Dir: Peter Bogdanovich. Cast: Boris Karloff, Tim O’Kelly, Peter Bogdanovich. 1968.
Targets is a remarkable film, and no less so for how it was made. Producer Roger Corman allowed director Bogdanovich to make a film if he would use Boris Karloff during the two days the actor owed the producer, if he would incorporate footage from Corman’s The Terror, and if he came in under budget. What Bogdanovich was able to create adhering to these guidelines is not only a clever achievement, but it resulted in an under-seen horror classic.
Like Hitchcock’s Psycho eight years earlier, Targets announces the death of classic horror and the birth of its contemporary counterpart. Here, rather than modern day murder in the shadow of a gothic mansion, it takes the form of a gothic horror personality making an appearance at a drive-in where contemporary horror muscles in in the form of a hidden snipper, poised to kill as many as possible.
In part inspired by the real life horror of sniper Charles Whitman, who found his victims street level while hidden atop a tower at the University of Texas, Targets itself fell victim, though to bad timing. Released shortly after the assassinations of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S. was in no mood to see this reality reflected on the screen, and it was not a box office hit. Pity, as it's both an extraordinary movie, and a warning of things to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment