Todd Bowden (played by Brad Renfro) discovers that his neighbor, Arthur Denker (played by Ian McKellen) is a Nazi war criminal. Todd has an obsession with the awful things the Nazis did during World War II. Todd blackmails Denker into telling him all of these horrible stories. So,
Apt Pupil is a movie I had been interested in for a while. Now that I have finally seen it, I will say this. I absolutely loved this movie. It's based off a story by Stephen King, and I suppose I should start there. I have not read the story this movie is based off of. That said, this is a type of horror that I don't really see Stephen King explore all that often, meaning real world horror. The acting is excellent all-around, especially from the film's two leads. A lot of the tension comes from the cat and mouse game between these two. It also helps that you're never fully sure who is who in this scenario. Yes, Denker is a former Nazi war criminal who had been suppressing a lot of his more sadistic urges. However, Todd shows a lot of his own sadistic tendencies throughout the movie, and you feel each of them trying to attain a sense of control. In my opinion, this was a great little movie, even if critics and audiences didn't really respond to it.
9 / 10
I read the book, but it was so long ago, I can't remember most of it. I only watched part of the movie. There was a whole cat thing I was like "I'm not going to be able to watch this," so I turned it off. Hmm. Perhaps I should try to watch it again? I'm just one of those people who can't watch animals come to harm, no matter how fictional it is.
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel any better, know going in that no harm actually comes to the cat.
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