#92: BODY HEAT (1981)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

6.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, a decade ago

BEST SEQUENCE

The final scene between Ned (William Hurt) and Matty (Kathleen Turner)

BEST LINE

"That man is going to die. For no reason but we want him dead" - Ned to Matty, not even trying to justify their intentions

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

98%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Made from classic noir ingredients and flavored with a heaping helping of steamy modern spice, Body Heat more than lives up to its evocative title."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"In the midst of a searing Florida heat wave, a woman persuades her lover, a small-town lawyer, to murder her rich husband."

THOUGHTS

• The first half of this movie is all about sex. The two main characters meet, and we start with flirtation, leading to infatuation, growing into lustful obsession. And I have to say, godDAMN are these two good-looking people. I haven't seen young William Hurt in much, and Kathleen Turner I mostly think of as the voice of Jessica Rabbit (sexy in her own right, of course). But just look at them! And say what you will about William Hurt's sleazy moustache. It worked for me

• While it's no chore to watch these two attractive people lounging around in various states of undress, it's not exactly thrilling. Completely necessary build-up and plot development, sure, but things really start to hum in the back half of the movie. The first part may get the blood pumping, but it doesn't get the heart pounding, if you catch my drift
• The movie really makes you feel the heat of the setting. People are always sweaty and glisten-y, they stand in front of open refrigerators and lie in bathtubs full of ice water, and even when you see their hair ruffle in the breeze, you know exactly what kind of breeze it is. Hot and unpleasant, like Satan's blowing in your face (how's THAT for a simile?!)
• Second-favourite line of the movie: Matty is kissing Ned on his shoulders and chest, and she tells him, "Oh, you're so wet...and so salty." I think she meant it as a good thing
• This was a breakout movie for pretty much everyone involved, especially Kathleen Turner - it was her first movie ever, and only her second IMDB credit. It was also William Hurt's third movie, and the first movie directed by writer-director Lawrence Kasdan (who we'll be hearing from again, much higher up on the AFI list - he wrote the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark). We've also got a very young Ted Danson, and an almost unrecognizably young Mickey Rourke:

• And speaking of movies that will be coming up later on the list, Body Heat was heavily influenced by 1944's Double Indemnity, #24 on this list of ours. I haven't seen Double Indemnity, so I can't speak to any comparisons between them yet, but I do know it's considered a classic of film noir
• Body Heat itself was also influential on its own, and I could definitely see some similarities between it and a movie we talked about a little while ago, Blood Simple. I ended up liking Blood Simple a little better, but they're both great movies, with twisty plots and schemes that are fun to watch unravel
• And finally, one more movie comparison: out of pure coincidence, I recently watched another well-known erotic thriller, which also took inspiration from Double Indemnity, in which a sexy, potentially dangerous woman seduces a morally ambiguous man for ulterior motives: Basic Instinct, from 1992. Body Heat is really quite frank about its sexual content, especially for 1981 standards, but it does still have a sense of decorum. There's a fair amount of nudity, but the really graphic stuff is kept off-screen. Not so for Basic Instinct, which throws decorum entirely out the window. Did I find Basic Instinct titillating? Sure. Sharon Stone is a very attractive woman, and Michael Douglas was also there, too. But ultimately, I'll take the restrained implication of Body Heat over the borderline soft-core of Basic Instinct, thanks

Up next: Braveheart. I saw it years ago, and I don't remember much. Mel Gibson is an absolute garbage human, and if you don't want to spend any time thinking about a movie he directed and starred in, I can't say I blame you. I am going to try to separate the art from the artist, though

#93-B: DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) & DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

 

DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once before, and just like Night of the Living Dead, the first time was only a couple of years ago

BEST SEQUENCE

An early sequence in which a SWAT team raids an apartment building full of both zombies and living people - the living are refusing to deliver their dead to the National Guard. It's gory and gruesome, and probably the scariest part of the movie. Runner-up is the sequence in which the SWAT guys use transport trucks to block the entrances to the mall, and one of them gets a little too reckless

BEST LINE

"When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth." - Spoken in the movie, and also the tagline on the poster

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

94%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"One of the most compelling and entertaining zombie films ever, Dawn of the Dead perfectly blends pure horror and gore with social commentary on material society."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall."

THOUGHTS

• As a sequel to the previous movie, made by the same director, comparisons are going to be inevitable, even though it could be argued that this is not really a direct sequel. None of the characters are the same, and it's not even made clear that this story does in fact follow the events of Night of the Living Dead or even deals with the same zombie uprising - there's no mention of the previous movie's explanation of mysterious outer space radiation being the culprit. In fact, unless I missed it, they don't even bother trying to explain this uprising at all (which I like)
• While I really enjoyed Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead certainly improves upon it in many ways. The dialogue and acting is way better, and I appreciated seeing the expanded scale of this zombie apocalypse. While the first movie was effectively claustrophobic, in this one we're not confined to a single farmhouse with a handful of people - the effect is widespread, and society is actively crumbling as we watch. As well, the primary setting of a suburban shopping mall was inspired, and places the commentary on consumerism and materialism front and centre
• Most importantly for me, though, the special effects were 10 times better. Blood splatters frequently, we watch the zombies take gory bites out of their victims, and people get literally ripped apart. The makeup is also greatly improved, as long as you're ready to see a lot of very blue zombies. Special effects maestro Tom Savini even said they were meant to look more grey than they ended up appearing on screen, and the colouring was a mistake
• Despite all these positives, though, I personally find Night of the Living Dead to be more exciting and more compelling than Dawn of the Dead. And really, I think this just comes down to how much more capable the survivors are in Dawn, the SWAT guys especially. In the first movie, the survivors were terrified of the zombies because they just weren't equipped to deal with them and they had no idea how to cope or get out of their situation. In this movie, however, the zombies barely pose a threat once the main characters get to the mall. The main quartet casually runs around the mall, shooting zombies easily, dodging their attacks, and sometimes just shoving and punching them to get out of a jam. They come up with a logical plan to seal off the mall entrances, making themselves even more secure. The only zombie-related disasters really only happen because the characters get too cocky and take too many chances. Interesting from a character standpoint, but less terrifying for the viewer
• And while the movie does end with disaster, this comes about due to human-on-human violence. The zombies are there too, but they're not the main threat. And to take it further, things ultimately go sour because of materialism - one of the main protagonists starts a conflict because he just wants to protect his possessions, in the form of the mall to which they've staked their claim
• I almost gave Dawn of the Dead a lower score than Night of the Living Dead. I decided to tie them on the strength of the special effects and the other positives I mentioned above. I checked a few lists of the best zombie movies of all time, and critical consensus generally seems to put Dawn higher than Night. But hey, don't take my word for it! Watch both of them and tell me what you think!
• Finally, the best zombie kill in this movie: screwdriver in the ear
• Runner-up: top of zombie's head lopped off by helicopter blade

MINI REVIEW: DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

First time seeing it. If Dawn of the Dead is the critical consensus for the best of Romero's original zombie trilogy, Day of the Dead is the critical consensus for the least successful of the three (83% on Rotten Tomatoes). Because of this, I was prepared to be underwhelmed. But I loved it! In this one, the zombie apocalypse has taken over the entire world, and one character estimates that the ratio of zombies to people is now 400 000:1. We spend most of our time in an underground bunker where scientists are trying to solve the zombie pandemic, and soldiers are there for security (there are maybe only twenty people in this whole group, if even that many). Inevitably, conflict arises between the scientists' hope to study the zombies and find a solution, and the soldiers' desire to save their own asses. The plot and the characters aren't really going to stick with me, but the gore and the action absolutely will. As much as Dawn of the Dead improved over Night of the Living Dead, I'd say Day of the Dead matches that level of improvement in terms of amazing special effects. One of the most sickeningly gruesome movies I've ever seen, and I mean that in a loving way. If you're a fan of The Walking Dead, this is the closest to that show's vibe. It's also the first movie I can think of in which we see a survivor get bitten, and then the limb gets amputated to prevent the infection from spreading (if you know of any earlier examples, please let me know). We do meet a zombie who is more sentient than the others, even capable of using a gun, and this may have rubbed some zombie purists the wrong way. There's also some silliness, especially in the ways some of the zombies are clothed (I'm talking ballerina zombie, clown zombie, and football player zombie). And it has a very '80s action/horror movie feel, in the sense that half the characters don't contribute anything at all to the plot of the movie, they're really just there to get disgustingly killed. But hey, sometimes that's all you want from a zombie movie, and I was not disappointed!

Up next: OK, enough with the gross zombies, time for some SEX. Body Heat from 1981.

#93: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but the first time was only two years ago

BEST SEQUENCE

The mother and daughter reunion that occurs in the cellar

BEST LINE

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

97%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"George A. Romero's debut set the template for the zombie film, and features tight editing, realistic gore, and a sly political undercurrent."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the East Coast of the United States."

THOUGHTS

• More than any other movie so far, I'm gonna talk spoilers, including the ending of the movie, so be warned. But also, come on. It's 50 years old, it's only 95 minutes long, and thanks to a copyright oversight, the whole movie is legally available on Youtube. If you're worried about spoilers, just go watch it, especially if you've ever enjoyed other zombie-related entertainment - you owe it to the subgenre to see where it all began
• While watching this movie, the word that kept coming to mind was "economical," and while it was certainly made on a budget ($114 000 to be precise), I mostly mean that in regards to time, characters, and plot. Time - there's no long build-up. We briefly meet Barbra and Johnny, siblings who are visiting their father's grave, and Johnny croaks at minute 7. Then it's off to the races, with Barbra hiding in a farmhouse with a few others. Characters - that thin backstory for Barbra and Johnny is probably the most we get in terms of character development. Barbra meets up with a handful of strangers, and we learn next to nothing about them. Plot - there isn't really one. A group of people have to work together to defend themselves from "ghouls" (the movie never uses the word "zombie") in a farmhouse. Even the cause of the zombies reanimating is only vaguely explained through a news broadcast (radiation from an exploded space probe that was on it's way back to Earth from Venus. Hey, I'm no scientist)
• Incidentally, I was going to make a snarky comment about the way this movie spells "Barbra" instead of "Barbara," but then I remembered Barbra Streisand, so it would seem that I was the fool
• The above points about this movie being economical were not meant as a criticism. This is a tight movie that leaves an impression and packs a punch. "Concentrated" is another adjective that comes to mind
• This is not, strictly speaking, the first zombie movie. The term "zombie" actually comes from Haitian folklore, and there were a number of movies made before this one about reanimated corpses, including everyone's favourite, Plan 9 From Outer Space. Night of the Living Dead, however, is seen as the birth of the modern zombie movie - these zombies are unintelligent, aggressive towards the living, and they are driven by their hunger for human flesh. Watching this movie, one recognizes so many tropes that will appear again and again in the future. A few of my favourites - they can only be stopped with a shot to the head, body shots won't do any good; a group of survivors boarding up the windows and doors with scrap wood; zombie hands reaching through said windows and doors for some pretty good jump scares; infighting amongst the survivors about the best strategies for survival; and that old classic, an infected person in their midst who stops living and starts attacking
• But despite being a trendsetter, the movie does show its age in a few ways. The acting and dialogue is a little corny, there's a melodramatic and fake-looking fist fight between two survivors, when we finally get to see the zombies eating human flesh it looks a little silly, and the makeup effects used in 1968 would, understandably, develop to be more convincing in later movies. Given what they were working with, though, this is still an impressively immersive movie. The way the zombies are lit is often very creepy
• What really stands out to me, both on this viewing and the previous one, is how incredibly bleak the ending is. And I mean it, now, spoilers coming up
• Every single main character dies! Sure, we had that early death at minute 7 so we know the zombies aren't just playing around. Then at minute 72, two main characters die in a truck explosion during a botched escape attempt, leaving only a few people. And you think this smaller group of survivors will be able to work together, set aside their differences, and figure out a way out of this darned mess! But no, very abruptly things get bad, and they rapidly get worse and worse, including a supremely chilling case of zombie matricide (my pick for the most effective scene)
• At last the only remaining survivor is the most capable of all of them, Ben, and we think he deserves to live - he tried to protect the others, he had the best ideas, he knew when to barricade himself in the cellar when the house finally gets overrun. However, Ben is ultimately shot by a posse of vigilantes who are on zombie-extermination duty. And there is no justice for Ben
• As referenced in the Rotten Tomatoes quote above, George Romero's zombie movies often contained aspects of social and political commentary. I have to be honest, however, I'm not usually one who looks for subtext; I often take my movies at face value. I'm better at reading about film analysis than I am at pontificating about it. If you want to approach this just as a zombie movie, you're going to have a good, thrilling time. If you want to approach this as a zombie movie and a clever allegory, however, you may have an even better time, and I welcome any discussions about the movie's deeper meanings in the comments

Up Next: #92 on the list, Body Heat, from 1981, a movie that everyone agrees is fantastically sexy and ridiculously steamy. I saw it years ago, but I don't remember much about it, so how sexy can it be?! We shall find out

Update: Actually, there aren't any more zombie movies on the list proper, and we haven't supplemented the list in a while, so we'll take a brief detour to check out Romero's follow-up to Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, which he made 10 years later. Up next, #93-B: Dawn of the Dead from 1978!

#94: THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

A very early scene set in the control room of a nuclear power plant during a near disaster, and which sets into motion the events of the whole movie. It's tense and well acted, especially by Jack Lemmon.

BEST LINE

"Guess what! I've got a syndrome! And the only prescription is more China!" - Just kidding. This is a very good movie, and the script is great, it's just not very quotable.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

86%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"With gripping themes and a stellar cast, The China Syndrome is the rare thriller that's as thought-provoking as it is tense."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A reporter finds what appears to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant."

THOUGHTS

• I don't know much about nuclear energy. I know it's been around for quite some time, and I believe it's relatively more sustainable than some other forms of power. I also know that it has caused some terrible disasters (Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima to name a few)
• And I know that at this point nuclear energy has not killed me, and to the best of my knowledge it has not put me in harm's way. However, that's partly what makes this movie so unnerving. The filmmakers posit that we may all have been a lot closer to catastrophe than any of us realize, due to factors entirely beyond our control
• As mentioned above, early in the movie, we have a near nuclear disaster. This almost comes to pass because a needle on a gauge is stuck, and it becomes unstuck with a finger tap. Now, I have faith that safety measures and equipment standards have improved since 1979. But there's no possible way to account for every single contingency or circumstance, and there's especially no way to account for the ultimate fallibility of people. And I can certainly imagine how terrifying this film must have seemed back when it came out
• I mentioned in my last review that I had no idea if this movie was a disaster movie or an investigative thriller. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say, although spoiler alert, you have been warned, this is not a disaster movie. The plot does not deal with an actual nuclear disaster or the consequences of one. However, it does deal with the characters realizing how much more likely a disaster may be than they thought, and watching them decide how to handle this knowledge is, in my opinion, way more thrilling than an actual disaster movie would have been
• Incidentally, this movie has absolutely nothing to do with China. It takes place entirely in California. The title refers to the idea that in the case of a nuclear meltdown the core components of the reactor would have nothing to contain them, so they'd burn all the way down through the centre of the Earth and out the other side into China. Physically and geographically impossible, of course, but hey it's certainly an evocative way of describing it
• Some nuclear power plant details that I noticed from this movie: in a nuclear power plant if things go haywire, the actual technical term for an emergency shutdown is a SCRAM. Like that's actually what they call it with the utmost seriousness. There's something darkly hilarious about that. Also, the majority of the characters pronounce "turbine" as "turban," can't say I've ever heard that pronunciation before
• And we have the classic mispronunciation of "nuclear" as "nucular," although I think it's only Michael Douglas who says it, so maybe that's on him
• As a thriller this is very well made. The characters' motivations are compelling, our sympathies shift at points, and there's a very exciting character-driven climax. There are also some very effective car chase scenes - and they make sense in the context of the plot, even if this doesn't sound like a car chase-type film. Finally, I didn't even notice until reading about it after the fact, but this movie doesn't have a soundtrack. Any music we hear is diegetic, usually coming from car radios. It was a strong choice for this movie and it adds to the sense of realness and urgency

Up Next: Not only is it our first horror movie on the list, it's also a deeply influential film that firmly established the tropes for an entire genre: #93, Night of the Living Dead from 1968.