184. Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder

184. (01 Sep) Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder (1987, Paul Bogart) 31



An ungainly four hours, Nutcracker opts to include as many baity filler scenes with Lee Remick as possible while key plot details are regularly condensed into dopey montages. Remick is rather terrible here, at one point playing the least convincing and oldest-looking college-aged kid ever. Her overacting is entertaining, which is more than can be said for Tate Donovan and the unnecessarily Emmy-nominated John Glover and Elizabeth Wilson. The film does deliver on its promise of money, madness and murder, also throwing in some incestuous overtones, but none of these things add up to much.

142. In the Mouth of Madness

142. (27 Jul) /In the Mouth of Madness/ (1994, John Carpenter) 73



It's remarkable just how disorienting and engrossing In the Mouth of Madness is from the first frame. Its jumbled structure just serves to make a film that's genuinely upsetting more than terrifying. Carpenter regularly approaches Lynchian territory with his lengthy shots of dark highways, but much of the scarier imagery here is thoroughly original in its creepiness.