This week’s Monday pick is Manhunter (1986), Michael Mann’s film adaptation of Thomas Harris’s classic novel Red Dragon. The film stars William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, Stephen Lang, and Tom Noonan.

Manhunter is one of Mann’s best and it was the first film to introduced the world to psychotic killer Dr. Hannibal Lecktor who would go on to great acclaim five years later in the Academy Award winning Best Picture Silence of the Lambs.

William Petersen stars as FBI profiler Will Graham who is pulled out of semi-retirement by his old boss Jack Crawford (Farina) when a series of grizzly murders occur a month apart from one another. Graham is considered one of the best profilers in the Bureau and Crawford is reluctant to ask him to come back after Graham was viciously attacked and almost killed several years earlier when he apprehended Dr. Lecktor.

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House of the Devil is now playing in limited release. You can also access it on demand through many cable providers, and it is available to rent on Amazon.com.  So, just in time for Halloween, I give you this review.

If you are a fan of 80′s horror movies, you’ll probably be delighted by this movie. I fear that today’s fickle horror fan, who is accustomed to frenetic stylings à la the Saw franchise, will be bored to tears by this very deliberately paced thriller. College student Samantha (perfectly cast Jocelin Donahue) is desperate to get an apartment in order to get away from her slutty dorm roommate who feels free to have sex in their room all the time.  She finds an apartment, and a kindly landlady (scream queen Dee Wallace) who requires a modest deposit.

Samantha answers a dubious ad for a babysitter in order to make some cash. When her best friend Megan drives her out to the isolated mansion, Megan is immediately creeped out, and begs Sam to reconsider. Reluctantly, Megan leaves Sam and promises to return later to give her a ride home.

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