Dark
Energy There you have the basic components. What's the thing itself? The void:
The tone is generally introverted. That's why The Leopard is here but Lawrence of Arabia is not. It's a little more complicated explaining why Pet Sematary is included while Night of the Living Dead is not. In the latter the threat comes from out there somewhere, maybe having to do with funky radiation. In the former, the dead also rise, but it seems to have more to do with recycled family karma and is more introverted in theme if not in execution: our own psychological weirdness goes to the grave, does a u-turn, and comes back at us. Delicious "B" feel to that one, by the way. Lewton, though, would have been appalled at the explicit violence. He was of the opinion that what's not visible is more frightening than what is. Extrovert/introvert:
The extrovert/introvert dichotomy also explains why Bogart is in eleven of these movies and Cagney in only two*. Not that James is all that introverted in White Heat*, but his doom-laden Freudian neuroses in this outing put just the right shadows on what might, in fact, be his most type-A performance ever. Jack Palance, who exemplifies Dark Energy as well as any single actor could, appears four times. Whether he should be considered an extrovert or an introvert is pretty much up for grabs. By way of contrast, let me introduce you to British actor Dennis Price, also an exemplar of Dark Energy. He was once described by director Michael Powell as "impudently well-mannered," a very different shade of dark from Palance. Anyway, the thing itself looks a bit like this.
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