Capital Celluloid 2017 - Day 262: Fri Sep 22

Cruising (Friedkin, 1980): Prince Charles Cinema, 9pm


This 35mm presentation is part of a weekend of screenings in the Check The Gate season at the Prince Charles Cinema, a celebration of films presented from film from September 22nd to September 24th. You can find the full programme here.

Chicago Reader review:
William Friedkin clearly set out to make a crushing horror film on the order of The Exorcist, but the people he cast as the demons—New York's gay community—forced him to back down. What's left is the framework for a graphic, brutal, sickening film (1980), without the violent effects that might have made sense (however illegitimate) out of the conception. Like The Exorcist, it alternates five minutes of shock with ten minutes of dull exposition, plenty of time to watch Al Pacino wrestle with his miserably conceived character. Friedkin's technique bears unfortunate parallels to the S and M fantasy—he beats up the audience and some people love him for it. But here the follow-through's pretty weak, trailing off into some artsy ambiguity that damaged the film's commercial chances.
Dave Kehr


Here (and above) is the trailer.

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