(1980)
Dir - Mike Newell
Overall: MEH
The full-length debut The Awakening from English director Mike Newell is a primarily underwhelming entry and partially infamous for Charlton Heston poorly attempting a British accent throughout. An adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel The Jewel of Seven Stars, (which also loosely inspired Hammer's Blood from the Mummy's Tomb nearly a decade earlier), it is essentially an Egyptian curse/reincarnation story, but one that hardly picks up momentum at any interval. It is no exaggeration to say that nothing happens for at least an hour into the running time so that once some murder sequences emerge and characters begin to react to supernatural occurrences, even the most patient of viewers would have long checked out. This also gives the third act a sloppy feel where everything seems to rush to the finish line, resulting in an ending that is unfortunately just as lackluster as everything that came before it. Production wise, it has some effective sets and location work, but even aside from the detrimental pacing issues, Newell does not bring any style into the proceedings. Despite what the poster may suggest, not so much as a single mummy comes to life either, providing yet another basic thing that the movie could not bother to get right.
(1981)
Dir - Graham Baker
Overall: MEH
20th Century Fox wrapped up their Omen trilogy with Omen III: The Final Conflict, naturally the most lackluster in the series. Ignoring the fact that Damien Thorn has grown into adulthood within six years time and the film is still set in modern day as were the earlier installments, (and that he dropped his British accent sometime between adolescence and now), the story does in fact take a logical approach to pit the Antichrist in a position of political power against the newly born second coming of Christ. Director Graham Baker does a steady job with the material, keeping it tonally in line with the previous two movies at least, while Jerry Goldsmith's choral, Latin score is as bombastic as ever. The elaborate death sequences are more silly than chilling though and in the lead, Sam Neill hams it up, delivering blasphemously pompous monologues as one does. Due to its lack of effectively sinister momentum, the film is a bit too tedious in swaying through its predictable beats in direct line to its equally predictable conclusion. Both as a movie and as a nail in the franchise's coffin, it gets the job done adequately; it just does so without having anything memorable to say of its own.
(1986)
Dir - Robert W. Young
Overall: GOOD
In 1986, British production company ITV Studios adapted the first book in Jill Murphy's series The Worst Witch, notable for featuring Diana Rigg, Tim Curry, The Facts of Life's Charlotte Rae being particularly hammy, and an early performance from Fairuza Balk. It was also directed by Robert W. Young whose 1972's film Vampire Circus was one of Hammer Studio's most memorable horror entries that decade. Not that this particular television movie has any such blood-sucking hallmarks. As a lighthearted children's musical, it plays out predictably enough and is basically Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with witches. The production is crude and cheap with horrendously silly special effects and costumes right out of a discount Halloween bin, but it is still quite innocently charming. There are a number of clever set pieces and details within the script where a school of young girls have broom flying practice and get pop quizzes on potions. Best of all though, Curry gets to belt out in his strong, theatrical, Rocky Horror-esque baritone in "Anything Can Happen on Halloween", clearly the best song about said holiday ever written.
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