Author: Jeff Mitchell

31 Scary Movies that are 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon: ‘Road Games’

Jeff Mitchell

“Road Games” (1981) – A serial killer is on the loose in Western Australia, and an American truck driver (Stacy Keach) may have spotted him in Richard Franklin’s (“Psycho II” (1983)) thriller, a movie that feels like “Duel” (1971) meets “The Hitcher” (1986).  This movie’s pace doesn’t move as quickly as the said films, but Franklin gives Keach lots of screen time, as Pat Quid (Keach) delivers frequent monologues to his pet dingo, and scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis travels to the land Down Under to play a hitchhiker who…

31 Scary Movies that are 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon: ‘The Piano Teacher’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Piano Teacher” (2001) – Did you take piano lessons?  I did.  Admittedly, I didn’t enjoy playing and, unfortunately, lost interest in the instrument.  Looking back, that’s a shame, and my teacher was really pleasant, kind, and patient.  Oh well. Another piano teacher, one living in Vienna, isn’t so understanding, and she’s a woman to be feared. Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) is a skilled piano professor, but she’s a lonely woman who harbors resentment and jealously, and these contemptable traits lash out when we least expect them in Michael Haneke’s…

31 Scary Movies that are 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon: ‘The Seventh Continent’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Seventh Continent” (1989) – Michael Haneke doesn’t shy away from dark material.  He sprints towards it.  Haneke has made a career of capturing the shadowy aspects of the human soul and bravely displaying them on the big screen, including his first feature film. The setting is modern-day times in Austria, and a small nuclear family – Georg (Dieter Berner), Anna (Birgit Doll), and their daughter Evi (Leni Tanzar) – fit nicely in society with work and school.  However, one day, Georg and Anna give up on their lives, quit…