(1970)
Dir - Dan Curtis
Overall: GOOD
Filmed while the soap opera series was still in full swing, House of Dark Shadows was the theatrically released film accompaniment. Utilizing the same actors and basic, be it stripped-down narrative arc of its lead vampire Barnabas Collins, series creator Dan Curtis makes his full-length feature debut behind the lens. It is a pretty slick, appropriately atmospheric horror outing which is very akin to countless others from across the globe during its era. Many of the well-established Gothic tropes are fully utilized, (stormy weather, fog, creepy cemeteries, imposing, unkempt mansions, British accents), and the familiar story emphasis the more romantic, love-lorn aspects of the undead mythos. Several plot-points are lifted right out of Bram Stoker's Dracula and its many re-interpretations, which made for an interesting framework to utilize for the soap opera that bounced between contemporary and older timelines, as well as featuring various other supernatural horror "monsters". Since everything is naturally far more streamlined here, it feels a bit rushed and does not have the complex world-building of the series to flesh everything out. That said, it works plenty well enough as its own thing.
(1975)
Dir - J. Lee Thompson
Overall: MEH
The Reincarnation of Peter Pound is an interesting, low key psychological quasi-thriller, one that plays out like a mystery even if it technically is not. Max Ehrlich wrote the screenplay for his own novel of the same name, here adapted by J. Lee Thompson, (Cape Fear, Conquest of and Beneath the Planet of the Apes). Dealing more with obsession than anything else, the story is one man's quest to uncover the nature of the supernatural occurrences plaguing/possessing him, a quest which puts him on some shaky moral ground. The plot has some creepy details, (dude dates and romanticizes the daughter of the guy he is reincarnated as, ew), but it has very little typical horror atmosphere going for it. Not that any such thing is particularly necessary mind you. Featuring a fair amount of both male and female nudity though not in an exploitative way, Thompson's direction is assured, but he also fails to keep the story particularly engaging as it goes on. Michael Sarrazin is somewhat too aloof in the lead, but even though she does not get any lines until the final act, Margot Kidder brings some compelling life to the proceedings as a tortured and troubled mother under quite unconvincing old age makeup.
(1979)
Dir - Fred Walton
Overall: MEH
Fred Walton's follow-up to his own short The Sitter was his full-length debut When a Stranger Calls. The film is mostly recognized for its opening twenty-minute scene which served as the basis for the initial short. Its influence was most famously seen in Wes Craven's Scream, which likewise recreated it as its intro, except that time with Drew Barrymore. Walton pulls-off some other tense moments after the beginning, where the movie's psychopath avoids capture and almost calmly terrorizes his intended victims. Typecast sleazeball Tony Beckley makes for a standard, neurotic villain, effortlessly menacing and intense in an appropriately pathetic sort of way. Carol Kane also turns in a solid performance as the traumatized babysitter. The overall plotting does not really keep things afloat though. By stretching the initial premise out to a ninety-seven minute long movie, it is a little lazy and loose with the excuses to let Beckley's Curt Duncan get away with basically everything that he gets away with. By the time it reaches the final act, the whole thing feels more redundant than spine-tingling.
No comments:
Post a Comment