Left in the Dark

Park Chan-wook has never hidden the fact that he is a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock – frequently highlighting Vertigo as the movie that got him into film making. Like many before him, perhaps most notably Brian De Palma, he has found clever ways to integrate influences from The Master of Suspense within his own work, the easiest comparison being Stoker... a loose remake of Shadow of a Doubt. But his most recent feature, Decision to Leave (2022), which he co-writes and directs, might even be more so – though crafted so subtly that you really need to know your Hitchcockian filmography to see where he is pulling from. Originally getting the idea from the song “Mist” by Jung Hoon Hee and Song Chang-sik, which fuses quite nicely with the above quotation from Confucius, this mystery crime thriller flits between the always mist filled skies of seaside Ipo and the mountainous city of Busan. Though insomniac detective Jang Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) resides in the former with his wife Jeong-ahn (Lee Jung-hyun), he lives six days a week in the latter – a place that he has moved to for his job.

With its rather edgy, alluring title, 1968's Naked You Die (also known as The Young, the Evil and the Savage, as well as Schoolgirl Killer), you’d think you are in for a highly controversial giallo, but, as this dates from the 60s, a few years prior to when this style of film started pushing the boundaries of violence and sex, you’re actually in for a slightly more traditional murder mystery compared to what the title might suggest. After an unknown piece of luggage in the form of a giant, heavy trunk arrives at St. Hilda’s College (which is basically a posh boarding school for young women) along with a few new staff members, including husky voiced, goth like science teacher Mrs. Clay (Betty Low) and ultra athletic gym teacher and swim instructor Di Brazzi (Giovanni Di Benedetto), things turn unexpectedly murderous rather quickly.

There is no doubt that Roberto Benigni will forever have his name etched in the annals of film history after his Academy Award winning film Life is Beautiful – which took home Best Foreign Language Film, Best Score (for Nicola Piovani), and brought forth a most special moment when Benigni climbed atop the seats of the theatre to accept his Best Actor award. Yet, it is a bit of a shame that some of his pre-1997 works are lesser known outside of his native Italy. Case in point, the comedy Johnny Stecchino, circa 1991. Co-written (along with Vincenzo Cerami), directed and starring Benigni, he plays the titular character as well as a near identical lookalike of the man (who is actually our protagonist). Here’s a quick translation – Stecchino means toothpick. So, to explain, Dante is a charming yet rather simple bus driver (who is also trying to pull a disability scam with the government), when one day, he luckily. . . or perhaps unluckily, almost gets run into by a beautiful woman named Maria (Nicoletta Braschi – Benigni’s real life wife) – who seems to be immediately intrigued by the man. As she would exclaim – “Santa Cleopatra!”

Using a slight variation on the Master of Suspense’s oh-so-famous name, The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962), a horror film out of Italy written and directed by Ernesto Gastaldi, does not hide its love of the great Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre. Set in 1885, the titular Dr. Hichcock is a much lauded surgeon for his early mastery of anesthesia... saving lives no one ever thought remotely possible. With a veneer of respectability both in public and at home, his wife, Margaretha (Maria Teresa Vianello), happily entertains the Italian elite with her elegant piano playing in her extravagant estate home. But it is after hours when his hidden vices are released.

Loosely based upon Edgar Allan Poe’s 1842 short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, the violently titled West German film The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967), directed by Harald Reinl, is a meandering 18th century set gothic horror mood piece starring the legendary Christopher Lee. For those of you who revel in the wild extravagance of how some of these European horror pictures have a list of different titles around the world, here we go – The Blood Demon, The Snake Pit and the Pendulum (perhaps an abandoned Indiana Jones title as well), Blood of the Virgins, and lastly, Castle of the Walking Dead. Now, reading that primary title, the first question might be... just who is this Dr. Sadism? And, of course, the answer that only makes sense is that it is clearly no one.