October 2025

Seconds
1966, USA, dir. John Frankenheimer, 107 mins


NOTES:

Originally written for the Perverts newsletter 10/02/25

We begin our October program with an often overlooked classic, John Frankenheimer’s Seconds from 1966. Though it hails from the peak of the American New Wave and features Hollywood darling Rock Hudson, Seconds is best known for its experimental use of wide angle lenses and surreal spatial distortion.

Although it lacks the immediacy of modern horror, its distorted visual language shocked early audiences, emphasizing the film's bleak and disquieting message.

From a 2013 Slate write-up: Seconds is an "utterly sui generis, categorization-defying film, a horror-tinged thriller (or is it a sci-fi-inflected political parable?) about aging, alienation, and the American belief in starting over."

"We are responsible for our dreams. Our dreams stage our desires and our desires are not objective facts. We created them, we sustained them, we are responsible for them. This is an area of ancient lakebeds deposited five to ten million years ago."
—S. Zizek, "Perverts Guide to Ideology"