John Hough
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Midnight Special (2016)
Directed by Jeff Nichols
influenced by Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Plot
It’s not only him who looms over Midnight Special; there are also strong echoes of Disney’s Witch Mountain adventures – Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Return from Witch Mountain (1978) – as well as John Carpenter’s bewitching Starman (1984).
If it sounds something like a high-falootin’ version of Escape to Witch Mountain, it sort of is but as with most Nichols films, an overview of the plot doesn’t do justice to the experience of the movie even in a more traditional adventure thriller.
It’s not only him who looms over Midnight Special; there are also strong echoes of Disney’s Witch Mountain adventures – Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Return from Witch Mountain (1978) – as well as John Carpenter’s bewitching Starman (1984).
Need for Speed (2014)
Directed by Scott Waugh
influenced by Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)
Themes Plot
Screenwriter George Gatins hints at elements Peter Fonda or Warren Oates would have nailed, and there are moments when "Need for Speed" flirts with the darkness found in films like "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" and "Race with the Devil."
I suppose just asking Ingram to air-freight the car directly to California would have taken too long; it would also have deprived the movie of its only genuine moments, in which this preposterous Dirty Mary Crazy Larry situation brings Julia and Tobey together.
Still, equating "normal" (at least for a Disney family) and "Hispanic" is quite new for mainstream film, and it is an overdue change from the likes of Hayley Mills or the fair, freckled kids from Escape To Witch Mountain (1975), (Ike Eisenmann and Disney regular Kim Richards).
Viewers never see who or what they are, and their presence is represented by wind gusts and shadows (if you saw 1980's "The Watcher in the Woods," the technique will be familiar).
Ward (Elliot Knight of American Gothic ) will stand in as narrator and witness of the horror to follow.
By staying old school, by mimicking movies like The Legend of Hell House and the original Haunting, Wan manages to better those titles which treat the genre like extended cinematic autopsies.
Bailey views the ups and downs of Ethan’s existence as the latter dotes on his mother (Juliet Rylance, American Gothic ), struggles with his troubled father (Luke Kirby, Rectify ), grows into a football-champ teen (K.J. Apa, Riverdale ), and falls for the spirited Hannah (Britt Robertson, Girlboss ).