DARK CITY directed by Alex Proyas (USA, 1998)
My favourite ever episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is ‘Hush’ where a ghoulish group known as The Gentlemen invade Sunnyville and steal everyone’s voices so selected victims can’t scream as their hearts are cut out.
These scary figures look similar to the pallid hairless aliens known as ‘the strangers’ in Dark City and move the same way; floating rather than walking to seek out their prey.
This movie is a neo-noir fantasy sci-fi horror mystery by the director of The Crow. It shares the bleak underworld vibe of his earlier cult classic without the same killer soundtrack. It looks very stylish but lacks any real sense of menace – more like a weird dream than a horrific nightmare.
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The Terrence Malick style montage of slo-mo imagery at the start of Melancholia tells us from the outset that there will be no happy ending here. Death, not life is the key motif.
