In 2008, horror-thriller maestro Eric Red (Bad Moon, Cohen & Tate, Body Parts) released his nifty chiller 100 Feet, which stars a beyond intense Famke Janssen. This is one of those classically told ghost movies that isn’t afraid to get bloody and nasty (no surprise given the filmmaker’s previous genretastic output!), and at the risk of spoiling the wicked fun, I’ll simply allow that the narrative pivots on a woman under house arrest (Janssen) who becomes terrorized by the demonic spirit of her abusive husband (Red favorite Michael Paré) who she killed out of self-defense. Co-starring Bobby Cannavale, Ed Westwick, Patricia Charbonneau and Kevin Greer, this is a straight-up, effective, gruesome-at-the-finish thriller (seriously, the end set-piece is all sorts of messed up and wildly horrific) with a terrific lead performance from Janssen, who in movie after movie has proven to be highly capable of delving into any role in any genre and running away with her part. She’s sexy, she’s vulnerable, she’s got an edge when needed, and because Red’s focused screenplay keeps her at the center of all the action, you invest heavily in her character. There’s an affecting psychological angle to the proceedings too, with Janssen’s character going through all sorts of mental anguish over the off-screen actions that have landed her under house arrest, and because she’s in virtually every scene of the film, you become all the more attached to her and her precarious situation. 100 Feet works as well as it does because Red understands the value of true suspense, and then when his big moment of shocking violence occurs, the impact is made all the more startling because of how well placed and timed the scares are. While shot on a low budget, there are some nifty bits of gore involving the ghostly spirit, and in a fun secondary role, Cannavale brought just the right amount of antagonism to his part of a disapproving cop who has to keep tabs on Janssen. Let’s hope that Red has more juice left in the cinematic tank because his brand of hardcore cinema needs a major resurgence.
Podcasting Them Softly 