At the Meeting with Joyous Death (1973)

I love this movie so much

That was an excellent one.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Where was this one hiding? A French art horror film about poltergeists that really delivers the goods on most fronts, even though it's apparent the budget isn't the highest. A French family (chain-smoking mother, annoying child, hard-working father, moody teenage girl) move into a huge creepy mansion and almost right away strange things begin to happen. The teenage girl draws a picture of the mansion that looks a lot different than it actually is. A tin of paint falls over in the kitchen. The boy's toys are broken by someone unseen. During the night most of the windows in the building are violently destroyed by an unknown presence throwing stones. The family are baffled and think the locals have something against them...that is until a table rises up into the air, smashes its way into the house, and destroys a room. In fact, we the audience are clued in on what's happening more than the family, because there's something strange going on with daughter Sophie. At first it seems that she's some kind of telekinetic-type, but it all could be something more to do with something in the house that's either using her or possessing her. It's never really made clear anyway, but by the way Sophie's reflection seems to be moving when Sophie isn't, something aint right.Eventually, when a lecherous visitor gets attacked by kitchen appliances after commenting on Sophie 'starting to become a woman', a television crew are called in to document the weird goings on, with the family moving out for a while. Initially, the crew don't find anything particularly strange happening, save for some old rope left in the boy's bed, but when Sophie reappears, having hitchhiked all the way back there, soundman Gerard Depardieu goes into a trance and plunges his hand into a pan of soup...French onion soup of course!Other things happen but it's not fair to recount every scare scene in case you actually want to go out and watch the thing. It's like the Robert Wise film The Haunting with regards to all the paranormal stuff centred around one person, and like that film doesn't rely on gore to get the chills in. In fact, there's bit of this film have turned up in other horror fiction, especially the 'ball' bit from The Changeling, and really especially Stephen King's work, like the telekinetic girl's house destroyed by stones in the book Carrie, or the sexual ghost coming on to a guy then revealing itself as something horrible in The Shining! There's also a lot of similarities between Salem's Lot and Mario Bava's Black Sabbath while I'm on the subject, and the spider/baby thing from Spider Labyrinth turns up in the Dark Tower books. Don't tell me he doesn't watch these things - he fully admitted getting the idea for the Dark Tower from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!Back to the film - A couple of sudden deaths come out of nowhere near the end, and you do have a Haunting-like ending...or no ending at all...it is a French art film after all. I guess it's in how you interpret it. Very good though. That's I'm seeking them all out - to find films like this. Recommended!

Unfortunately it's not a very good move. The fact that the son of director Luis Bunuel is somewhat influenced by Bunuel Sr is not more than understandably, but it's without the surrealistic magic that made some of Bunuel's Sr movies so very good. It reminded me of something like Poltergeist part 4 or something like that. Although this movie is somewhat older than the original Poltergeist-movie. Horror-fans will be disappointed for it's lack of real tension or gore-FX. Art-house-lovers will not like it because it has no good story-line or because they'll see that there's no great direction, acting or camera-works. 3 out of 10 points (very boring movie)

Eerie French horror movie with the vague ending of most French new wave movies. To me the most notable thing is to see a young and thin Gerard Depardieu go nuts. The movie takes awhile to build atmosphere but once the researchers show up, that's when the creepiness begins. The makers of "Poltergeist" had to be influenced by this movie. The main problem of the film is that nothing is ever explained or wrapped up. With my ghost stories I like to know why. As with most haunted house movies, the house is the best character. A mild shocker.

Directing debut for Juan Bunuel, son of revered filmmaker Luis Bunuel, is a disturbing but hollow, unsatisfying thriller about a haunted house in the French countryside. Married couple with two kids move into the dilapidated manor, and are rather slow to discover there are spirits afoot and they want the humans out. Film wasn't exhibited Stateside for years, though one can imagine Steven Spielberg seeing this and getting the idea for his production "Poltergeist"; the films share similar story points, though this one has no humorous undermining. Some spooky moments and a haunting finale can't really make it worthwhile. Ultimately, it's just a little too heavy and dense. *1/2 from ****