Even as The Serpent’s Egg marks a strange departure from Ingmar Bergman’s usual screenwriting strengths, the bleak tension he builds in his 1920s Berlin setting can’t be denied, witnessing the birth of fascism amid dystopian landscapes of fear, starvation, and corruption.
Within Eraserhead’s nightmares of mutant babies and urban isolation, it is the psychological impression of its surreal imagery which carries far more impact than any attempts to derive its literal meaning, as David Lynch mystifyingly manifests the dark subconscious of one young father existentially terrified of parenthood.
The motifs of monsters and mirrors drawn through Pinky’s obsession with local popular girl Millie make for some powerfully abstract imagery in 3 Women, finding remarkable psychological tension in Robert Altman’s enigmatic blending of female identities, as well as in its setting of a modern culture where individuality is everything.
Dario Argento constructs one of the most audacious displays of stylistic horror to emerge from the genre since its cinematic inception in Suspiria, breaking from the tradition of dark, dreary aesthetics by reinterpreting its expressionist roots through an entirely different filter altogether – one that tunes into the striking contrasts of opposing neon colours to draw out a violent and vivid fairytale of witches and ballerinas.
