This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
just. thinking about Antonius Block. once a faithful knight, once a devoted husband, once a masterful gamesman. ten years fighting in the Crusades has left him haggard, hollow, haunted. ten years of "holy" war, and his God has never been more shrouded in darkness, more unhearing of his cries than before. ten years, and not one worthy act in all that time.
so Antonius resolves to buy more time, wielding the game he knows so well against Death himself. not…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
i could list all of the great gags in this movie until the cows come home, but the horse. THE HORSE. i laughed so hard i immediately started crying and had to spend the next five minutes shaking in my seat as i fruitlessly tried to wipe my eyes: no small feat when you immediately start laughing at the next gag hot on its heels!
also i'm trying so so hard not to read too deeply into this but i…
actually insane that this movie — the first feature-length animated film still surviving today! — is ninety-nine years old and still has some of the most stylish, fluid, expressive animation I’ve ever seen in my life that is also ALL silhouettes. and the Anvil Orchestra providing the score was the cherry on top!
a madcap experience made even WILDER with the unexpected addition of Percepto! (the digital projector that The Tingler was going to be shown on had an unexpected power failure, but the traditional 35mm projector was still up and running!) i wasn’t in one of the buzzed seats, but that didn’t stop me from startling and shrieking (and shrieking with laughter) every time the ones on the seats near me went off. shout-outs to Vincent Price’s wine-tasting faces, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone being excellently (comedically) sinister, and most of all, to the theater staff for keeping the show going in a really fun and memorable way
