Tag: 1988

Dead of Winter (1987)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Dead of Winter is a thriller/horror from “Bonnie and Clyde” director Arthur Penn. It is written by Marc Shmuger and Mark Malone and is a loose remake of the film noir movie “My Name Is Julia Ross“. The movie stars Mary Steenburgen in three roles. Primarily as aspiring actress “Katie McGovern”. Katie has been hired by a “Mr. Murray” (Roddy McDowell) as a last minute replacement for actress Julie Rose, who she is told had a nervous breakdown. Desperate for the work she agrees to go out on location for a screen test.

The pair drive upstate into the midst of a snowstorm and arrive at the secluded home of “Dr. Joseph Lewis” (Jan Rubes). During her stay it starts to become apparent there is more going on than a simple screen test. What manifests is a sinister plot to have Katie replace Julie Rose in more than just a screenplay and with potentially fatal consequences.

Woman In Peril

This is a well contained small cast gothic horror. It is more a psychological thriller really, though there is a little bit of blood. Despite being presented as horror, the film is heavily influenced by “My Name is Julia Ross” (1945) and as a result has a very film noir feel. Those lady-in-peril noirs always had a leaning towards psychological horror. They always had a small cast and focused heavily on the ladies fear. This is old school and that’s not a bad thing. Of course a small cast means the performances matter much more and Mary Steenburgen actually has to play three roles here. Fortunately the twin sisters are small parts, but it makes her job harder and the weight of the film was already on her back. Happily, she does a great job.

I’m less convinced by the rest of the cast though. Roddy McDowall does reasonably enough but it’s not his best performance and often feels on the comedic side, which may be deliberate but I don’t think helps the tone of the film. Jan Rubes as the primary antagonist did nothing for me and was certainly the weak link. The rest of the cast are somewhat average. The plot is actually pretty interesting, though it feels more complex than necessary. Those complexities would be fine if they got explored properly, but they are all just a means to an end. The film does however provide some good visual ideas and moments. The chaotic final act satisfies somewhat but feels a little anti-climactic after the journey to get there.

Conclusion

A reasonable horror thriller that has it’s moments but never really excels. Steenburgen does a great job and the plot has some good ideas, but rarely makes the most of them. The film provides some spectacle and is reasonably paced. Overall the movie just about scrapes out a 6/10. If you are a fan of gothic horror or lady-in-peril film noirs this is a recommend. As a horror though, its probably not worth going out of your way for.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Spellbinder (1988)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight’s October Challenge movie is the 1988 sexual thriller/horror “Spellbinder”. Directed by Janet Greek (Most famous for her TV work, especially with Babylon 5) and written by Tracy Tormé (Writer for “Star Trek TNG” and creator of the 90’s series “Sliders”). The movie stars Tim Daly as Lawyer “Jeff Mills” and Kelly Preston as the mysterious “Miranda Reed”.

The Coven

After an saving Miranda, a young woman from her abusive boyfriend in a parking lot, lawyer Jeff Mills takes her home (As she claims to not have a home anymore) and eventually falls in love with her. But her mysterious past comes back to haunt her. It turns out she is a member of a Coven of Witches, which she was trying to escape from and it is down to Jeff to try and protect her.

To talk about Spellbinder it is unfortunately necessary to talk about the ending. Skip to the conclusion if you wish to avoid knowing the twist. I’ll also be mentioning some other movies with a similar twist, though nothing from the last 30 years. You have been warned! Personally I found the ending predictable, but while I didn’t know for a fact what it was, I was aware there was a twist. That meant I was looking out for clues in that regard. I can’t say how I would have felt had I actually seen this in 1988 (Especially as I would have been twelve).

Trick or Treat?

Earlier in the movie the lead actress mentions that the Witches human sacrifice required the victim to go to the location willingly. The second she uttered that line, I knew that Jeff was going to be the victim, since he would go to whatever location to try and rescue Miranda. The thing is, given Miranda was tricking him the whole time, it was pretty stupid of her to mention that. Especially stupid given she then was pretending to be kidnapped and taken to the ritual… which wouldn’t be a willing arrival.

Of course it could be that the victim has to have knowledge of this for it to count as willingly going to the ritual location or that she secretly wanted him to figure it out and end the cycle (Because as we see after his murder, she does this regularly and the suggestion is that should she fail, she ends up sacrificed). However we all know the real reason was for the viewers sake, to explain the movie.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the most original twist in the world. Without it however, this wouldn’t really be a Horror movie. “The Wicker Man” (1973) is probably the most famous version of this twist. What is more interesting though is that the year before this movie came out, we had “Angel Heart” (1987), which not only is an excellent horror movie, but is arguably best version of this trope. It was one that really built on the impact of the protagonists realization too. So coming out after that, this twist would feel a little basic. The scene where the deed is done also doesn’t really give Tim Daly a lot of chance of express his horror at the realisation of his situation.

Finish Him!

The trouble with the ending is they’ve made the witches out to seem tremendously powerful. Just prior to this, they apparently assaulted a heavily defended survivalist compound with little difficulty. So one unarmed lawer running down into their ritual sacrifice was always likely to end up with him getting killed. There is a sort of double tease with his lawyer friend and two cops heading to the scene behind him. However at the last minute they just end up part of the cult. Again though, what are two cops and a lawyer are going to do against this group? By the time they arrived I had no doubt at all they’d just be more bad guys.

Conceptually though, I like the idea. It just could have been worked better and if you take the ending from the film, there really isn’t much horror. It is more like fantasy than horror, very light handed. This perhaps is by design so that you don’t expect the protagonist to end up murdered, but given I guessed anyway and that this would only work at all on the first viewing, I’m not sure it was the wisest move.

There isn’t a great deal that stands out about the rest of the film. The side plot of the secretary being suspicious about Miranda doesn’t really lead to anything but that character’s off screen death (During a brief epilogue scene). The cop (Played by Shang Tsung himself, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) that is investigating these witches, is shown to still be at it in that epilogue, but doesn’t seem much closer to actually achieving anything.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this is a pretty average movie and it feels more like a TV movie than something that had a theatrical release. Perhaps this is why it bombed at the box office, making just about a tenth of it’s $6m production budget. To be fair, it only had a short release window so maybe it was intended to be a TV movie at some point. The movie came out the year after “Fatal Attraction” and “Angel Heart” and is pretty much a mixture of the two, but without anything close to it’s quality. It’s not terrible and makes for a pretty easy watch but unless you get caught out by the ending (Which can only work on the first viewing) I don’t think you’ll find it particularly memorable. This is slightly below average, so that’s a high 4.5/10.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10.