The Haunting of Julia aka Full Circle (1977)
Based on Peter Straub's novel, it tells the story of Julia Lofting (fittingly played by Mia 'Rosemary' Farrow), who's fleeing an unhappy marriage shortly after the death of her only daughter and moves to a new home where becomes haunted by the ghost of a vengeful little girl. Though it sounds & started like just another well made 70s typical atmospheric horror film with a very few ghostly encounters but this dialog driven, pretty slow burn horror flick offers a pretty intelligent ghost story that requires your full attention. At times, some may find the plot bit confusing as there were too much information about some important off-screen/past characters & events, and then there you'd have the suspicions & questions about whether it was all in Julia's psychologically twisted mind or there's actually a ghost but again...is it the ghost of Julia's dead daughter or an evil little girl killed by her mother who used to live there before or may be that poor little boy who died at a nearby park by some evil-twisted kids long ago??? The thing that remarkably completes this whole puzzle was its great-spooky ending; I'd say the ending also made it quite different than other films with seemingly similar premise and just lift it almost to the same level with 70s unique classics like
Don't Look Now or even
Let's Scare Jessica to Death!
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A-
Stoker (2013)
It's surely an awesome watch for Chan-wook Park's excellent cinematography with such great use of light, shadows & colors that made this thriller brilliantly atmospheric & engaging that would made Sir A. Hitchcock proud 'without a doubt'....but that's my friend I like to note here as a drawback for a film made by the director of such outstanding films like
Oldboy &
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance! Though, as a new screenwriter, the Prison-Break actor Wentworth Miller done a very promising job & I'd love to hear he gets busy with more scripts in coming days but as a story I found the
Stoker is nothing but a modern & slightly twisted update of Hitchcock's
Shadow of a Doubt which stylishly made by Mr. Park and that's the little disappointment for me; as a fan of his earlier films, I expect more twisted & thought-provoking challenging stories in Park's film that would made our viewing experience something very special or unforgettable like the way he did in his Vengeance trilogy. But again,
Stoker is obviously a quite satisfying experience for thriller lovers where the little cast convincingly shines through their roles, particularly Matthew Goode once again proves his talent (after the
Watchmen) that he can be a significant choice for the filmmakers next time to play any psychologically twisted or intelligent bad guy role.
Overall, Stoker is marvelous in visuals & character developments but plot wise it's just an old wine in a new bottle, which isn't a little bit of a bad thing at all unless it's made by a highly talented director like Chan-wook Park.
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B+