9
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| Thirst |
Chan-Wook Park's vampire movie is based on a novel by Emile Zola. It's streaming on Netflix, so you can go watch it right now. There are a lot of movies about the plight of vampires, and this is one of my favorites. It's at the bottom of this list because it's only partially about a bad family--it's mostly about a sort of love triangle, but the mother-in-law character really makes the movie.
In good news, speaking of Chan-Wook Park, that old rumor about a Smith/Spielberg version of the Old Boy story? That's
not happening.
Note: Old Boy is also only partially about a bad family.
8
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| Dogtooth |
Why haven't you watched Dogtooth yet?
Lanthimos's next movie, by the way, is supposed to be
darker and funnier than Dogtooth. Which is good, because Dogtooth really needed to be a little more extreme.
7
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| Box |
I thought about putting
Audition on this list, because really that movie is all about a dad trying to find a mom for his children, and what could be sweeter? It's like The Brady Bunch, heartwarming. Box, Miike's contribution to the Three...Extremes trilogy is more in line with the theme of weird families. It's about sisters. And it's weird and cool and pretty. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, all three of the movies in that collection should be on the Bad Families list, each in its own way.
6
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| Arsenic and Old Lace |
Do the Brewster sisters really qualify as a bad family? I mean, they are good
as a family. But they are also serial killers, so let's count them as bad.
5
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| Animal Kingdom |
Animal Kingdom is not a terribly original story, and I suspect I would not have liked it--or actually, I would have liked it fine, and forgotten it immediately--if it weren't for Jacki Weaver and James Frecheville. She's terrifying and convincing and intense: half Tony Soprano and half Baby Jane. His performance is so quiet and bleak and passive in contrast, that when he does take action, it's surprising...and surprisingly satisfying. At the end of the movie I felt relieved more than anything.
4
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| Bunny Lake Is Missin |
I saw this movie when I was very young, late at night on TV, and I remembered bits of it--a creepy doll, a man smoking a cigarette in a bathtub. For years, I could not figure out what movie it was. Then I rented Bunny Lake Is Missing, because it was directed by Otto Preminger and it has Lawrence Olivier and Noel Coward in it. It sounded interesting, like "If you liked Laura, you'll like Bunny Lake Is Missing." I was about thirty minutes into the DVD before I started to suspect it was
that movie. It's a little less haunting and maybe even a little corny on rewatching, but it's still scary.
3
Speaking of Baby Jane: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
2
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| Grey Gardens |
Two roads diverged in yellow wood.
And pondering one, I took the other.
And of course, the very best worst movie about a really unpleasant family:
1
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| Chinatown |
7 comments:
When I saw Arsenic and Old Lace I immediately thought "There's no BAD in that family!" Then I remembered.
I still haven't seen Thirst, because I'm an insane fool.
Also: Why haven't I watched Dogtooth yet?
Because I'm afraid.
It's been sitting in an open tab on my browser for almost a month.
Thirst was pretty great, but I honestly don't remember anything about the families. Am I misremembering that it had a lot to do with Catholicism?
Oh, it's not a movie, but the various inbred families throughout the X-files will be on my list.
Thirst did have a lot to do with Catholicism (which is sort of a natural, right? Who says, "This is my blood, drink it"? Vampires and Jesus). But there was also the part with the scary mother-in-law. That's what I was thinking of. But she might be better on a list of overbearing mothers: Dead Alive, Mommie Dearest, Psycho?
If we are including TV, which I think is a good idea, there are definitely X-files--the Bruce Campbell episode? I also nominate the Julio-Claudians in I Claudius.
Kristin--Dogtooth has now been built up to the point where you will be totally unimpressed. I should have handed you an unmarked disc of it.
That should probably be the only way we recommend movies to each other.
Someone should start a service like that. Like Netflix, but with random, unmarked DVDs. Rouletteflix.
This is one of the finest ideas you've ever had. Think of the branding: it would be pretty easy to develop an icon that meshes the barrel of a revolver with a film reel.
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