lemmy caution
Flesh Eater
Reged: 03/25/02
Posts: 1567
Loc: Neenah Wisconsin USA
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I’ve just watched this 1973 oddity for the first time and in a funny way I was transfixed.
The basic plot is a version of Phantom of the Opera, only set in a old seaside resort hotel. A person is murdering blonds and making it look like they just skipped out on their hotel bills. The viewer learns the identity of the killer fairly early on, but that’s not what the film is really about. The important thing is its gimmick, Duo-Vision.
Basically, the entire film is shown in a split screen. Sometimes the two images are the same thing from a different angle, but at others they get a little more creative. A good example is a scene where a blond woman is checking into the hotel goes to her room and settles in. During all of this the other side of the screen shows the killer watching her from a hole in the ceiling, walk through his lair, pick up a knife and make his way to her room where he strikes. Other scenes use the other screen to show flashbacks of past events to explain character motivations, from the killers childhood to the suspicions death of a womans husband all while the normal action of the film is going on.
This sounds terribly distracting, but I became used to it very quickly and found that it was used in ways that actually helped the viewer understand the story. Of the films 95 minutes, duo-vision is in full effect in all but around twenty seconds of the running time.
The violence is not very graphic, just stabbings and a severed limb or two. There are a fairly large number of characters for a film like this, somewhere around 12-15 and they move between them at will. The two main characters are the killer, which is reviled very soon in the running time and the house detective who seems to be the only one who thinks something is up.
This was on Turner Classic Movies a few weeks ago, in their underground film block. But from what I can tell its not on DVD as of yet. If you can find it, its worth the look.
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MEMBERS FOR THE ROMERO REPEAT KILL CORPS WANTED!
Men, Pick Up Weapons!
Kill Your Daughters Yourselves!
Im The One That’s Going To Kill My Girlfriend!
Edited by lemmy caution (06/19/08 04:00 AM)
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EdgarAllen
Living Dead
Reged: 09/16/00
Posts: 1202
Loc: Star City
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Sounds cool. I like alot of the split screen stuff I've seen over the years. 24 immediately comes to mind. I don't know if I've ever seen a movie where the entire program was split screen though.
Please clarify, is Wicked, Wicked just simply a standard split screen or is there something special about Duo Vision I am not understanding.
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"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
-Psalms 91:5-6
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lemmy caution
Flesh Eater
Reged: 03/25/02
Posts: 1567
Loc: Neenah Wisconsin USA
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Duo-Vision is the name used for the split screen effect in the promotional material and at the beginning of the film. The actual effect is the film, which is in a wide screen format has been bisected into two boxes of equal size with a thin black boarder separating them. That is the way nearly the entire film plays out with the exception of a few seconds of normal wide screen.
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MEMBERS FOR THE ROMERO REPEAT KILL CORPS WANTED!
Men, Pick Up Weapons!
Kill Your Daughters Yourselves!
Im The One That’s Going To Kill My Girlfriend!
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