Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

arfdawg-1 The Plot. On leave in a shore side town, Johnny becomes interested in a young dark haired woman. They meet and he learns that she plays a mermaid in the local carnival. After strange occurrences, Johnny begins to believe that she may actually be a real mermaid that habitually kills during the cycle of the full moon. First off, I've never been a big fan of Hopper. I think he's an overrated actor who is rather whinny. And I think this is one of his worst roles.Next, this is a very cheaply done movie. The subject matter is sort of interesting but it's directed like Carnival of Souls without the chutzpah.It's an OK period piece, documenting the change in the way movies would be made, but you are sure to get bored before the end comes. Because this is a Roger Corman production, I think it gets a lot more hype than it deserves.

Michael_Elliott Night Tide (1961) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Johnny (Dennis Hopper) is a sailor on leave who is walking around without too much care in the world. The loneliness is certainly creeping in when he meets a young woman named Mora (Linda Lawson). The two quickly strike up a relationship but Johnny feels there's something not quite right and even after being warned that she might have killed a couple men he still can't leave her.Curtin Harrington's NIGHT TIDE is without question one of the most experimental horror films ever made.When you take a look at the type of films that were being released around this time you've got Dracula and Frankenstein and monsters from outer space. You've also got the Corman-Price-Poe pictures and even the shockers steaming from PSYCHO were gaining popularity. No one cared for this film when it was released and it's easy to see why but at the same time this tale of a mermaid eventually found a cult audience.If you're looking for something different then you'll certainly find it here because there really aren't too many movies like this one. The entire point of the film is the fact that this sailor falls in love with a woman he can't quite understand. Is she a mermaid? Is it just in his mind? Director Harrington really leaves it up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions as to what's going on and the film keeps you guessing all the way to the end. The film has a European feel to it and there's no question that the director was going for mood more than anything.The very young looking Hopper offers up a nice performance here and he's certainly believable in the role of this rather confused young man who isn't quite sure what's going on. Lawson is also extremely good in her role as is Gavin Muir and Luana Anders. One wishes that the film had a bit more flair or at least a little more energy because it's slow pace can drag a bit at times. Still, Harrington's NIGHT TIDE is an original and unique movie that is worth watching.

lastliberal The Academy Film Archive, part of a foundation created by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was established in 1991 and "dedicated to the preservation, restoration, documentation, exhibition and study of motion pictures." This is one of the films they recently restored.This rare film stars a young Dennis Hopper (Hoosiers, Easy Rider), who died earlier this year, and is the feature film directorial debut by avant-garde filmmaker Curtis Harrington (Killer Bees, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, Queen of Blood), who also wrote the script based upon his own short story. Harrington died in 2007.Linda Lawson has the exotic looks for the psychotic siren that captivates Hopper.Hopper was excellent as a naive sailor who fell in love with Lawson.The film was impeccable, and the jazz score really sounded great.The ending is for you to figure out.

nevfahs Don't get me wrong... I don't think this is a great achievement in film making.I stumbled across this movie on late night TV, back in the early days of UHF, when, at 13 or 14, it was very exciting to me to have new channels that were so low budget that they showed things that, in the light of mainstream, 3 channel, VHF programming, seemed very much like they were being beamed in from another galaxy.Through the lens of adolescent angst that I saw it through, this is a movie about unbearable loneliness, brilliantly captured by Dennis Hopper, whose only way out of his loneliness is through a beautiful woman from another world that he can't fully understand.Like Kabuki theater on Darvon, he moves through the shadows of this overfiltered dreamworld of seaside 1960. The real monster is loneliness, and unlike most horror movies, the monster wins this one.The setting, the off season seaside resort (and it could have been any, not just Venice Beach) was perfect, being there by oneself is possibly the loneliest experience one could have, hinting at a livelier, fun=filled world that, because of time, is unattainable.It represents to me, maybe the first "indie" film I saw and recognized as one, "indie" in the original sense of a movie that was not made to be a box office hit, but because someone HAD to make a movie about something they felt strongly about, or had an artistic vision that had to be shared. Many of the earlier examples of these movies found their way onto UHF, because they were cheap to rent. But they got me hooked, and as soon as I could drive, sought out the art theaters in nearby towns that showed what was then called "underground" cinema, Kenneth Anger, John Waters (pre-flamingoes) I am Curious (Yellow and Blue.) These films are not as enchanting to me now, but then, none of them ever lived up to Night Tide for me.For sentimental reasons, this has always been, and will always be, one of my very favorite movies.