| Sound Bytes | Interview Jane Crowther |
DAYS OF HEAVEN 12A
Malick’s magic hour-and-a-half…
1978 ★★★★★ OUT 2 FEBRUARY CINEMAS
As with his 1973 debut Badlands, Terrence Malick’s astonishing sophomore feature is narrated by a teenage girl, the action filtered through her perceptions. In Badlands, Sissy Spacek’s Holly views events like they were straight out of the trashy celebrity magazines she pours over. In Days of Heaven, Linda Manz’s Linda has been beaten down by a hardscrabble life, her emotions muted.
She tells of the days before the Great War, as she and her elder brother Bill (Richard Gere) and his lover Abby (Brooke Adams) flee Chicago for Texas to work as labourers in vast wheatfields. Overhearing that the farmer (Sam Shepard) is ill, Bill plots that Abby should seduce him and become his wife, so that she might inherit his fortune. But fate ravages their plans as surely as locusts descend to raze the wheat…
Maintaining an elegiac tone that never sways into sensationalism or sentimentality, this mythic drama frames its players within nature in all of its vast beauty and indifference – a theme that Malick has returned to repeatedly. Shot largely in the magic hour of dawn and dusk, its cinematography is some of the most luminous ever lensed. Néstor Almendros won an Oscar for his work, though Haskell Wexler, the legendary DoP who’s here credited with ‘additional photography’, claims he shot half the footage.
THE VERDICT If ever a film deserved a 4K cinema rerelease… Malick’s masterpiece continues to inspire awe.
THE CHUCKY COLLECTION 18
1988-2022 ★★★★★ OUT NOW BD, 4K UHD
All dolled up…
EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentaries, Documentary, Featurettes, Deleted scenes, Galleries, Storyboards, Booklet, Posters
From Dead of Night (1945) to last year’s M3GAN, deadly dolls have enjoyed a long history on the silver screen. None, however, has had quite so big an impact as Chucky, the ‘Good Guy’ doll possessed by the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif).
Making his debut in 1988’s Child’s Play, the diminutive plastic sadist quickly became a favourite with fright fans thanks to Dourif’s gleefully malevolent vocal performance. But even then, who could have guessed that Chucky would still be slicing bodies and cracking wise so long after Freddy Krueger last hung up his glove?
Credit here goes to series writer Don Mancini who, following the disappointingly rote Child’s Play 3 (1991), bounced back with Bride of Chucky (1998). That Ronny Yu-directed hit not only introduced Dourif’s fellow franchise MVP Jennifer Tilly, but launched the series on an increasingly playful path that embraced the set-up’s inherent absurdity while exploring ideas far beyond the scope of your typical slasher.
A spectacular celebration of the horror franchise, this boxset boasts stunning 4K presentations of all six sequels - but is hamstrung by only offering the original Child’s Play on 1080p Blu-ray. Extras are plentiful: archival goodies bolstered with new interviews and the unexpectedly touching 2022 documentary Living with Chucky.
THE VERDICT The lack of the original in 4K is frustrating, but otherwise this set is a playtime treat for fans.