I like dark movies

Eraserhead is a dark, dark, dark film, both in brightness and in story. Freaky-deaky movie, the stuff of nightmares.

 

Happiness (1998)

 

Think this qualifies

 

i gotta see this now!

 

They really made some intensely dark movies in the early '70's.

Some I saw at around 10 or 12 years old almost looked like what one would imagine to be a snuff film like 1972's Wes Craven's "Last House On The Left".

Now I've got to see "10 Rillington Place".

 

Here ya go... 1972 Last House On The Left...

 

I was thinking that movies that are so dark that I can't make out what is going on should be mentioned.

Another movie where the good guys don't win-darkness occurs is The Wicker Man.

 

Might as well mention "The VVitch", so damn dark and slow paced the title character went missing because I couldn't see it.

I couldn't tell if it was either shot too dark or some engineer mastered it on too bright a display monitor. And it was a darkly written story, just couldn't see anything during night shots.

 

Antichrist.

 

The Vanishing (1988)

That’s the French-Dutch original, not the Hollywood remake.

 

Ahhhh... you need to become familiar with “Film Noir” and the deep deep catalog of stories of flawed characters making a few bad decisions and ending up in raw circumstances.

add crazy fun-house weird camera angles, Smokey jazzy scores and women poured into their sweaters and dresses..., who lure the men to their doom...

and you have the makings of captivating stories that seem to elude Hollywood these days.

DOA - dead on arrival - has been mentioned. But watch the original. A man arrives at a police station to report a murder: his own.

The Hitchhiker

you Only live Once

Gun Crazy

the Narrow Margin

Asphalt Jungle

out of the Past - working title: I build my gallows high

the Phoenix City Story

They Made Me. Fugitive

they live by night

the glass key

the blue dahlia

the desperate hours

in a lonely place

too late for tears

woman on the run

ride the pink horse

shield for murder

pushover

nightfall

the big heat

t men

raw deal

kiss me deadly

double indemnity

try and get me

pitfall

whirlpool

Laura

kiss of death

nightmare alley

panic in the streets

the postman always rings twice

the strange love of Martha ivers

this gun for hire

the Killing - about a heist of a racetrack


These films were made in the 1940-1950’s b&w mostly Academy Ratio (not widescreen). Once things get underway you won’t notice, believe me.
The good news is most of these are readily available and fairly reasonable. And some can be had in HD.

i wish I could see these films again for the first time.... many of these are real treasures.
Warner Brothers put out many of these and Sony/Columbia as well.

check out the website

www.dvdbeaver.com and look for the section in essential noir.


Enjoy!

 

A postscript to my entry above:

if you go to dvd beaver dot com DO NOT read the synopsis. Too many of these reviewers give away plot points.
Every movie I referenced above is a rewarding experience.


Oh, forgot this one

Chinatown.

Jack Nicholson. Faye Dunaway. John Huston. Roman Polanski. That should give you a clue right there.

A masterpiece. Genuine 5 Star film.

A haunting dark movie that will stay with you long after the lights go up.

ps- the switchblade up the nose was real.

 

I still really enjoy the simple one upmanship and underlying tension of this one, Polanski's first.

 

Polanski’s “The Tenant” also Repulsion

Don’t Look Now with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie.

 

Don't Look Now is a classic & Repulsion is memorable in itself, sorry to say that I have not seen The Tenant.

 

This thread makes me wish someone would make a good film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.

 

Detour by Edgar G. Ulmer.

I don't post clips man. I post the whole movie! (Check the last 50 seconds for the philosophy lesson)

 

Another recommendation for KILL LIST.

Watched it again just the other night because of another thread here about "scary movies".

Brilliant.

 

Wages of Fear

 

Parasite. It's in theaters now, it's a masterpiece, and it's dark enough for ya.

 

Quite liked this one. There's a German version of it as well that's very good but made with a much smaller budget. Available on YouTube .

 

Featuring Britt Eckland dancing naked. A highlight!