Auxiliary List
[2 of 4]
For this batch, I present some thrillers…
RED RIDING (1974; 1980; 1983)
(February 2009)
In the vein of Bong Joon-ho’s Salinui Chueok (Memories of Murder) and David Fincher’s Zodiac, superb films both, the Red Riding Trilogy--adapted from David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet* by Tony Grisoni (who’s also worked on the screenplays of Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Tideland, as well as Keith Fulton's Brothers of the Head)--chronicles the investigations of the Yorkshire Ripper murders in the forensic Dark Ages when the initials CSI still meant nothing in particular to the majority of the public.
Like Bong and Fincher’s films, Red Riding is also especially interested in the impact the killer’s crimes have on those orbiting them, like the journalists and the investigators. And dead centre of Red Riding’s spotlight is how vice and corruption is just as insidious an evil as a serial killer’s depredations.
The films comprising the Trilogy--1974, 1980, and 1983--directed by Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots; Brideshead Revisited), James Marsh (Man on Wire; Project Nim), and Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie; Shopgirl), respectively, boast a strong cast which includes such solid British talent as Paddy Considine, Sean Bean, Andrew Garfield, and Mark Addy. Originally aired on British television, the Trilogy subsequently got favorable reception on the film festival circuit.
* The Quartet’s second novel is Nineteen Seventy-Seven, which did not make a direct transition from page to screen.
THE PERFECT HOST
(January 2010)
Directed by Nick Tomnay (from a script co-written with Krishna Jones), The Perfect Host is a dark thriller that initially seems to be an interesting variation on the home invasion sub-genre, with David Hyde Pierce as the titular host whose home becomes a rest stop for John Taylor (Clayne Crawford), who’s just robbed a bank. Soon though, the narrative takes some turns and twists, and we’re suddenly not in the film we initially thought we were in.
If you can, try and steer clear of the trailer, which gives away some of what this one’s really about.
(Red Riding OS courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com; The Perfect Host OS courtesy of impawards.com.)
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