“A fascinatingly complex commentary on American mythology, exploring the relationship between the inner world of the imagination and the outer world of violence and paranoia, both of which were relevant to contemporary American traumas.”
Boris Karloff (in what was his last appearance in an American film) plays ageing and embittered horror movie star, Byron Orlok, who decides to retire and return to his native England - but not before agreeing to a final in-person appearance at a local drive-in theatre. Meanwhile, Tim O'Kelly stars as Bobby Thompson: a young, clean-cut insurance agent who lives in the suburban San Fernando Valley area with his wife and his parents. Thompson is also a Vietnam vet’ and an obsessive gun collector, and the two story lines come together with a grim inevitability characteristic of the jaded and disillusioned mood prevalent at the end of the 60s (and which heralded in the exciting New Hollywood era). Peter Bogdanovich’s directorial debut is both a loving homage to old school Boris Karloff horror films and a strikingly modern thriller.
