Retrospective Film Review

Sliver (1993) • 30 Years Later

A woman moves into a New York apartment building beset by suspicious deaths.

Here’s the honest truth: when I volunteered to write a retrospective on Sliver, I’d forgotten what a calamitous film it is. I recalled it as slick, smart, and paranoid… but, in reality, while some aspects of it (e.g. Howard Shore’s forgettable score) are just common-or-garden mediocre, others are laughably clunky or plain nonsensical.

This is a surprise, given its pedigree. Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas had penned the fine thriller Jagged Edge (1985) before scoring a huge hit with Basic Instinct (1992), a film which Sliver blatantly attempts to emulate. Director Phillip Noyce had proved in Dead Calm (1989) he could direct a small cast in limited locations (three people, two boats) in a clear, precise style with great tension; subtlety wasn’t its strong point but it boded well for the similar setup of Sliver. After his recent move to the US, Noyce had also shown a talent for audience-pleasing on a bigger budget with Patriot Games (1992), and he would later make other films far superior to Sliver, too —…