baby and The Mephisto Waltz, or at least the imprint of one on the other. We've got this educated passing for sophisticated, sufficiently urbane couple, and they're drawn in by a pair of Satanists of indeterminate age, and then they get involved in magic that benefits the Satanists more than the sweet young couple. So it's a little bit Faustian, but it's got jazz hands.

Eric Winick

January 1, 2024

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Eric Winick

January 1, 2024

I think Jennifer's Body rides a lot of lines. It's a little nostalgic in terms of its tone and its story. It's a little post-modern though in its execution. I think the characters reflect and refract one another. There's sort of a kind of “reverse menstruation” idea at work. And there's an exploitation of the fear of female or feminine power and empowerment. I think it's got a view of high school that's so saturated with meta-commentary that it seems like it has been made by a team of artists who probably barely survived high school and then really triumphed afterward.

Eric Winick

December 25, 2023

Extra Ordinary (2019)

Eric Winick

December 25, 2023

In Extra Ordinary, the characters are all losers in the truest sense. They're mostly unlucky people. They've experienced loss. Everybody is looking for something. But I think it's a rare cinema experience that kind of makes me feel in every scene, if not every frame, compelled to either laugh out loud or get a little misty with truly happy tears.

Eric Winick

November 7, 2022

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

Eric Winick

November 7, 2022

I chose THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE because it's a film that I return to again and again. It's really well cast. It's a procedural, it's a legal drama, and it's a horror movie. It has a strong female protagonist in Laura Linney's character and an unhinged performance by Jennifer Carpenter in the central role of Emily Rose. And I think it's an interesting story in that it's about transformation and redemption for both of those characters.