Renny Harlin has no fear when it comes to taking a beloved property and putting his own stamp on it. The Finnish director broke out in Hollywood with 1988's A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, which remained the highest-grossing entry in the franchise until 2003's Freddy vs. Jason, and followed it up with 1990's Die Hard 2, which many have argued is the superior Die Hard.
His early mastery of horror and ability to turn popular IP on its head both come into play with his latest project, The Strangers: Chapter 1, a reinvention of Bryan Bertino's 2008 home invasion horror film. As the title indicates, the movie is the first part in a three-chapter saga, with Harlin having shot all three films simultaneously.
"We all seek the therapeutic experience of facing our worst, darkest, most secret terrors in the safe environment of a movie theater. We can scream, cry, hide our eyes or even laugh at the uncontrollable and life-threatening scenes that unfold in front of us. In a movie theater, it is all a communal experience. We are together with our family, friends, or strangers, confessing our deepest fears on the altar of the silver screen, and nothing bad can happen to us," the director says. (Harlin is also behind non-horror hits like 1993's Cliffhanger and 1996's The Long Kiss Goodnight.)
"Afterwards, we can walk out unharmed, debate our experience, share opinions, laugh about it, and feel the release," he continues. "Like waking up from a nightmare and knowing that everything is all right."
Below, Harlin shares with A.frame five of his favorite films. "It's tough to narrow your favorites down to five," he adds as a disclaimer, "and also their impact has greatly varied based on my age when I saw them and what the circumstances were, but here are five strong ones that I can always go back to, in no particular order."
Directed by: Robert Altman | Written by: Leigh Brackett
I've seen The Long Goodbye 37 times on a movie theater screen, mostly in Finland as an aspiring film student in my teens, and maybe another 20 times on video or another smaller screen. Robert Altman's storytelling skills, Vilmos Zigmond's anamorphic cinematography, the fascinating characters, drama, humor, action, and the fantastic portrayal of life in Hollywood, Malibu, and all over Los Angeles forever enforced my love for movies and noir detective stories. Altman's use of music was revolutionary, as the same song, "The Long Goodbye," is used dozens of times in the movie, but always in a new and fresh way. I know every line of dialog by heart and remember every shot vividly. There were not only countless ideas in this movie that I have used in my work but also in life in general.
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola | Written by: John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola
My favorite war movie and an epic symphony of ideas, images, characters and an anti war message that will resonate forever. I have seen this movie countless times and am always blown away by its mixture of realism and complete fantasy, which together paint a fantastic canvas full of light and shadow, and breathtaking color. The acting is powerful and the pure technical achievement of creating something this enormous without a touch of CGI is a testament to the greatness of the good old-fashioned filmmaking. This is the kind of film that takes you into its world, never lets you go and floats you out of the theater two feet above the ground when you finally have to leave.
Directed by: Nicolas Roeg | Written by: Allan Scott and Chris Bryant
One of the best horror films ever made. I remember seeing this as a 13 year old in Helsinki, Finland, at the theater called ORION, which had fancy red velvet seats. The movie had me glued to the screen with its harrowing realism, beautifully emotional core of losing your child, and the nightmarish depiction of Venice, Italy. The movie is completely unpredictable and takes you on a journey into psychological horror that forces you to use your imagination and examine all your own worst fears. The sex scene, even if dated now, was life-changing to me, not only because it was so explicit but because it was done so beautifully and artistically.
Written and Directed by: Wong Kar-wai
People expect me to only enjoy action or horror, based on most of the movies I've made. But I'm a total romantic at heart, and In the Mood for Love is my favorite cinematic love story. The director takes a very simple story and turns it into a beautiful visual poem about relationships and love. The movie was originally created without a script, and the actors were given minimal information about their characters. What ever the actors based their performances on turned into a gorgeous study of restraint and passion. Wong Kar-wai's use of camera angles and color in both lighting and the production design is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen, and the film serves as a great example how little you need to portray enormous passion, when just two hands touching for a brief moment makes your heart race.
Directed by: Sam Peckinpah | Written by: Walon Green and Sam Peckinpah
Peckinpah was my greatest cinematic idol, and I loved every one of his films. I've read numerous books about his life and admire his directorial skills and uncompromising passion for life. I saw The Wild Bunch in Finland when I was just 10 or 11 years old. My favorite hobby was to try to sneak past the theater ushers and get to see movies that in Finland were not only R-rated, which meant that you had to be 16 years old, but had even a harder rating that required you to be 18. The more violent the movie, the better. But I wasn't a fan of mindless violence. That's why this movie had an everlasting impact on me.
The story of these men, a dying breed and their last quest for glory, depicted in a visual style that only Sam Peckinpah could do. He invented an entire style of use of slow motion and editing that was totally new for me and to cinema in general. I'm the first one to confess that I've used slow motion and cross cutting in my movies for decades, just because it had such an impact on me at such an early age. I wish there were still filmmakers like Sam Peckinpah. Well, there is one and his name is Walter Hill, who has written and directed some of the classics, including writing Peckinpah's other master piece, The Getaway.
