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ray wise Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Villains We Love: Leland Palmer

Filed under: Drama », Horror », Fandom »



Pretty much everything about the world of Twin Peaks is magic. The stable of actors is amazing -- from the wonders of Jack Nance to the still chills of Sheryl Lee's smile, to the quirky post-West Side Story Richard Beymer and Russ Tamblyn. Angelo Badalamenti's score remains one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. David Lynch and Mark Frost made for a perfect mixture of continuity and insanity, while always knowing just how gently to pull at the strings of tension and chill the nerves.

But my true and refined appreciation rests with Ray Wise. One of my favorite severely underrated actors, Wise's performance in both the series and film is stunning. He's one of the rare actors who can pull off the most scary and convincing moments of sadisticness just as easily as the charming moments steeped in sweetness and charisma. His eyes can evoke the screaming of horror, the slyness of evil, the psychosis of possession. But before his guilt was revealed on the show and we learned that he raped and killed his own daughter, he seemed like the least likely suspect -- a loving father tormented over the death of his little girl. But then we see the slivers of evil in the show, and then the all-out horror in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

He made Leland Palmer, and easily thrust him from a simply creepy and evilly possessed dad to one of the villains I love. Sure, it's not really him that does it, it's Bob, but it's all the magic of Wise that makes it worthy. After the jump, check out a mix of creepy scenes from the film, a lot of which show his excellent performance.

Review: One Missed Call

Filed under: Horror », New Releases », Warner Brothers », Theatrical Reviews »

It seems like an odd choice to hire a Frenchman to remake a film by Japanese master Takashi Miike. I've only seen half a dozen Miike features to date, which isn't many considering that he makes at least that number in any given year. But I can say that his style ranges from utterly insane to completely cracked, and few French filmmakers -- who generally specialize in intelligence and austerity -- could match him. But director Eric Valette brings something interesting to the new remake of One Missed Call. Most horror remakes come complete with an undisguised sense of callousness, and almost flat-out disdain, for their intended customers. But One Missed Call has a kind of effective low-key tone. Perhaps it was confusion or sheer laziness, but it worked for me far better than some other junky remakes I've seen.

Sure, the story is unbelievably stupid, and the film doesn't do much to justify its silly logic. Both this and Miike's film were adapted from a novel by Yasushi Akimoto, and I'd like to believe that the novel made a far better argument for its plot. A med student, Shelley (Meagan Good), dies after receiving a mysterious phone call. After her death, her phone mysteriously dials a friend, and that friend dies. And so on. The calls come in dated and timed to some point in the near future, and the recipient of the call hears his or her own voice at the moment of their death. So they know exactly what day and time they're going to die and they know what they're going to say, but that information can't help some of the dumber characters from saving their own lives. One character sits at a café with only one minute to go to his impending death. Instead of sitting there safe one minute longer, he decides to get up and cross a busy street.

Trailer for the Long-Delayed 'One Missed Call' Remake

Filed under: Horror », Thrillers », Remakes and Sequels », Trailers and Clips »

I really dig Shannyn Sossamon. At least, I did with her first three features -- she was my kind of alterna-mainstream girl. She hit it out of the park with A Knight's Tale, and then she started moaning from an orchid in 40 Days and 40 Nights before bringing to life Ellis dysfunction with The Rules of Attraction. After that, not so much. I'm still itching to see her in Wristcutters: A Love Story, but I'm not to keen on her turn to horror. The latest is called One Missed Call, and it co-stars Edward Burns (The Holiday). The horror flick is supposed to get released next year, and now we can finally check out the trailer on Yahoo.

At first I was a little intrigued -- Azura Skye kicked arse on her too-short stint on Buffy, as a girl who knew her death was coming, but the scenario just doesn't seem so cool this time around -- probably because it looks like Final Destination with cell phones, not to mention the fact that we're drowning in Asian horror remakes. The trailer covers the basic plot -- with or without batteries, these cell phones keep ringing and letting the person hear the last few moments of their life. They get paranoid and scared, and then succumb to the death the mobile predicted. However, Kevin Kelly saw some clips at ComicCon and said they were "extremely spooky," so maybe it ain't all bad. Heck, I might see it just for Ray Wise, Laura Palmer's troubled pop from Twin Peaks. The movie will hit theaters on January 4, 2008.
 
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