Photo of S. Craig Zahler

S. Craig Zahler

“Things like music and using close-ups make things seem more cinematic, so what I’m doing by stripping away that stuff is I’m making the violence feel more real. I shoot violence in a really unvarnished way, without all this cinematic frosting, and there’s no CG so there isn’t that slight off, digital feel. It makes the impact sharper, because it’s not how audiences are used to seeing movie violence.”

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    Brawl in Cell Block 99

    BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99

    S. CRAIG ZAHLER United States, 2017

    Making commanding use of his imposing height and heft, Vince Vaughn gives a performance of coiled intensity in this noir-inflected descent into the American penal system. A brutally effective dose of neo-grindhouse, Brawl in Cell Block 99 unfolds with a methodical clarity worthy of John Carpenter.

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