Review of A Bucket of Blood (1959) by Brian P — 27 Apr 2004

[font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=darkorange][font=Arial][i]Monster[/i] (Patty Jenkins, 2003)[/font] [/color][/size][/font].

[font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=darkorange]Charlize Theron is quite good, beyond the makeup; it's too bad the film doesn?t quite prove worthy of the performance. The families? aggravation with the film is understandable?Jenkins plainly cherry-picked from Aileen Wuornos?s many and varied explanations for what had happened and used whatever best suited her dramatic purposes. That would be okay from a storytelling perspective (if not a historical one), only the choices she makes are the obvious ones, and Wuornos's story comes across in a rather ham-handed fashion?telegraphing intent and following an implausibly linear decline. Even so, this is worth seeing for Theron, if only just. [/color][/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=darkorange][font=Arial][i]A Bucket of Blood[/i] (Roger Corman, 1959)[/font] [/color][/size][/font].

[font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=darkorange]A tepid thriller that plays like a rejected [i]Twilight Zone[/i] script. Every once in a while the material suggests something interesting is in the offing, but it never delivers. Nothing to see here, folks.[/color][/size][/font].

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[font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=darkorange][font=Arial][i]The Haunting[/i] (Robert Wise, 1963)[/font] [/color][/size][/font].

[font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=#000000][color=darkorange][i]The Haunting[/i] (based on a Shirley Jackson book) occasionally veers into hokey territory, but it succeeds spectacularly on the most important count: it is spooky as hell.[/color] [/color][/size][/font].