An interesting inclusion for this list, a film that is generally classified as a Political Thriller with a familiar name that makes everyone think they’ve either already seen it or they know what they’re going to get when in truth they have no idea how weird and unsettling this original version is. The 2004 remake is not a part of this project because the filmmaking steers away from the nightmare logic woven into the 1962 film.
It starts with the brilliantly edited garden party that explains the threat, the title and the fantastical methods used by the communist enemy. The style combines Noir, Cold War paranoia, psychological Horror and Surreal Nightmare cinema. The brainwashed soldiers behave like zombies or like they’re possessed. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is not in control of himself, he’s disassociated from reality. Meanwhile, Angela Lansbury plays a domineering mother figure, like Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca or even Norman Bates mother from Psycho. The filmmaking matches this with high contrast Black&White lighting and an odd use of focus, including people who come way too close to the camera, and violence that is sometimes abrupt and often echos like everything is happening in a large, empty space.
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