Based on the novella by Stephen King, director Bryan Singer's follow-up to THE USUAL SUSPECTS is a harrowing psychological thriller about the relationship that forms between a boy and the neighbor he discovers is a Nazi war criminal. After a brief lesson in history class, star pupil Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) becomes obsessed .. Read more
| Starring | Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, Bruce Davison, Elias Koteas |
|---|---|
| Director | Bryan Singer |
| Genres | Drama |
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Based on the novella by Stephen King, director Bryan Singer's follow-up to THE USUAL SUSPECTS is a harrowing psychological thriller about the relationship that forms between a boy and the neighbor he discovers is a Nazi war criminal. After a brief lesson in history class, star pupil Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) becomes obsessed with Hitler and his followers. Through extensive research, he discovers that the infamous Kurt Dussender (Sir Ian McKellen) has been hiding out, living a normal life in his own neighborhood. But instead of reporting Dussender to the authorities, Todd decides to use him to gain further knowledge...everything that the history books won't tell him. But who ends up using whom, and what happens when a susceptible young mind encounters true evil, leads to a surprising, taught, and unsettling suspense film.
Interested in the novella since he was 19, Singer worked closely with screenwriter Brandon Boyce to bring this compelling story to the screen. Filled with the same touches that are hallmarks of his previous films--careful editing, use of small spaces to evoke tense atmospherics, terrific cinematography, and stellar acting--the film is a disturbing exploration into the seductively dark side of human nature.
| Starring | Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, Bruce Davison, Elias Koteas, David Schwimmer, James Karen, Heather McComb, Ann Dowd, Joshua Jackson, Mickey Cottrell, Michael Reid MacKay |
|---|---|
| Director | Bryan Singer |
| Studio | SONY PICTURES HOME ENT. UK |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 47 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | German |
| Subtitles | DVD: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish |
| Released | DVD: 13 Jun 2005 Production year: 1998 |
| Format | DVD |
This drama outlines the terrible consequences of a gifted Californian teenager's obsession with the Holocaust and his strange relationship with a Nazi war criminal living in secret in his home town. It's the third film to use Stephen King's 1982 anthology Different Seasons as a source and the tale is almost the equal of its predecessors, Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption. King's chiller deals with the horror of human nature and melancholic dread, and Bryan Singer's adaptation keeps close to the author's original intentions, using smart visual fluency to suggest the appalling and shocking nature of the core story. Ian McKellen gives a stupendous performance as the former SS death-camp officer and the film provides unsettling, blood-curdling viewing that occasionally crosses the bad taste barrier.
An effective drama about the corruption caused by contact with evil, though it descends into horror-movie clichés towards the end.
Brad Renfro gives a bombastic performance here truely holding his own in the company of heavy weight Sir Ian. An intelligent script artfull handled by Bryan Singer this film was criminally over looked at the cinema and deserves to be seen by all.
What is Tod up to now I wonder??????
This version of Stephen Kings apt pupil was absolutely brilliant. Brad Renfro plays a boy becoming out of control, obsessed with events of the holocaust. He goes from extreme to extreme. And let not forget the wonderful performance Sir Ian Mcellen puts in for his role of the Nazi.
A truly frightening and disturbing film but well worth it.
Lord Of The Rings star Sir Ian McKellen is to reprise his role as wily old wizard Gandalf the Grey for Guillermo Del Toro's two-film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, it has been confirmed. McKellen had been widely tipped to take up the part he played in all three of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and speaking to movie magazine Empire, the knight of the realm confirmed he had agreed to dust off his cloak and hat for the new films. "Obviously, it's not a part that you turn down, I... Read more