Wait Until Dark (1967)
Directed by Terence Young
After a flight back home, Sam Hendrix returns with a doll he innocently acquired along the way. As it turns out, the doll is actually stuffed with heroin, and a group of criminals led by the ruthless Roat has followed Hendrix back to his place to retrieve it. When Hendrix leaves for business, the crooks make their move -- and find his blind wife, Susy, alone in the apartment. Soon, a life-threatening game begins between Susy and the thugs.
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What critics compared Wait Until Dark to
Galloping on to a no-holds-barred finale, Fincher and Koepp plug in plot devices right and left while also boldly snatching from the likes of Hitchcock's “Rear Window” and the wonderful 1967 Terence Young nail-biter “Wait Until Dark”--though they never come close to capturing their predecessors' white-knuckle thrills.
In outline, "Panic Room's" cat-and-mouse maneuvers between good and evil in the same enclosed space is unapologetically derivative, familiar from films as serious as the Audrey Hepburn-starring "Wait Until Dark" and as silly as "Home Alone."
And one hopes Fincher has had fun making a popcorn picture, with his sly references to Rear Window, Rope, and Wait Until Dark (to name but a few) and not a cultural zeitgeist in sight.
"Panic Room" is a modern day take on "Wait Until Dark," rejuvenated by a stylish technician and first rate cast.
Almost the entire thing takes place in one night inside the walls of the same confined set (think Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark), yet the entertainment value Mr. Fincher gets from claustrophobic muck when good people try to survive in the dark is compelling, and the contrast between Panic Room�s climactic outbursts of deplorable bloodshed and the dazzling sunlight of the film�s peaceful epilogue in Central Park makes for a startling dramatic metaphor.
My first thought after I saw this movie was, "Home Alone for adults and without the comedy and Wait Until Dark" I know that sounds a bit weird, but that summed it up for me.
Horror films have historically used disability as an easy source of tension by way of dramatic irony (see: everything from Wait Until Dark to this year’s Hush), but Don’t Breathe reverses that paradigm.
Scripted by Rodo Sayagues and Uruguay-born director Fede Alvarez (2013 “Evil Dead” remake), its cleverly crafted misdirection and night-vision shocks are reminiscent of “Wait Until Dark” (1967) in which a blind woman (Audrey Hepburn) was threatened in her small apartment.
Things go awry (as they generally do) when the blind combat veteran proves to be a more formidable opponent than our intruders anticipated, resulting in a chilling "Wait Until Dark" scenario of tiptoeing around and trying to remain silent.
It turns out a brutal, Blumhouse-produced tweak of 1967’s “Wait Until Dark” lies in store, replacing Audrey Hepburn with a blind Gulf War vet (Stephen Lang) armed with sadistic methods, who faces off against a trio of amateur criminals out to loot his home.
(Picture “Wait Until Dark” if Alan Arkin’s ruthless Harry Roat were the blind character.
Like “Wait Until Dark” before it, “Hush” places a character with a perceived handicap at the center of a tense thriller and showcases both the heroine’s vulnerabilities and unexpected advantages.
One of the many films in the grand tradition of “Wait Until Dark,” director Flanagan teams a disabled heroine against a merciless predator who not only wants to murder, but also delights in making her final moments as painful as possible.
Hush makes clever use of Maddie’s deafness as part of the plot development, although comparisons with the classic sensory-impairment thriller Wait Until Dark end there.
Much like the classic 1967 thriller Wait Until Dark, Hush not only finds several clever ways for its heroine to overcome her physical handicap under the most terrifying conditions imaginable, but it also manages to bring the viewer into the experience through clever use of creative editing, strong acting, and (especially) some very nifty sound design.
Playing a blind girl who must gather the courage to battle unseen fears isn't new-- Audrey Hepburn was probably the best in the 1967 Wait Until Dark --yet, the talented Howard 's naturally blithe and spunky personality brings her own freshness to the character.
Howard, the real life daughter of director Ron Howard, is fabulous is Ivy and parts of the film remind me of the Audrey Hepburn thriller Wait Until Dark, about a blind woman fending off bad guys.
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It will remind the savvy cinephile of works such as Wait Until Dark and Rope , the single setting used to evoke as much fear and horror as the potential apocalypse promised outside.
Steven Soderbergh gives us another reason to be thankful that his “retirement” from filmmaking was so short-lived with this tidy little thriller, a homage to “Blow Up” and “Blow Out,” with a bit of “Wait Until Dark” and “Rear Window” thrown in for good measure and refitted for the age of the IVA and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the tense final act, “Kimi” becomes a chase film and then a highly satisfying variation on the “Wait Until Dark” home invasion thriller — and then it’s done and over in under 90 minutes, and you fall back on your couch to catch your breath.
“Lights Out” has been made with a certain degree of style—enough to make you want to see what Sandberg might be capable of with a better screenplay—and it does contain one great moment that pays sly homage to the most famous moment from the classic thriller “ Wait Until Dark .”
As a terrorized heroine, she doesn't evoke the immediate sympathy of actresses like Ingrid Bergman in "Gaslight," Dorothy McGuire in "The Spiral Staircase," Audrey Hepburn in "Wait Until Dark" or Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby."
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That, of course, adds for some heightened suspense, although not to the point or effectiveness of "Wait Until Dark."
Working with his regular team, including cinematographer Don Burgess and editor Arthur Schmidt, Zemeckis has gotten the placement of those squeal-inducing surprises (the Audrey Hepburn-starring "Wait Until Dark" is more of a model than Hitchcock) down to such a precise science that the film feels genetically engineered.