Targets (1968) - A stunning directing debut for Peter Bogdanovich, who only recently died. It just popped up on cable and it’s as frightening and sad as it ever was. I watch it every couple of years as it comes on cable, but I’m always forgetting it’s a thing until I see it on the schedule again.
Boris Karloff, who needed to lie down and use an oxygen mask between takes, turns in an amazing performance as Byron Orlok, an old horror movie actor getting ready to retire from public life. Peter Bogdanovich plays a mentally disturbed loner that kills his mother and wife and goes on a shooting spree. Their paths intersect at a drive-in theater where Orlok is supposed to appear to promote the drive-in’s reopening. It’s at turns horrifying, sad, and a little bit meticulous which adds to the banality of the killer’s storyline. (Reminding me a lot of Elephant from Gus Van Sant.) This is a killer that takes swigs of cola and eats a homemade bologna sandwich before sniping at passing motorists.
It is, no joke, my favorite Bogdanovich movie, my favorite Karloff movie, and my favorite thing Corman produced. The bit where a disillusioned Orlok points out that his “campy” movie monsters can’t compete with real-life mass murderers still holds weight and the scene dances with breaking the fourth wall (but never does) in a way that most directors could only dream about matching.