Decent, if dated film from 1985, starring a who's who of eventual who's that's. Peter Deluise, Shari Belafonte, LaVar Burton, Dedee Pfeifer, Kurtwood Smith, Dick Van Patten, they're all here.
Apparently there are different versions of the movie as it was originally aired on ABC as sort of a Halloween movie special, but the one I watched was a bit gory so I likely saw the unedited version, not that it's all that more racy.
Anyway, it's the story of a bunch of teens who live in a town known mainly for it's witch burnings and witch hunting founder. Belefonte plays the descendent of the evil witch.
The group decide to raid the town museum of it's costumes and inadvertently find an old scroll which they read in the cemetery, from there hell is unleashed, in a pg way.
The movie isn't all that great but has a great kistche factor, watching all the familiar faces. It's main drawback is the unassuming lead who has as much charisma as a dead toe nail.
The story is fairly basic. Ghouls invade, teenagers have to stop them, and so on. It does however contain quite a few head scratching moments that may double as comedy if you're so inclined. Amongst them are an apparent gorilla coming out of a grave which leads to many questions. Also, a pretty hot teacher appears eager to jump student Peter Deluises bones.
There's a pretty decent idea for comedy hit upon for a short while, as while all the inhabitants of the graveyard have been resurrected, not all of the them are out for blood, so when a myriad of them show up at a Halloween party, they fit right in, which leads to a few laughs, but outside of a scene or 2, the idea isn't really used to the extent it could have been.
In fact that's the general problem with the movie, it's all over the place. There's horror, a love story, a back story, family issues, but none of them are given the time to be fleshed out or reach any sort of solid conclusion.
Easily the best of part of the film comes when, in what up until that point had been a conventional if below average film, suddenly turns into a music video as for no apparent reason Belafonte starts singing and dancing, at which point everyone else at the party joins her in a Thrilleresque little number that will numb your mind.
I want to note that a girl named Jonelle Allen plays the female lead in the film and is absolutely gorgeous. She's been in a lot of stuff but obviously never became a star but she just radiates on the screen.
So yeah, it's not a very good film as it lacks nudity and much horror and the story isn't great, but it was a decent enough time, made all the better by the cast.
No comments:
Post a Comment