Diabolique

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Finally after many attempts over the years and a few disc problems tonight, I got to see all of Les diaboliques. And I loved it. Like The Bad Seed the film explicitly asks the audience not to be jerks and spoil the twist at the end for others. Hell, just watch that trailer...

Now, knowing there is a twist ending just makes you look harder for it. It doesn't take long to figure out something is amiss but there was always enough doubt that I was never completely sure until my suspicions were confirmed in those terrifying last few minutes. It's a hell of a slow burn to get there, probably too long for my tastes, but it makes the impact harder too.

About half way through the film I thought they might star wrapping up to the end but then a hitch in the plan happened and I realised there was still a whole half of the movie left. I probably shouldn't have started it so late but the surprise of having no idea where they were heading for a while there was nice.

I thought they could have gotten to those final stages a little quicker and milked the suspense there a bit more. But I guess that's a more modern way of doing it. There's always something to be said for classic slow burn. Still it does make whole sections in the middle ultimately irrelevant, like the whole trip to the mortuary.

Nevertheless I really loved watch this one, very satisfying, especially after having the disc so long, ready to go and numerous false starts. I see J. J. Abrams acts in the remake from 1996. Tee hee hee. There's no way it's gonna top this film but I'm curious now.