The Ricochet Reviewer: Books, Movies, and Comics

Director: Brett Ratner Writer: Ted Tally, from the novel by Thomas Harris Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker In a story set before the events of "Silence of the Lambs," FBI investigator Will Graham (Edward Norton) returns from an early retirement to hunt for a serial killer called the Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fiennes) with assistance from the imprisoned Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins, of course).  I was leery about this one, especially because the director, Brett Ratner, had not done very much good work in the past.  However, he really rose to the challenge here.  He understands the Lecter character and has put together a very suspenseful, scary movie.  The outstanding cast does a wonderful job.  Ted Tally, who wrote the screenplay for SOTL, also took on the writing chores here and acquitted himself well. Spoiler alert!!! From the end of the movie!!

by H.P.  Lovecraft An unnamed narrator relates the account of an Arctic expedition that encounters a hideous lost city in an effort to discourage more expeditions to the area.  One of H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous stories is basically a creepy travelogue.  An effective setup and a frightening resolution sandwich a long middle section in which our explorers wander and wander and wander through the city, describing what they see and what they infer about the lives of the beings who constructed it.  This section is frequently dull, as Lovecraft spends a lot of time describing in minute detail structures that I nevertheless couldn’t visualize.  The history of the otherworldly architects is interesting, but it is all inferred from murals by the narrators and I found myself again and again wondering, “How the hell could they conclude that from a picture?”  Still, there is that eerie beginning and that startling conclusion.  And he gets bonus points for applying the adjective ‘grotesque’ to a

by Natsuo Kirino Halloween Reviews 2020 An unnamed narrator, whose spite and resentment makes her unreliable, guides us through the brief lives of two women who sink into prostitution from fairly advantaged, if precarious, positions in Japanese society and are ultimately murdered.  This difficult but often fascinating novel is sometimes hard to get through.  Author Natsuo Kirino denies her readers many things that may have drawn them to a crime novel about murdered prostitutes, such as sympathetic characters, a tight, suspenseful plot, and a satisfying resolution.  Natsuo Kirino Rather, Kirino seems more interested in exploring how the class structure of Japan can warp those who do not have a secure claim on their status within it, such as women and foreigners.  Some passages are oddly impenetrable, as if translator Rebecca Copeland were struggling with concepts that do not translate neatly into English but require the kind of expansion from the original Japanese text that would corrup

Halloween Reviews 2020   Director: Takashi Shimizu Writer: Takashi Shimizu Stars: Megumi Okina, Misaki Ito, Misa Uehara, Yui Ichikawa, Kanji Tsuda, Kayoko Shibata, Yukako Kukuri, Shuri Matsuda When a person dies a violent death amidst powerful rage, a curse is born.  This curse has the potential of attaching itself to anybody that comes within its orbit and renews itself with each victim.  Taken to its logical extreme, it seems that such a curse could propagate itself endlessly until none are left untouched.  Director Takashi Shimizu suggests that perhaps that is exactly what is happening with his many shots of deserted streets and the general atmosphere of desolation.  Takashi Shimizu This is not a linear horror film where a hero or heroine stumbles upon something horrible and struggles to put it right, most likely succeeding in the end (or perhaps failing just enough to leave the door open for a sequel).  6 "Ju-On" consists of a number of vignettes, scattered in time, that

Halloween Reviews 2020 Director: Daniel Stamm Writers: Huck Botko & Andrew Gurland Stars: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley, John Wright, Jr. A priest who lost his faith (Patrick Fabian) agrees to perform one final exorcism for a camera crew (Iris Bahr and Adam Grimes) in order to expose the practice as a fraud.  First of all, I do not think the ending is as bad as so many reviewers have written.  Maybe it's because I don't see enough horror films, but I did not see it coming.  However, the real reason I was pulled in was the characters, particularly the priest Cotton Marcus.  Fabian gives an effective, low-key performance of a good, conflicted man who begins to rediscover his calling when faced with a truly supernatural menace.  There are none of the out-there grotesque scenes that was suggested by the marketing, which may help account for the disappointment of so many.  I consider this another success for the shaky cam

Halloween Reviews 2020 Director: Masaki Kobayashi Writer: Yoko Mizuki, from the novel by Lafcadio Hearn Stars: Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Rentaro Mikuni, Kenjiro Ishiyama, Ranko Akagi, Fumie Kitahara Director Masaki Kobayashi created an impressive quartet of short films based on the ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn.  Perhaps it is misleading to call this a horror film, because that may cause many people to expect a more aggressively upsetting experience than Kobayashi intends.  These are quiet stories about people who encounter the spirit world.  The intent is to maintain a consistently eerie mood rather than to make the viewer jump out of his seat, and it succeeds at this very well.  Kobayashi does not try to conceal the fact that it was filmed entirely on sound stages.  Rather, he exploits that fact to produce many astonishing, beautiful images.  My only problem with the film is that the archetypal nature of the stories makes it easy to guess their resolutions, so I sometimes b

by Robert R. McCammon Halloween Reviews 2020 Robert R. McCammon's excellent novel covers a year in the life of Cory Mackenson, a 12-year-old boy growing up in the Southern town of Zephyr.  Cory and his father witness the disposal of a body in a remote lake, and the mystery of the murderer's identity consumes both father and son for the following year.  Several supernatural events occur in this episodic, rambling novel, serving to illustrate the sense of wonder that an adolescent feels as he grows more aware of the world around him.  The supernatural and the macabre have served many writers well as a stand in for the unknown mysteries of the adult world, allowing adult readers to share in the awakening of a young protagonist. The novel's greatest flaw is that sometimes McCammon strains for effect.  Passages such as the one in which he compares a boy's feelings for his first bike with his first love are overwritten and come off as fairly ridiculous.  For the most part, ho

Halloween Reviews 2020 Director: George McCowan Writers: Robert Hutchison & Robert Blees, from a story by Robert Hutchison Stars: Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark, Adam Roarke, Judy pace, Lynn Borden, Mae Mercer, David Gilliam A rich, contentious Southern family gathers for the birthday of their patriarch (a cranky, embarrassed Ray Milland), unaware that nature, fed up with their polluting ways, intends to kill them one by one in a variety of dull, unimaginative, poorly shot and edited ways.  This movie doesn't even have the saving grace of providing a few laughs, intentional or otherwise.  A complete waste of time for anyone who has ever had any part in either making or viewing it. The movie poster is the best thing about it.                                                             Warning! Ending scene!! Ribbit!!!