Hooptober 2025
6/31
Watched the American release which was chopped up a bit. Unfortunately found that too late which spoils a bit of this being my Gastaldi pick. Overall, I liked it more than I thought I would because I can struggle to get into older media. There's a lot of it in my Hooptober list, so hopefully this keeps up.
Two positives that really shine through for me are the lighting and Barbara Steele's physical acting (don't know who did the dub). The spotlight effect was a little silly but I was totally into it. The exaggerated color in the lights also carried a lot of weight. All of Steele's shocked expressions sold the horror where other aspects of the production came up shot.
Biggest negatives all revolve around the sound. The dubbing was very stilted, just like rushing, talking over each other, and leaving lots of space in the scenes. The music jumped the shark in the opening scenes when he's touching his wife's boobs and it's playing bloody murder. Then it was just laid on thick the whole way through which dampened the impact when it actually fit well.
I thought the plot had a lot of potential if executed better. I liked the psychological horror aspects of the plot where Hichcock has this struggle with his perverse desires which both troubles him and puts Cynthia in danger. Throughout, that kind of balanced against the more ghoulish horror where Martha is clearly hiding something unnatural in the house. But by the end, they just kind of threw it all away and all of the sudden Hichcock actually had this plan to revitalize Margaret. But... that undermines all his grief including why he left the house in the first place and his reactions to the piano playing.
Anyway, I'm needed at the hospital so I must go.
Hooptober 2025
6/31
Watched the American release which was chopped up a bit. Unfortunately found that too late which spoils a bit of this being my Gastaldi pick. Overall, I liked it more than I thought I would because I can struggle to get into older media. There's a lot of it in my Hooptober list, so hopefully this keeps up.
Two positives that really shine through for me are the lighting and Barbara Steele's physical acting (don't know who did the dub). The spotlight effect was a little silly but I was totally into it. The exaggerated color in the lights also carried a lot of weight. All of Steele's shocked expressions sold the horror where other aspects of the production came up shot.
Biggest negatives all revolve around the sound. The dubbing was very stilted, just like rushing, talking over each other, and leaving lots of space in the scenes. The music jumped the shark in the opening scenes when he's touching his wife's boobs and it's playing bloody murder. Then it was just laid on thick the whole way through which dampened the impact when it actually fit well.
I thought the plot had a lot of potential if executed better. I liked the psychological horror aspects of the plot where Hichcock has this struggle with his perverse desires which both troubles him and puts Cynthia in danger. Throughout, that kind of balanced against the more ghoulish horror where Martha is clearly hiding something unnatural in the house. But by the end, they just kind of threw it all away and all of the sudden Hichcock actually had this plan to revitalize Margaret. But... that undermines all his grief including why he left the house in the first place and his reactions to the piano playing.
Anyway, I'm needed at the hospital so I must go.
