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| Robert Mitchum in The Night Of The Hunter |
The Night Of The Hunter, streaming on MUBI now
It will doubtless come as no surprise to you that there's quite a lot of horror and horror-adjacent films on the telly this week as Halloween approaches - and if you're looking for something on the big screen, don't forget to check out our Halloween listings. If you're fancy something a bit different, then this unsettling oddity ought to fit the bill. Robert Mitchum stars as the chilling and charismatic charlatan 'preacher' Harry Powell, who we quickly learn is happy to bump off widows for cash, with Mitchum's delivery generating an insouciantly evil air. His latest mark is Shelley Winters' Willa whose incarcerated husband let slip he had hidden $10,000 to Powell right before he was executed. Powell, begins to stalk his prey, including her children (Sally Jane Bruce and Billy Chapin), who know where the stash is hidden. Directed with expressionistic flair by Charles Laughton – sadly, his only venture behind the camera – almost every frame is a treat and filled with haunting imagery. It also features a fabulous supporting performance from Lillian Gish as the elderly woman who might prove to be the children's saviour.
In The Earth, Film4, 1.25am, Wednesday, October 28
Jennie Kermode writes: Plants talk to each other. It's not something which is widely recognised because it takes place on a very slow timescale and it mostly concerns things like moisture levels, nutrient deposits and insect behaviour which humans don't find very interesting, but roots connected to delicate networks of fungal mycelia down in the soil are always active. They've inspired a number of fictional works, notably playing a role in Game Of Thrones. Ben Wheatley, with a freer hand than usual and doing his own editing, takes viewers, along with a recently bereaved scientist, deep into a patch of forest where such communications have speeded up and very strange things are happening as a result. The scientist is looking for a missing doctor. He finds outcasts and squatters who seem to have been affected by the woods. By the time he understands how, it will be too late, but whether that's for good or ill is ambiguous in a film which interweaves botany, mycology and folklore with human drama. Powered in part by hallucinatory experiences, it incorporates fantastic visual and auditory montages, inviting altered perception as a means to explore truly different ways of thinking. It's not Wheatley's most accessible film but it's one of his best.
Accident, Talking Pictures TV, 1.25am, Thursday, October 29
Director Joseph Losey's second collaboration with writer Harold Pinter is out to own on beautifully restored 4K Blu-ray from Studiocanal this week, complete with an impressive and comprehensive array of extras, but if you want to try before you by there's a chance to catch it on telly too. Beginning with a shocking car accident, in which we see student William (Michael Yorke) dead and his fiancee Anna (Jacqueline Sassard) being hauled from the wreckage by Dirk Bogarde's Oxford don Stephen (the line, "You're standing on his face!" will stay with you), the action then flashes back to show the events leading up to it. Those involve Stephen's boredom with his life and infatuation with Anna and his rivalry with fellow don Charley (Stanley Baker). A masterclass exploration of power dynamics, misogyny and a whole lot more, topped off by a superb jazz score from John Dankworth.
The Lost City, 6.45pm, Film4, Friday, October 30
With all the fear factor around this week in TV films, surely there has to be space for a bit of fluff. A throwback to the sort of comedy romance/adventure films that were popular in the Eighties - think Romancing The Stone – Adam and Aaron Nee's film might not be the most memorable, but it's a lot of fun while it lasts. Sandra Bullock stars as a reclusive writer who is reluctantly penning romance novels when she finds herself kidnapped by a billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe, having an enormous amount of fun) and thrust into a jungle adventure with her loveable lunk of a cover star Alan (Channing Tatum). The script zips along and Bullock and Tatum have plenty of spark. Brad Pitt's hair metal cameo turn as a mercenary who tries to help the pair is an added treat.
Carrie, 10pm, BBC2, Friday, October 30
Jennie Kermode writes: One of the most successful of the many adaptations of Stephen King's work, Brian De Palma's 1976 classic seems more relevant every year, steeped as it is in the most misogynistic aspects of US Christianity. Sissy Spacek brings freshness and an unnerving vulnerability to the title character, who, despite her innocence, cannot possibly live up to her mother's standards – especially when she shows signs of unusual abilities deemed immoral. Her resulting lack of confidence and overall gaucheness makes her an obvious target for bullies at school, with the situation deteriorating until the spectacular prom scene when she finally snaps. Mario Tosi's distinctive, delirious cinematography and De Palma's supreme confidence turn this portrait of the sort of person society routinely condemns into a sublime cinematic experience.
Talk To Me, 10pm, Film4, Saturday, October 31
Danny and Michael Philippou's Aussie chiller gets its network premiere this week and it's well worth a look not just for its gore delivery quotient but for its dissection of the trials of being a modern teenager. A bloody prologue sets the mood that heralds the violence to come, before we meet Mia, 17, who is drawn to escapism and risk-taking by grief. Both these thrills are offered by a ceramic embalmed hand which is proving to be a hit at her friends' parties. Touching it leads to possession that is as powerful as a drug hit so long as the 'door' is closed within 90 seconds. Mucking about with the supernatural proves to be a dangerous and bloody business, but Talk To Me is just as compelling as an exploration of peer pressure in a group, especially for its more vulnerable members.
No Bears, 12.45am, BBC2, Sunday, November 1
If, by the first of the month, you've had your fill of scares, then settle your heart rate down with this quirky hybrid drama that sees Jafar Panahi play a version of himself. He stars as a director who, due to a travel ban (something Panahi was also under until at the time) is in a border town directing a docufiction film remotely. This is a playful outing that skewers ideas of tradition and rules, while also examining notions of freedom and fear. A film in which reality's little absurdities also make themselves felt with a bite.
This week's short film, Two Balloons, involves lemurs and dirigibles, need I say more? Perhaps I'll leave that to Mark C Smith, who told us all about it.
