Homework: The Bad Seed (1956)

[nickperkins 52]

My mother made me watch this as a youth. Still chilling. Available for digital rental, or surely at your local library.

[HoldenMartinson 221]

Thank goodness. Any excuse to do an older movie will do.

 

Anyway, I'm in the bag for this. I love The Bad Seed. Can't wait for this episode.

[AlexChristianLovendahl 34]

Sadly not at my local library. I've not even heard of this film! Curious!

[gene_shallot 79]

Awesome, been curious about this one for a long time - great excuse to finally see it!

[NathanGordon 1096]

I'm surprised at people never seeing this or even aware of it, but I am an old. I am curious what newcomers think of the ending.

 

The acting and direction is a little stagey at times; keep in mind that this originated as a play.

[ScottMorris 49]

This is one of the quintessential "broken by ONE single element" films, for me, but what that element is is something of a spoiler so I won't discuss it.

 

[JeffreyMcDonald 65]

It would have been a fun verses with "Alice Sweet Alice".

[Filkarri 0]

I'm surprised at people never seeing this or even aware of it, but I am an old. I am curious what newcomers think of the ending.

 

The acting and direction is a little stagey at times; keep in mind that this originated as a play.

 

Isn't the ending of the play different that the ending of the film, as well?

[NathanGordon 1096]

 

Isn't the ending of the play different that the ending of the film, as well?

Yes, that is the sort of spoiler (not really) mentioned above. It was a change to appease the censorship standards of the day. Actually, there are two things that happen; one is the ending, and then there's a bizarre moment during the credits.

[Galactiac 91]

Just watched it. I'd only learned it was a play right before, and it was pretty clear while I was watching that they'd added to it.

[Susan* 135]

My mom used to bring this movie up once in a while -- for different reasons, this film and Rosemary's Baby really creeped her out. I'll rent it because I'm interested. I've seen a few scenes but I don't think I've seen the whole movie.

[Muthsarah 124]

Seriously --

 

- I was raised by 40/50-something parents who were big fans of basically all pre-Jaws cinema. Anything after than was universal crap, so I had to wait until my 20s to even discover them for the first time.

 

- I become a bit of a film geek in my early 20s, but it didn't fully take, because....everything else, life, work, distractions. And (then-)current cinema. I liked non-popular cinema, but I couldn't manage to become the classic film snob I feel I wanted to be at the time.

 

- I have been exposing myself to all sorts of semi-obscure (I'm not hardcore, but I do care) cinema for most of the last ten years of my life, trying to catch up.

 

-- So why have I NEVER even heard of this film? Not once. Not even kinda-familar. Absolutely NOTHING. Like this movie never existed, and now, suddenly over a year into my Canon-listenership, it's just dropped outta friggin' nowhere. Am I, as a casual film geek, expected to have ever heard of this movie? Is this, uber-B-movie material? Baby Jane-style? Cult film status? College underground?

 

Seriously, I have zero recognition of even the title. And that scares me more than anything. It would be the blindest watch I've ever had since I was dragged to an obscure Jackie Chan movie over a decade ago. Which didn't go over well with the room. And, even then, I knew what basically to expect, it just didn't deliver, so everyone felt bad. I think I've been gun-shy since then.

 

I think it's just been so long since a totally blind watch (no reviews) that I'm getting a massive anxiety attack just thinking about it. Maybe I, like most American moviegoers, are so consumed with feeling certain they'll like what they're gonna see, that they won't even chance it, unless they feel they know EXACTLY the movie they're gonna see, ahead of time. Hence, why re-making/sequalized crap sells, and original ideas mostly die.

 

What would I be walking into here? No plot-spoilers, please, but, is this a horror film? A cult/camp flick?

[Susan* 135]

^^ I guess you would call it horror, but in a 1950s sense. To me, that genre was altered/screwed up by slasher movies of my teens. Today, maybe this would be suspense or just drama?

 

The movie was a big deal in its era. And it was replayed on regular TV later on (in my childhood). So I've seen scenes with the girl and have a vivid memory of that but no memory of the larger story.

[NathanGordon 1096]

What would I be walking into here? No plot-spoilers, please, but, is this a horror film? A cult/camp flick?

Morality drama? Thriller? It's basically what Lifetime movies are today.

[Threshold 93]

I've literally never heard of this film,

but on a scale of Omen to We Need to Talk about Kevin where's it fit?

[dreamindylans 0]

I've literally never heard of this film,

but on a scale of Omen to We Need to Talk about Kevin where's it fit?

 

Wait, which one is good and which one is bad? I've heard a defense for both films.

[HoldenMartinson 221]

Wait, which one is good and which one is bad? I've heard a defense for both films.

I think they're both good, but in terms of the kind of story they are, I'd say it's closer to the latter.

[Susan* 135]

I think the 1950s is my least favorite decade for movies since we got talking movies. I was curious to see that this movie was nominated for oscars, so I looked at the lists of nominated films that year and around that year. A pretty sad lot, though some really good movies weren't nominated at all, as always.

 

It should be an interesting podcast though. Probably more interesting than if they picked a great movie from the same era, like Night of the Hunter?