must be seen in a theatre

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2002)

I have had a strange relationship with this film. My initial reaction to it was much the same as several others on this comment thread; it was and remains to this day the only film I have ever fallen asleep watching.
I saw it in a cramped college dorm on a small television screen, and my roommate was asleep in the next bed. When we were awake the next morning, he cornered me and wanted to know what I had been watching that night. "The voices, they got into my dreams," he said.
I dismissed the film, but my roommate's comments stayed with me. Several years later, on the film's 25th anniversary, I went to the local cinema to see its re-release. I was transfixed. It was a completely different film. The wonderfully constructed sound effects, the intense characterisation, the immersive and beautiful cinematography, all were magnified into a phychological experience of almost unparallelled intensity. The only thing to which I can compare it was seeing "The Silence of the Lambs" for the first time. The film managed to get into my dreams that night.
This was a film made before video. It was not meant for that medium and completely loses its impact while viewed on television. Like "2001: A Space Odyssey" (Another film deemed boring by the video generation) it seems about half an hour shorter on the big screen. Why this is I will never know, but it is true.