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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Devil Rides Out (1968) in Movies

Feb 26, 2018 (Updated Feb 26, 2018)  
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
1968 | Classics, Horror, International
7
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Classic Hammer horror plays it very straight with Dennis Wheatley's genteel tale of satanic goings on in the home counties. Christopher Lee gets the opportunity to play the good guy, for once, and really makes the most of it; hard to imagine anyone else playing the part better. That said, he's given a run for his money by Charles Gray in what was really a career-defining role for him.

It all seems a bit quaint and somewhat bourgeois by modern standards (they never bother to explain why devil-worship is quite such a bad idea, it's taken for granted that good and evil are quite inflexible), and there are a few amusing holes in the plot, but there are some great set-pieces and the supporting cast are also on form. Very much a film of its time, but still entertains today; not especially scary, though.
  
The Omen (2006)
The Omen (2006)
2006 | Horror, Mystery
Bafflingly superfluous and redundant mid-budget remake of the classic horror blockbuster. American diplomat and his wife discover their adopted son is a right little devil.

In no way an actively bad film, but given it cleaves so closely to the original, what exactly is the point of it? You would expect that the inclusion of a top-billed Julia Stiles would mean the character of Thorn's wife would be beefed up and given a little bit of agency in the plot (heaven knows she could use some); but no, the focus is still on the manly men doing masculine male things together. Pretty well cast, but you could guess who's playing which part just from looking at a list of actors, it is that unimaginative and unsurprising. Worth watching only if you've never seen the original and are unlikely ever to do so.
  
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Ethan Embry recommended Oldboy (2003) in Movies (curated)

 
Oldboy (2003)
Oldboy (2003)
2003 | Action, Mystery, Thriller
8.3 (14 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"little earlier, I got on a binge of Korean thrillers and… Oldboy. As far as Korean thrillers go, Oldboy and I Saw the Devil exchange places [as] my favorite Korean film. [For the remake of Oldboy], they manage to completely ruin it. And I don’t know how they managed to so thoroughly ruin it, but they… They could have just re-shot it shot-for-shot and have the American screenplay be the subtitles of the Korean film and it would have been a fantastic movie. And they managed to poop all over celluloid. But the original one, phew. I highly recommend that whole… There’s a trilogy. It’s Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and, what’s the third one [Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance]? It’s a Vengeance trilogy and I love them all three. But that whole Vengeance series is amazing. Those Koreans know how to scare you."

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The Exorcist (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
1973 | Horror

"These are all based on books, right? And the most amazing source material, tonal source material. The Exorcist has, again, a collision of the time period with that style of cinema, but Friedkin’s kind of unlike the previous two. They did a bunch of ad-libby stuff, but The Exorcist was the most with regard to that contemporaneous kind of shooting. The story is about a reality-based story about the Devil, done at a time when docu-style was predominant, and it felt really natural. Friedkin spent an enormous amount of time shooting the movie and did it with reverence, and the structure is perfect. It starts in the Middle East, goes to a Georgetown bedroom, and gets smaller and smaller until you meet a side character, the second priest. The plot is this incredible kind of twisty thing, and then he ends up sacrificing himself. It’s awesome."

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