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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2017)
by Rick Levin THE DESCENT (2005) Writer/director Neil Marshall conjures an atmosphere of claustrophobia thick enough to cut with a pickaxe in this creepy tale of six British women on a doomed caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. Shot, remark- ably enough, almost entirely in a London studio, the film is a macabre meditation on the limits of human endurance: The first half of the movie is a fairly straightforward thriller about a descent into the oozing bowels of the earth, gone horribly wrong when a minor earthquake hits; then, as the women repel ever deeper into the depths, searching for an exit, they are overtaken by a mute, pale, blind tribe of vaguely humanoid cannibals (frighteningly feasible, in an evolutionary sense) that commences to stalk them as prey, trying to pick them off one by one. A smart, visually stunning and truly terrifying film that has no desire to let you off the hook as it traces a descent — literal and meta- phorical — into total mind-numbing madness. family being held hostage in their Hamptons-like summer home and systematically tormented and tortured (the “games”) by a pair of young, white psychopaths in tennis shorts is an excruciating test of our own voyeuristic impulses. By turns mesmerizing, repulsive, maddening and deviously “funny,” the film — which stars Michael Pitt as one of the smiling sociopaths, and Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as the besieged couple — slowly and steadily turns the screws with an apparent disregard that seems amoral and unforgiving, until you realize the funny games Haneke is playing are with you. This is not torture porn; it’s the antithesis — a harrowing kind of satire that deserves repeated viewings, if you can stomach the point- ed cruelty of it all. THE VANISHING (1988) As unforgivably bad as the Hollywood remake was, the original film, by George Sluizer, is a masterpiece — an obsessive, slow-burning portrait of evil incarnate that channels Alfred Hitchcock at his sinister best. A couple on vacation stops at a gas station; the girlfriend vanishes into thin air; the boyfriend searches for her relentlessly, for years, until he finally discovers that she was abducted by a cold-blooded killer, to whom he draws ever-nearer until they finally meet. Does he want to know what happened to ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968) Evil cannot flourish in a vacuum; it takes a village — of enablers, errand boys and apologists, all of them bonded by an avid belief in the righteousness of their cause. Hail Satan! Roman Polanski’s classic thriller about a woman (Mia Far- row) duped into conceiving a child with the Prince of Dark- ness is not just a great horror film; it’s a great film, period, a classic that grafts a gothic, Lovecraftian evil onto Manhat- tan on the eve of the 1970s. Polanski makes it all look so pedestrian and urbane, and the juxtaposition of Satanic ritu- als with Lower East Side life creates a kind of cognitive dissonance, a cultish paranoia that shivers the soul, best exemplified by Ruth Gordon’s brilliant performance as the nosy, meddling neighbor lady who quietly engineers the whole thing. Chocolate "mouse" anyone? FUNNY GAMES (2007) TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992) Not technically a horror film, Michael Haneke’s glee- fully nihilistic psychological thriller about a rich white Totally underrated and unfairly dismissed as lesser Lynch, this combination prequel-and-sequel to the television series is TIX $5 SUNDAYS $7 $3 TUESDAYS STUDENT & SENIOR DISCOUNT 762-1700 | 180 E. 5TH AVE DAVIDMINORTHEATER.COM $3 TUESDAYS FRI OCT 20TH - THUR OCT 26TH his girlfriend? If so, he must submit to this psycho, and experience exactly what she did. Yeah, enough said — the ending will knock the wind right out of you. ■ OCTOBER 27-NOVEMBER 2 10/27-11/2 UNA 492 E. 13th Ave 541-357-0375 ALL AGES IMAX: JIGSAW [CC,DV] (R) ★ Fri. - Sat.1215 250 525 800 1040 JIGSAW [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1145 220) 455 730 1005 NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (PG) Fri. - Sat.(200 PM) 700 PM SUBURBICON [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1135 230) 510 750 1035 THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1240 330) 620 910 DISNEY JUNIOR AT THE MOVIES - HALLOWEEN PARTY! NR ★ Sat.1255 PM GEOSTORM [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1255 PM) 630 PM GEOSTORM 3D [CC,DV] (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sat.(340 PM) 930 PM ONLY THE BRAVE [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1230 340) 700 1010 SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1155 AM 300 PM) SNOWMAN [CC,DV] (R) Fri.1025 PM Sat.720 PM 1025 PM TYLER PERRY'S BOO 2! A MADEA HALLOWEEN [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1140 215) 500 740 1020 FOREIGNER [CC,DV] (R) Fri.(240 PM) 1000 PM Sat.550 PM 1000 PM HAPPY DEATH DAY [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1220 300) 535 810 1045 MARSHALL [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1250 350) 650 950 BLADE RUNNER 2049 [CC,DV] (R) Fri.(205 PM) 1015 PM Sat.(240 PM) 640 PM 1015 PM MY LITTLE PONY [CC,DV] (PG) Fri. - Sat.(1200 PM) MARK FELT: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUS (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(110 PM) VICTORIA AND ABDUL [CC,DV] (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(1230 320) 610 900 KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE [CC,DV] (R) Fri.600 PM 920 PM Sat.920 PM LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE [CC,DV] (PG) Fri.(1130 AM) 420 PM Sat.445 PM IT [CC,DV] (R) Fri. - Sat.400 PM 710 PM 1030 PM remarkable, first and foremost, for its central performance by Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer — the strangled vulnerability and corrosive, demonic possession of Lee’s performance should have garnered her an Oscar nomination. Beyond that, the film, albeit uneven in places, contains passages that seem to delve into the very heart of evil. It’s as though Lynch, deli- ciously constrained by what he could do on TV, unleashed here, and the results are nightmarish. ONE WEEK ONLY DAILY 12:25 5:00 9:30 TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON MOVIES THAT bijou-cinemas.com MATTER Serving the Eugene Community for Over 35 Years! ONE WEEK ONLY DAILY 2:30 12:30 2:40 5:00 7:05 9:20 BLADE RUNNER 2049 DAILY 1:30 5:00 8:25 DOLORES DAILY BREATHE (PG-13) 1:00, 3:30, 6:00, 8:30 BATTLE OF THE SEXES (PG-13) Friday 4:00 pm Saturday 12:30, 5:30, 8:00 Sunday - Wednesday 1:15, 6:15, 8:45 Thursday 12:45, 8:15 HELD OVER FRI-SUN MON-TUE WED-THU PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN (R) SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING GHOSTBUSTERS GHOSTBUSTERS 3:15* 3:25* LUCKY LOGAN 5:20 5:30 PREMIUM EVENT ADMISSION NATIONAL THEATRE: NO MAN'S LAND SAT 11:00 THU 11/2 7:00 Forbidden Fruit presents THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (with live shadowcast) Friday & Saturday 11:00 pm • Tickets $10 Adv/$12 Door Encircle Film Series presents NATIONAL BIRD Thursday 6:00 pm With Audience Discussion After the Film DUNKIRK THE BIG SICK WIND RIVER 7:35 8:55 9:20 *SATURDAY - SUNDAY SHOWINGS ONLY 9:00 METROARTS Friday 8:00 pm • Tickets $10 7:15 2:40 5:00 7:15 12:25 2:40 5:00 7:15 12:25 2:40 5:00 MOTHER! 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