I strongly recommend taking a wander through the thriller section of your local DVD store. There are scores of nail-biting, multi-twist, edge-of-your seat experiences waiting to go home with you. And thrillers tend to have something for boys and babes alike.The genre tends to fall into a number of sub-categories, the most popular of which are the ‘Whodunnit’ and Protagonist/Antagonist plots. Classic thrillers included Silence of the Lambs, and, of course, the master, Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, Psycho, Rear Window, North By Northwest etc. Because this has been such a popular genre since film’s inception, many movies over the past decade have simply skipped cinemas and passed into obscurity. Sadly, some of these are terrific and deserve a look. I have stumbled across a number of absolute gems over the years. And as this is my favourite genre and TV has been pretty ordinary of late, this month I’m giving you two recommendations.
What should you get??
BLINK
PLOT: Emma hasn’t seen since she was 8, blinded by her mother in a violent rage. Finally, after 20 years on the donor list and thanks to corneal implants installed by her kindly eye surgeon, Emma’s vision, though blurry, returns. But she begins to suffer a side effect, ‘seeing’ things hours, even days, after they have occured. Then, just days after her surgery, her neighbour is brutally murdered. As the only witness, Emma tries to assist with the investigation but is rebuffed by Detective John Hallstrom until the murder matches the MO of a series of killings he’s already investigating. Emma’s delayed vision reeks havoc on her life as the killer begins to stalk her. Will Emma be able to identify her pursuer before he finds her? And will Hallstrom get there in time to save her?
DIRECTOR: Michael Apted (Amazing Grace, The World Is Not Enough)CAST: Madeline Stowe (The General’s Daughter, 12 Monkeys), Aiden Quinn (Legends of the Fall, Benny and Joon)
TRAPPED
This is another of my favourite thrillers. It boasts a stellar cast and stars real life couple Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend. Terrific performances all round but worth mentioning Pruitt Taylor Vance’s deliberate, almost lovable portrayal of Marvin and Kevin Bacon’s sinister villain will make your skin crawl. Watch for the scene with the seaplane - it has me riveted and breathless every time! PLOT: Will and Karen Jennings are the perfect couple. Karen put Will through med school and now they are reaping the rewards of Will’s successful medical research project. But while Will is at a medical conference their daughter, Abby, is snatched from within their home by a professional kidnapper. Joe’s plan is perfect: an accomplice kidnaps the child of rich parents and holds them overnight, he keeps the mother under control, while another accomplice collects the ransom from the father. But this time things go very wrong. Abby is severely asthmatic and Will and Karen will do anything to ensure their daughter’s safety, including turning the tables on their assailants.
DIRECTOR: Luis Mandoki (When a Man Loves a Woman)CAST: Charlize Theron (Monster, The Italian Job), Stuart Townsend (Queen of the Damned, About Adam), Kevin Bacon ( Mystic River , The River Wild, Wild Things), Courtney Love (Man on the Moon), Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds, Man on Fire).PS – With Charlize to perve on it shouldn’t be hard to convince the boys to join you for this one!
BOTH LOCATED IN: Thriller section
FOR MORE THRILLERS SEE:
- Wild Things
- The River Wild
- The General’s Daughter
- Murder by Numbers
- The Devil’s Advocate
- Se7en
Clean the DVD with a soft cloth before you put it in the machine (the one from a glasses case is perfect). Hired DVDs are notorious for fingerprints that will affect the quality of the image (i.e. pixilation). Doing this before will prevent you having to stop at a crucial plot moment to clean the disk.
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