Directed by Peter Bogdonovich
Written by Peter Bogdonovich; story by Bogdonovich and Polly Platt
1968/USA
IMDb link
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
One of 1000 Best Horror Movies on They Shoot Zombies Don’t They?
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Byron Orlok: Oh, Sammy, what’s the use? Mr. Boogey Man, King of Blood they used to call me. Marx Brothers make you laugh, Garbo makes you weep, Orlok makes you scream.[/box]
Not too shabby for a feature film debut, Mr. Bogdonovich.
There are two stories running concurrently. In one, a writer played by Bogdonovich tries to convince elderly horror star Brian Orlok (Boris Karloff) to star in a straight role in his new movie. Both are clearly playing themselves. Simultaneously, a young clean-cut Vietnam War Vet plans and carries out mass murder.
Everybody meets up at a drive-in where Orlok is making a publicity appearance for his latest movie.
Bogdonovich was a huge film geek and just can’t help himself from going meta at this young age. The really compelling story is the sniper’s and the other story gets in its way here. That’s a shame because the other story features one of Karloff’s many memorable performances. That too, might have made a great movie in the hands of a more mature director. This quibble aside, the film is well worth seeing.
Producer Roger Corman gave Bogdonovich a free hand with the film so long as he used clips from The Terror (1963) and hired Karloff for the two days still owed on his contract with Corman. The infirm actor ended up working five days and doing a splendid job.
Agree completely on this.
The ideas are good but half cooked. I too loved that Karloff was used as essentially himself, but it seems like here is here by necessity, not because he adds that much to the movie, except for stating that reality has become more horrifying than his horror movies.
The other story with the sniper is very compelling though. It is 10-20 years ahead of its time and truly scary. And I suppose relevant today.
The problem is that Karloff gives by far the best performance in the film. Question though whether Bogdonovich at this age was capable of giving him a role that was not wrapped up in the director’s film history obsession. The sniper story has unfortunately become all too common here. But not any less horrifying.
I really like Targets a lot. I agree that it prehaps is a bit of a muddle, but I like the contrast that happens between the two stories. Orlok’s realization that his brand of horror has no place in the world where events like those in this film happen is rather poignant and really does work for me as a connection between the two stories.
I think the Karloff story might have worked for me better if I had not read and heard a lot of Bogdonovich’s film criticism. He is supremely knowledgable and interviewed most of the Golden Age director. When he calls them by their first name it gets on my last nerve. At any rate, without Karloff the film would have missed its core great performance and possibly been a lot less. Still not too shabby for a first feature. Scorcese kind of succumbed to the same kind of film school meta dialogue in his first feature as well.