Body Trouble
Jake comes home to find his girlfriend with another man and has to find a new place. In between his acting workshops and his job in a vampire B-movie…
Movie Genre: Mystery
Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.
The successful mystery film adheres to one of two story types, known as Open and Closed. The Closed (or whodunit) mystery conceals the identity of the perpetrator until late in the story, adding an element of suspense during the apprehension of the suspect, as the audience is never quite sure who it is. The Open mystery, in contrast, reveals the identity of the perpetrator at the top of the story, showcasing the “perfect crime” which the audience then watches the protagonist unravel, usually at the very end of the story, akin to the unveiling scenes in the Closed style.
Suspense is often maintained as an important plot element. This can be done through the use of the soundtrack, camera angles, heavy shadows, and surprising plot twists. Alfred Hitchcock used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending threat then draw out the moment for dramatic effect.
Mystery novels have proven to be a good medium for translation into film. The sleuth often forms a strong leading character, and the plots can include elements of drama, suspense, character development, uncertainty and surprise twists. The locales of the mystery tale are often of a mundane variety, requiring little in the way of expensive special effects. Successful mystery writers can produce a series of books based on the same sleuth character, providing rich material for sequels.
Until at least the 1980s, women in mystery films have often served a dual role, providing a relationship with the detective and frequently playing the part of woman-in-peril. The women in these films are often resourceful individuals, being self-reliant, determined and as often duplicitous. They can provide the triggers for the events that follow, or serve as an element of suspense as helpless victims.
8MM
A private investigator is hired to discover if a “snuff film” is authentic or not.
Fernando Filipe May 09, 2012 | View Post |
Control Factor
An average everyman discovers he’s the unwitting target of an ultra secret domestic black-op centering on mind control.
Fernando Filipe May 04, 2012 | View Post |
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
A visiting city reporter’s assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.
Fernando Filipe Apr 28, 2012 | View Post |
The Sixth Sense
A boy who communicates with spirits that don’t know they’re dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist.
Fernando Filipe Apr 28, 2012 | View Post |
Taking Lives
An FBI profiler is called in by French Canadian police to catch a serial killer who takes on the identity of each new victim.
Fernando Filipe Apr 27, 2012 | View Post |
Boys
Patty Vare falls off a horse and is found unconscious by prep school student John Baker.
Fernando Filipe Apr 20, 2012 | View Post |
Charlie Chan The Chinese Cat
Charlie Chan investigates the locked-room murder of a chess expert.
Fernando Filipe Apr 10, 2012 | View Post |
Masquerade
A recently orphaned millionairess, Olivia, really hates her scheming step-father.
Fernando Filipe Apr 02, 2012 | View Post |
The Faculty
Students suspect that their teachers are aliens after bizarre occurances.
Fernando Filipe Mar 31, 2012 | View Post |
The Good German
While in post-war Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference, an American military journalist is drawn into a murder investigation…
Fernando Filipe Mar 28, 2012 | View Post |
Woman of Desire
A yacht captain, Jack Lynch, is accused of murdering his boss and raping the victim’s wife, Christina Ford. Nothing is how it first appears…
Fernando Filipe Mar 22, 2012 | View Post |
Where the Truth Lies
A young journalist known for her celebrity profiles, is consumed with discovering the truth behind a long-buried incident.
Fernando Filipe Mar 21, 2012 | View Post |
Charlie Chan Murder over New York
When Charlie’s old friend from Scotland Yard is murdered when they attend a police convention in New York, Chan picks up the case he was working on.
Fernando Filipe Mar 12, 2012 | View Post |
Boxing Helena
A surgeon becomes obsessed with the seductive woman he once had an affair with. Refusing to accept that she has moved on, he amputates her limbs and holds her captive in his mansion.
Fernando Filipe Mar 09, 2012 | View Post |
The Girl
A torrid affair between two women, a struggling artist and a flame-haired blues singer, upsets a man who has a thing for the girl.
Fernando Filipe Mar 03, 2012 | View Post |
The Birds
A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people…
Fernando Filipe Mar 03, 2012 | View Post |
Teach Me Tonight
Michael and Janie are a pair of young grad students living together on a quiet college campus.
Fernando Filipe Mar 01, 2012 | View Post |
Charlie Chan Shanghai Chest
Charlie attempts to solve a triple murder in which a dead man’s finger prints show up at all three murder sites.
Fernando Filipe Mar 01, 2012 | View Post |
Charlie Chan The Red Dragon
Charlie Chan and a host of suspects are close at hand for three murders…
Fernando Filipe Mar 01, 2012 | View Post |
The Rowdy Girls
Velvet, a prostitute who has stumbled along some very dangerous information, and Sara, a woman fleeing a man she has chosen not to marry, are both riding west on a stagecoach headed to San Francisco.
Fernando Filipe Feb 28, 2012 | View Post |
Come Dance With Me
An handsome dentist, temporarily separated from his wife, is picked up by a sexy dance teacher…
Fernando Filipe Feb 15, 2012 | View Post |
Chinatown
A private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water.
Fernando Filipe Feb 11, 2012 | View Post |
The Quiet American
An older British reporter vies against a young American for the affections of a Vietnamese beauty.
Fernando Filipe Jan 23, 2012 | View Post |
Perry Mason Returns
When his former secretary is accused of a murder, Perry Mason gives up a judgeship to defend her.
Fernando Filipe Jan 19, 2012 | View Post |
Panic Room
A woman and her teenage daughter become imprisoned in the panic room of their own house by 3 criminals.
Fernando Filipe Jan 17, 2012 | View Post |
Columbo Undercover
Lieutenant Columbo’s investigation into the odd death of two men flings him headlong into a mystery…
Fernando Filipe Jan 02, 2012 | View Post |
Murder By Death
Five famous literary detective characters and their sidekicks are invited to a bizarre mansion to solve an even stranger mystery.
Fernando Filipe Jan 02, 2012 | View Post |
The Boston Strangler
Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story…
Fernando Filipe Dec 30, 2011 | View Post |
The Mirror Crack’d
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
Fernando Filipe Dec 30, 2011 | View Post |
8MM 2
An American diplomat and his fiancée venture into the sordid underworld of sex and pornography in Budapest, Hungary to find out who is blackmailing them…
Fernando Filipe Dec 27, 2011 | View Post |
Charlie Chan in Shanghai
The Chinese government calls Charlie Chan to Shanghai to investigate a murder involving an opium ring. Ring leaders kidnap Charlie and attempt to have him killed.
Fernando Filipe Dec 25, 2011 | View Post |
