Review of Play Misty for Me (1971) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

This is a somewhat chilling suspense thriller, a bit like an early version of Single White Female almost, with the stereotypical female psycho character present. I thought aspects of the plot were a little...unlikely, to say the least - I mean that in terms of what the main character, the DJ Dave Garver does (or more, doesn't do, such as alerting authorities to certain things). Its fair to say Clint Eastwood plays yet another cool, calm and collected type in this film, like many of his other roles.

It would be wrong to say that this isn't an unsettling watch at times and there are certainly some jump scares present - its not quite an all-out horror film, as the plot takes a while to build and its not a constant slasher-fest sort of a film but thats not necessarily a bad thing, as it makes what happens feel more realistic in a sense.

There are some good bits of dialogue and I thought it was a fairly good film, although perhaps a little cliched - for one thing, why is it when its a female killer she is so screamy? its a typical depiction of a crazed lady - don't get me wrong, its not laughably tame or un-thrilling, it just felt a little (perhaps unnecessarily) cliched. Overall its a reasonably good film, its somewhat atmospheric although im not sure I'd especially recommend it as such.