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<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 415134" data-attributes="member: 8">THE KILLING KIND (1973)[ATTACH=full]55072[/ATTACH]My favourite film discovered in the &quot;grande dame guignol&quot; thread, and I also think this is Curtis Harrington&#039;s most sophisticated work.It is exploitative as most horror films are but we&#039;re given enough to chew on. There are some interesting ambiguities: the troublesome situation between mother and son creates a chicken and egg narrative (didn&#039;t mean to make it sound so literal) and this time I noticed something different about the rape scene.Was he punished because he did it or because he couldn&#039;t perform? Visually, it&#039;s a fabulous piece of melancholy-horror that worked so naturally in the 1960s and 1970s. Lots of sunshine coming through doors and windows that gives the scenes something ethereal.It&#039;s also interesting that the theme of (sexual) repression spills over into other characters. In essence, it&#039;s PSYCHO if Norman&#039;s mother had actually been alive, except that there are more things going on that are not literally explained.The ending was just as strong as I remembered and Ann Sothern is simply delightlful in the role of Thelma.Ruth Roman gets top billing even if it&#039;s only a small supporting role, but her smoky voice is worth every second of it.[ATTACH=full]55073[/ATTACH]Her place is fabulous/horrific potpourri of fur, cristal, French antique and late 60s modern, and this made me think of one of the reasons why these films look so much better than modern films: the interiors.Just look at any random film from the last 25 years and chances are that the characters live in very dull places (or sets). Yes I understand that people want to live in a more pratical space but it doesn&#039;t look very interesting on screen.It&#039;s been a few years since I&#039;ve watched it on youtube and I&#039;ve wanted to see it again in better picture quality. I bought the first DVD I could find but that turned out to be exactly the same crap, probably the source for the upload.Then I found out that Vinegar Syndrome, one of the distribution companies that specializes in restored versions of obscure/independent cult films, had released a bluray of The Killing Kind including a DVD disc.It&#039;s still not perfect of course, but I think it&#039;s the best version we&#039;ll ever get.Compare:taken from youtube, previously posted in the grande dame guignol thread[ATTACH=full]55074[/ATTACH]hence why I had to&nbsp; use the exact same image from the DVD[ATTACH=full]55075[/ATTACH]The sound is perfect, and the first time I hadn&#039;t even noticed the beautiful theme by Andrew Belling (I&#039;d post it here but youtube doesn&#039;t have it).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 415134, member: 8"] THE KILLING KIND (1973) [ATTACH type="full"]55072[/ATTACH] My favourite film discovered in the "grande dame guignol" thread, and I also think this is Curtis Harrington's most sophisticated work. It is exploitative as most horror films are but we're given enough to chew on. There are some interesting ambiguities: the troublesome situation between mother and son creates a chicken and egg narrative (didn't mean to make it sound so literal) and this time I noticed something different about the rape scene. Was he punished because he did it or because he couldn't perform? Visually, it's a fabulous piece of melancholy-horror that worked so naturally in the 1960s and 1970s. Lots of sunshine coming through doors and windows that gives the scenes something ethereal. It's also interesting that the theme of (sexual) repression spills over into other characters. In essence, it's PSYCHO if Norman's mother had actually been alive, except that there are more things going on that are not literally explained. The ending was just as strong as I remembered and Ann Sothern is simply delightlful in the role of Thelma. Ruth Roman gets top billing even if it's only a small supporting role, but her smoky voice is worth every second of it. [ATTACH type="full"]55073[/ATTACH] Her place is fabulous/horrific potpourri of fur, cristal, French antique and late 60s modern, and this made me think of one of the reasons why these films look so much better than modern films: the interiors. Just look at any random film from the last 25 years and chances are that the characters live in very dull places (or sets). Yes I understand that people want to live in a more pratical space but it doesn't look very interesting on screen. It's been a few years since I've watched it on youtube and I've wanted to see it again in better picture quality. I bought the first DVD I could find but that turned out to be exactly the same crap, probably the source for the upload. Then I found out that Vinegar Syndrome, one of the distribution companies that specializes in restored versions of obscure/independent cult films, had released a bluray of The Killing Kind including a DVD disc. It's still not perfect of course, but I think it's the best version we'll ever get. Compare: taken from youtube, previously posted in the grande dame guignol thread [ATTACH type="full"]55074[/ATTACH] hence why I [I]had to[/I] use the exact same image from the DVD [ATTACH type="full"]55075[/ATTACH] The sound is perfect, and the first time I hadn't even noticed the beautiful theme by Andrew Belling (I'd post it here but youtube doesn't have it). [/QUOTE]

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