Chris Fujiwara

Oct 29, 2024 | criterion.com | Michael Atkinson |Chris Fujiwara

More than the films of any other genre, horror movies are the phenotypes of cultural anxiety—often, you can read the turbulence right on the skin, like hives. In Japan, a nation always rich with wild expressions of social stress, this phenomenon yielded two primary surges: the New Wave attack of the 1950s and ’60s, and the J-horror invasion starting in the late ’80s and ’90s.

Oct 8, 2024 | criterion.com | Lucy Sante |Chris Fujiwara

The Seventh Victim (1943), produced by Val Lewton and directed by Mark Robson, is a delicate, muted, atmospheric horror film that is somehow more than the sum of its parts.

Oct 8, 2024 | criterion.com | Chris Fujiwara |Lucy Sante

Jacques Tourneur’s claim that he never turned down any script that was offered to him is well known. Less often cited is his justification for this policy. “Do you really know your sensibility so well,” he said in an interview, “that you can affirm that it will cause you to succeed with this scene rather than another?

Sep 13, 2023 | cmsaunders.wordpress.com | Chris Fujiwara |Chris Saunders

Title: Cat PeopleYear of Release: 1942Director: Jacques TourneurLength: 73 minsStarring: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack HoltGod knows there are enough horror movies about werewolves, vampires and zombies. In my humble opinion, there just aren’t enough films about cats or, for that matter, people descended from an ancient tribes of cat people who metamorphose into panthers when sexually aroused. Enter Cat People.