APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR (1985)
Directed by Alan Smithee
I.V.E. VHS
THE FILM
This is a "Jeremy McBride Movie".
The Egyptian God of Nature needs to sacrifice his infant son so he can maintain his immortality for another year. But, the god's in a coma in an asylum so astral projection is called into fiendish use. It almost goes without saying that a plucky young gal and her sort-of boyfriend, and a grizzled detective named Kowalski, are the only ones that can stop the child from sacrifice. But, that God of Nature...he's crafty...
I don't know. I watched it twice. I got about a half-hour in the second time and decided to rearrange my CDs to keep myself awake. Appointment With Fear is one of those...hmmm...
I watch it and there are things about it that work:
-The scene with Kowalski and Joe in the asylum is lovely.
-The leading actors are all nice to look at.
-An appearance from Debi Sue Voorhees is always fun.
-The fire gag by the pool has a great ending.
-Breaking into leaves was a nice touch. (You gotta watch it for that one.)
But, that's really all I can come up with.
The movie starts off with about four different things happening in tandem. In theory, that should keep me interested as I try to figure out what's going on and watch the plotlines and characters combine. Instead, I sighed a lot. I mean, a lot. The idea behind the movie has potential...There is a killing near the beginning and I thought that this was going to happen: The lead gal hears the killing but can't see it. Another gal sees something happening but can't hear it or figure out exactly what she's seen. Kowalski pulls up too late to see or hear anything but he knows what's going on. I thought "Awesome! The three characters will come together and the movie will take off!"
Of course, nothing like that happens. We spend ages following the lead gal who is quirky, like the Monster Girl in Neon Maniacs. And, we spend a lot of time with her sort-of boyfriend who has long hair and drives a motorcycle with a mannequin in the sidecar. There is an awesome house in the hills. You want Modern Dance? You've got it! There's a homeless man who spends the movie standing around a pickup truck mumbling as the cast goes into the house. There are opening...AND closing credits.
Look, I don't know if anyone's ever going to be able to find anything to really say about Appointment With Fear. It is professionally made, well acted and it looks good. But, there's no life, no excitement, no reason to keep watching minute by minute. Why? The director seems to have had little confidence in the production, hence his name. But, the direction isn't bad. There's just no cinematic rush to it. It seems like they had a workable script, a good cast, a decent director and a will to Make A Movie! And, they went out and shot it and then, upon hitting the editing bays, they discovered that they had nothing. All the elements seems to be there but something was missing. If it had been a comedy, they would have discovered that what they thought was funny wasn't. With a horror movie, they would have seen the lack of suspense, terror, scares...well, everything. Maybe that's what made the director "Cop a Smithee". I don't know. But, something is missing from this film.
Or, possibly, they all could have cared less and threw out whatever junk they had. I will give them the benefit.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
It looks and sounds fine. The film is professionally made, that's not where the problem lies.
EXTRAS
A preview for Extreme Prejudice. And, I got the CDs rearranged. I consider that an extra.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A "Jeremy McBride Movie"? In my review for Return Of The Family Man, I asked who the audience for that film was. (Me.) I ask the same thing here and I remember where I first saw a part of this film.
Junior Prom. June 1990. Irondequoit High School in New York State.
Party afterwards was at Vickie Gitro's (sp?) house. Her boyfriend was Jeremy McBride. They said they'd take care of everything, including a "Scary" movie for late night. Well, Jeremy rented the movie. His choice was Appointment With Fear, a tape I had seen on the shelves. But, something instinctual had told me that there was no way I would ever rent that. But, he did. And, we got ten minutes in and popped the tape out as everyone was bored silly. "What else you got?" "Just that one." "Sigh..."
Jeremy McBride, very nice guy. Never let him rent your movies. The audience for this horror film is people who never, ever rent horror films and who, if forced to rent, always rent the wrong one. That can't be good.
— Dan Budnik, 03.03.11 |
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