barbarella70

Okay. Let's say you're an average movie lover with a penchant for thrillers. You somehow get a job as a movie director (it can happen). You're hired to direct a script called TAKING LIVES. Your brain then begins to spit out scenes from almost every other movie you've ever seen in your 35 year old life. And so, an average movie-goer pays 6 bucks to watch a film compiled from SHADOW OF A DOUBT, SEVEN, ORDINARY PEOPLE, DRESSED TO KILL, PSYCHO, THE BONE COLLECTOR, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, ROSEMARY'S BABY, JAGGED EDGE, FATAL ATTRACTION, MURDER BY NUMBERS, KISS THE GIRLS, TWISTED (I haven't seen it but no matter), ALONG CAME A SPIDER, almost every film by Ridley and Tony Scott, COPYCAT(!), CAPE FEAR, and AN EYE FOR AN EYE. The only reason critics -certain critics- are giving anything other than a big fat raspberry to this tired, TIRED drivel is probably because they've crossed into some other boundary. They're probably so beyond burnt-out having seen the same film for about 40 years they have no idea what they're looking at any more. (Note to filmmakers: Robert Altman once made a film called THE LONG GOODBYE where he brilliantly deconstructed the gangster/mystery genre. It still is fresh, suspenseful, engaging, and quite refreshing. Think about it.)

Great little gem that -for the most part- stands the test of time very well!

Audrey Hepburn is cast beautifully as the blind woman victimized by three deviants. Alan Arkin is truly terrifying as the leader and his performance here ranks as one of the all-time-great screen villians.

Director Young handles the pace masterfully. No sequence really goes on longer than it should. Henry Mancini uses a nice, quiet score that creates appropriate tension as the film builds to its classic showdown.

My favorite thing about the film is, I think, the use of lighting in the final sequence. Charles Lang uses a creepy, dimly-glowing, red-orange light to illuminate the apartment after Suzie has smashed every other bulb. The effect has a shadowy, nightmarish quality and the scene looks like it was filmed yesterday.

When you think about David Fincher reworking the original concept here for PANIC ROOM, it really is a flattering comment to WAIT UNTIL DARK and its power in still being able to chill. It's also funny to think that with all that impressive photography and filmmaking, the film didn't have nearly half the tension of this 1967 classic.