death Proof

2007 Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Horror Marathon Day 28 Film 43

This is the extended version of the film-- which unfortunately bloats the amount of QT babble throughout the film. Vantage Point, Muscle Cars, etc. are cool because QT needs them to be cool. These girls don't actually talk like their own characters- just overwritten with a certain Quentin sensibility- fast talking about fashion or cars, and particular about their viewpoints (I could almost hear Samuel Jackson say these lines as if they were from Pulp Fiction). In some ways this predates QT's Hollywood film, which is better at the whole western star growing old scene and the mystique of stunts. That said the action sequences are great when they truly build up.

However the tension from the first half of the film feels like a true horror film- but as that first car crash has a sense of tension the rest feels unsatisfactory. That horrific foot fetish freak car crash doesn't fit with the second half of the film- but is perhaps the most guilty pleasure that QT has shown on any of his films. Obvious innuendos to sexual gratification and the constant shots of feet show most of this stylized view.

It's almost like another movie when it switches to the stunt women basically having an extended car chase scene to get revenge on Kurt Russell's icy villain. QT has switched from a horror movie to a action revenge thriller. The second half doesn't necessarily make much narrative sense either as the killer seemed to have stalked the girls from the first part, and knew exactly who they were and where they'd be likely to be…

I also wish the death for him was as gruesome as the first one- instead of feeling a bit cartoony 60s wham bam! There's another scene with a Texas Sheriff that doesn't go anywhere for where the rest of the film leads. Some of the meta grindhouse reel skipping and soundtrack offsets are there on purpose too- I just wish the narrative structure felt more like one of the 70s grindhouse films that never let up on the gas.