Spitball Army

watched Jan 6, 2018
spitballarmy’s review published in Letterboxd:

8.7
[blu-ray]

Creepy as all get out. I had just watched Franju’s BLOOD OF THE BEASTS, which had my stomach doing backflips, and, when the doctor pulled out his scalpel here, I thought, “Here we go again!”

Interesting that certain of this film’s thematic elements and devices can be found in later films: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and HANNIBAL (for different reasons), Almodovar’s THE SKIN I LIVE IN, and THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY.

I hadn’t made the connection that Edith Scob, who plays the girl in the mask, played the matriarch in SUMMER HOURS, one of my favorite contemporary French films. This represents a span of about fifty years between these two films and her filmography, once I pulled it up, documents her involvement in several acclaimed films.