Homicidal

Ian West4.0

William Castle’s Psycho. Crazy to think that Hitchcock’s monolith of macabre was in some weird way shaped to compete against stuff like this. What a delight this little movie is, and to be clear I have to be up at 3am for work so despite my best efforts I couldn’t fall asleep... naturally I decided to get very tipsy, and with absolutely zero recollection of my previous watch some 15+ years ago I felt like I was watching a new (to me) movie. I kept asking myself why the actor playing Warren looked so familiar, then the end happened... I was William Castle’d yet again. He got me good—I Loved this. B Movie bliss—both a trick and a treat.

cult_vegetables4.0

It's Hitchcock ala mode with all its macabre humor, red herrings and sharp cutlery. Castle eases-up on the trademark novelties (but not all), unraveling a bloody knot that resolves deftly. You'll still get the silly expository wrap-up, but until then, Joan Marshall turns the psycho up to 11, an amazing and unique performance.

Blake Bergman "Various Spaghetti"5.0

"Homicidal" is a 1961 horror film directed by William Castle. Predating the conventional modern-day slasher, "Homicidal" harvests the same kind of shock and awe that those fills exhibit in up front brutality. Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) hit theaters a year before, easily marking success of such a crime narrative that pushes the limits of public attention at the time. This is a pretty easy advantage point to cross compare in similarity, and as anyone if questioned on what "Homicidal" is like would probably bring up "Psycho" in the description, but ultimately only in the tonal energy of it all, as both are vastly different as well. There is one major similarity in both, but in served value of not spoiling "Homicidal" for those who haven't seen it before, I am going to reserve from displaying any spoilers. Within that note, it's not nearly as obvious as one can try to image at a glance, really making time served watching "Homicidal" well worth it.Essentially, tells the story of Miriam Webster and her unfortunate path crossed with a mysterious woman named Emily. Emily begins the film committing a heinous crime, which all becomes connective to Mirriam only based on the fact that Emily stole her identity as an alibi. The plot thickens further as the film goes along, introducing Miriam's brother Warren into the film, with both of the siblings tied to an inheritance with Warren directly being the sole inheritor due to their father's old world misogynistic temperament of passing down to the eldest male. These seem like two isolated stories, but strangely it is revealed that Emily and Warren are married, which drives the film further down a spiral on conflicted obscurity. Honestly, I am simply going to do a hard stop here for all its worth, as each sleuthing detail becomes a layer cake of craze as the film goes on. "Homicidal" itself is actually substantially brutal in its early delivery from where it stands. The open scene even showcases an element of stabbing, and in the cross comparison of "Psycho" that I spoke to prior, the initial killing scene of "Homicidal" really separates the two brands. "Psycho" really pulls off masterful mayhem, increasing the atmosphere with cut away shots of the victim screaming and a knife in movement. "Homicidal" gets it done quick and brutal, like a quick jab that happens so fast that audience doesn't expect it, still question if it happened after it is over. This stuff is commonplace in horror today, but I had to situationally remind myself that this thing was made in 1961, throwing a major punch in comparison to other product at the time. It obviously wouldn't be a Castle film without a gimmick, which in this one Castle really makes simple based upon the brutal stance the film took before. Before the finality of the film, he offers a brief pause with a displayed clock on the screen, telling the audience it's time for "The Fright Break". As the clock counts down, the audience were told that they now have their fair chance to leave the theater, avoid the next shocking moments and get a refund at the same time. One condition to all this though was that if you chose to leave, it was in public forum, with many theaters even spotlighting the person as they walked out towards a labeled area in the lobby entitled "Cowards Corner". Minimal people did this by design, but it makes for yet another great concept by Castle.Honestly, I found "Homicidal" to be really well formulated and ahead of its time, especially for its connection to one who is apt to integrate as much novelty as possible into the feature. The film is literally curve ball after curve ball, and advantageous hard hitting before many other films of its era would even attempt to do anything even close to that measure. Possible not in the know, the "Fright Break" might be a detractor, but diving into Castle's use of it in the theater back upon the film's release, it made this film better. Upon a further rewatch of this, I can easily enact that mentally in spirt. Honestly, Castle himself is starting to formulate into one of my favorite directors because as he might not hold much of a higher auteur value directly in film style that I tend to get hooked on, laughably his version of the auteur vision concept involves gags and props literally outside of the screen in terms of audience experience. "Homicidal" hits it out of the park in direct terms of what the film is and the level its going for.