Kurek

> All the things you wanted to be and then all the things you wished you never wished for. It was a delicious itch you want to scratch but you find it under the skin and can't reach it. So the delicious itch becomes unbearable. It told you what you most want is what you most can't have and that the most you can't have is what you already had and lost. It was a song of all the promises I failed to keep. And it told me I don't really want to go home. Rewatched on 1.90:1 digital imax, pretty epic. At least one more rewatch is on the books.

My buddy [Erik](https://letterboxd.com/krokerik/) recommended I watch this Swedish crime drama for my [1984 Birthday challenge](https://letterboxd.com/megadyptes/list/birthday-challenge/). Something a bit different from the other weird shit I've been watching, but variety is the spice of life. Glad I did watch it too as it's quite good. Part police procedural, a dash of buddy cop, winding up to a nice big political conspiracy and corruption. It's filmed in this realistic gritty, almost documentary sort of way at times. There's a lot of 80's stockholm and 80s swedish cars and 80s swedish street food which I quite enjoyed. The dialogue between the main characters feels pretty grounded too, a lot of bants about this and that including a critique of international capital as represented by McDonalds. The plot develops nicely and is full of twists and turns, and has a very nice and completely happy ending. I'll have to get a copy of [The Man on the Roof](https://letterboxd.com/film/man-on-the-roof/) by the same director which is supposed to be even better.

> Damn it girl! The more I find to punish, the more I find to discover A pretty 'mid' film overall but it has some moments. Vincent Price is good, maybe not as great as in other films, and his tone varies between camp evil Price and more sinisterly serious Price between scenes, but still he's very enjoyable to watch. There's some quite nice sets and exterior shots, and nice costumes too when they're not being ripped off by sadistic men. Also quite a bit of grime. You can tell this is a 70s film as there's tits and dirt everywhere. None of that clean 60s type gothic horror, this is the new shit. Also the opening credits in the director's cut were done by Terry Gilliam and are really good! The films starts out decently enough but soon the plot and script left me feeling a bit bored. The plot just kinda meanders around, some highs and a lot of lows. I dunno why the Magistrate let the witch and her coven go after ambushing them whilst they were doing some actual witchy type shit, when he was quite happy to torture and kill people for a lot less earlier! That monumentally stupid decision sets up the rest of this film, a revenge yarn, as various members of the family get killed by the sidhe/werewolf type monster thing, I dunno it gets a bit confusing with exactly what folk monster it's supposed to be and It just didn't really do it for me. As the film was winding down I was left feeling a bit 'meh'. But then the actual final few minutes were pretty damn good! If only the rest of the film lived up to it. I think AIP were just trying to cash in on the success of Witchfinder General, but what if witches and satanism were actually real! But it doesn't quite work. Let down by poor direction and poor writing, plus a too many mostly forgettable characters. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a real Vincent Price sicko (me). When I first saw that Hammer had released this on 4K I was like 'meh, doesn't sound that good', but I couldn't resist Vincent Price on 4k for too long so broke down and got it a few months later. Maybe I should've just got the regular blu-ray on discount instead. Oh well. It is a very nice looking transfer. Why does a meh film like this get a great 4k release when House on Haunted Hill doesn't? There's no justice in this world. Although one thing I didn't like about this release was how MGM/Amazon put their shitty modern logo at the front of the film. Piss off with that crap! I know MGM own all the rights to AIP stuff but seeing that CGI lion just annoys me. Speaking of AIP, it does amuse me how they slapped Poe's name on the theatrical posters for this. Not the first time they put his name on a movie that had absolutely nothing to do with any of his works. I leave you with the best shot in the film (apologies for the bad photograph but I can't take screenshots on the telly), and perhaps its the greatest shot in cinema history. https://i.imgur.com/emIExIu.jpeg

When I was watching this I kept thinking about Alex in A Clockwork Orange. I dunno, there's a similar way Billy and Alex act sometimes, and some of the arguing with the parents seemed a bit similar. Of course Billy is not a violent psychopath and rapist, he's just a mostly harmless spinner of tall tales and compulsive liar who daydreams all day long. A really good performance by Tom Courtenay, and I always like seeing every day post-war Britain, 50s and 60s, on the big screen. I ain't that old but parts of it feel familiar but old at the same time. 2nd film, day 5, of the Cinema Rediscovered film festival.