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Undertow

Creepy rural thriller from David Gordon Green

Undertow
The movie that David Gordon Green's new thriller conjures up is Charles Laughton's spooky The Night of the Hunter from 1955.

Almost the same situation and setting: In a remote backwater of the rural South, two siblings are shocked when a new member arrives to a family headed by a single parent. They, and they alone, intuit his malicious intent and try to warn the parent, but to no avail. The new family member then murders the parent and maliciously hunts the children through a kind of dream landscape, as he believes they know where certain treasure is hidden. They must, as children, defend themselves.

In Laughton's eerie version, the "hunter" was played as a bogus preacher/psychopath by Robert Mitchum, in one of the screen's most repulsive yet stunning evocations of evil. In Gordon's variant, it's the young actor Josh Lucas. No, Lucas is no Mitchum -- who could be? -- but his frightening Deel Munn is a satanic-enough evocation in this singular film.

Jamie Bell? Sounds familiar. Where did Green locate such a strong young southern actor, who so perfectly looks the part as a son of a red-dirt state, tough and resilient? Well, actually Bell is English and he broke through, believe or not, in the cheerful, infectious "Billy Elliot" of 2000. How he could go from Brit ballet boy to true-grit verisimilitude seems incredible; but then I suppose it's merely acting of a special sort.

The movie builds slowly to its grinding climax, and the suspense -- the standard by which a thriller must primarily be judged -- is first-rate. (S. Hunter, Washington Post)

Undertow

Mon January 31, 2005, 7:00 & 9:15, Muenzinger Auditorium

USA, 2004, in English, Color, 107 min, Rated R • official site

recommend

Tickets

10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission. $7 w/UCB student ID, $7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.

Parking

Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.

RTD Bus

Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus

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