The Night Visitor (1971) and You'll Like My Mother (1972) Two Scandinavian winter thrillers. The Night Visitor follows the nocturnal exploits of a Nordic mental patient played by Max Von Sydow, seeking revenge on his family and others who railroaded him for murder and subsequently had him institutionalized. You'll Like My Mother, stars Patty Duke as a pregnant widow travelling out the family estate of her former husband in the wilds of Minnesota (Minnesota is basically Scandinavia, isn't it?) during a snowstorm for some warmth and kindness from the family she's never met. She soon discovers things are seriously amiss in this isolated and claustrophobic setting, everyone might not be whom they appear to be and there may be another seriously dangerous presence in the house.
Night Must Fall (1964) and Torment (1990)
Two films about psychotic killers set in English country homes. Night Must Fall is a remake of a 1937 film, which itself is a film adaptation of a 1935 play about a superficially charming young man who is really a psychotic axe murderer, played by Albert Finney who weasels his way into the home of a wealthy dowager. Torment is an under-seen film about a pop singer who retires to the country because she's burned out and seeking inspiration for her next big hit. She passes her time by employing a handyman who becomes her lover and enduring the company of her overbearing sister and choreographer. Turns out that lover boy is actually a psycho killer; though she's not the type to let that ruin things, as we come to find there might not be that much difference between them, after all.
Cold Steel (1987) and Ricochet (1991)
Two films about criminals seeking revenge on a cop who crossed them. Cold Steel is a Christmas themed action crime thriller in which a detective (Brad Davis) seeks to avenge the murder of his father who was killed by a psycho named Isaac (Jonathan Banks in an outstanding performance) as revenge for the incident which left him crippled as well as untangle the mystery surrounding a woman named Kathy (Sharon Stone) who may have her own agenda. Ricochet is another action crime thriller whose plot revolves around a psychotic hitman (John Lithgow) exacting brutal revenge on the district attorney and former cop (Denzel Washington) who arrested him. John Lithgow is really great in this and it goes to show years before he became the Trinity Killer, Dick Solomon was already very pissed.
Fear in the Night (1972) and Night Watch (1973) Two films featuring women recovering from nervous breakdowns. Fear in the Night tells the story of a woman and her teacher husband relocating to a creepy, secluded school where strange and frightening things are happening to her. Night Watch is an excellent twisty-turny film about a woman convinced she has seen a murder in the house next door, but she can't convince anyone else, we aren't sure ourselves, until the surprise ending.
A Reflection of Fear (1972) and Wicked (1998) Two films with serious daddy issues. These are two excellent and discomfiting films about extremely psychologically unstable young people (Sondra Locke and Julia Stiles) whose relationships with their fathers are shall we say "unconventional" and which feature great twists.
Torture Garden (1967) and The House of the Dead (1978) Two top notch, atmospheric anthology films, which deal with fate. The first is set at a carnival sideshow where Dr. Diablo (Burgess Meredith) reveals to a group of wary customers their fates and features stories by Robert Bloch. The second is about an adulterer who takes refuge from a rainstorm in the residence of a mortician who recounts the circumstances which led to the corpses in his parlor coming into his possession.
Hollow Gate (1988) and Moon Stalker (1989) Two excellent low budget slashers which are well paced and very entertaining. Hollow Gate follows a group of friends on their way to a Halloween party being sidetracked into delivering costumes to a homicidal lunatic who proceeds to hunt them down while changing costumes in between each kill. Moon Stalker has a group of people attending a wilderness training program being pursued by a nutjob who starts off in a hooded straightjacket.
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