Psychological Thriller Archives

Cinema Smorgasbord – Serpent’s Path: The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Sweet Home (1989) & The Guard From Underground (1992)

Cinema Smorgasbord, Podcasts on October 6, 2025 0Comments 0Likes

After a bumpy and controversial start to his career, that bumpiness would continue for Kiyoshi Kurosawa with 1989’s SWEET HOME, a unique videogame/film collaboration that is colorful, entertaining and full of goopy FX by the legendary Dick Smith, but after a post-theatrical re-edit things would go sour between Kurosawa and producer Juzo Itami. It would be a few more years before Kurosawa would direct another feature, returning with the slasher-y office thriller THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND which has a number of hints at what would become his trademark style. Let’s check it out!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Wild in the Streets – Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Cinema Smorgasbord, Podcasts on March 25, 2025 0Comments 2Likes

In a jam-packed episode of WILD IN THE STREETS we’re getting classy with Elio Petri’s Cannes jury-prize winning darkly humorous satirical drama INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION with a dynamite lead performance from Gian Maria Volonté as the “Il Dottore”, a police inspector who murders a woman just to prove that he is – as the title suggests – above suspicion. We pair this with a brief conversation about the late Gene Hackman and – uh oh – more talk about politics and if it’s possible to make a truly radical political film while under the thumb of a studio. Listen and learn!