The Gutter’s own Sachin Hingoo writes about Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth in Blue Velvet (1986). “Portrayed by Dennis Hopper in an all-timer of a performance in David Lynch’s 1986 suburban nightmare, Blue Velvet, there’s no other villain that’s as terrifying to me than he is. What he lacks in ostentatious costuming or makeup effects (though his gas-huffing mask is right up there with Freddy’s glove and the various masks worn by Leatherface, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees) he makes up for with sheer deranged charisma. The unpredictability of what violent thing he’ll say and do next makes him as frightening as the dark shape around the corner in any horror movie, perhaps more so because he’s right out there in front of you. When Frank Booth is onscreen you can’t look away, and when he’s off-screen you’re riveted in terror for the next moment he’ll appear. It’s that command of the screen, both in the context of Hopper’s performance and Booth’s character, that keep you looking at him even though your involuntary stare would definitely make him incensed.

And then what?”

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