TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

MartinHafer Michael Sarrazin plays the title character--a professor who is having strange, vivid and recurrent dream about another person's life. It's troubling him...especially since these all have the same story again and again...of some woman bashing her husband to death with an oar on a lake several decades ago! Peter seeks out help from various professionals but this gets him no where. Then, by chance, he sees a scene on television that is right out of his dreams---and it's in Massachusetts--a place in which he's never been!The trail takes Peter to this town and there he's able to assemble the many details of the life that's stuck in his head...and now he's thoroughly convinced he's the reincarnation of this dead man! But here's where it gets really creepy. He meets the woman who committed this murder and begins dating her daughter...who is the daughter of the dead man. And, in a way, it's like Peter is having sex with his own daughter! Kinky, weird and definitely something right out of Freud!So is this any good? Well, yes...but I have a SERIOUS caveat--there is a lot of nudity, a rape and some masturbation. It's NOT a film for kids or the prudish! And, much of this is very gratuitous. Oddly, despite showing so much nudity, in the final scene which SHOULD have been very bloody there is none! Still, a compelling story and it's well made and worth seeing.

climbingivy I have to say,this movie is Excellent,Excellent,Excellent!I saw the movie at the theatre back when it originally showed and I was so scared.Margot Kidder was downright evil and quite scary.Jennifer O'Neill was absolutely lovely as the girlfriend/daughter.Jennifer O'Neill was the beautiful actress in the lead part in the 1972 movie "Summer Of 42".Jennifer O' Neill was also an early super model cover girl with incredible looks that put the so called super models of the last 30 years to shame.Michael Sarrazin played his part as Peter Proud with intensity and also an aloofness that was just the right combination.I feel like it was not necessary for the foul language and the nude scenes in the movie,but the middle 1970s is when theatre productions started that bad trend.Otherwise the movie was well done.The location scenery and cinema photography was lovely to look at.If you want to see a real scary unusual horror movie check this one out.I have this movie on DVD.

mnpollio A prior commentator in the reviews section here complemented the film as being like a bad dream that stays with you and that is a perfectly apt description for the atmosphere of this strange, moody mystery/thriller revolving around the supernatural belief of reincarnation. Michael Sarrazin is an academic plagued by vivid, surreal nightmares depicting the increasingly volatile relationship between a brutal wife-beater and his increasingly fearful spouse, which culminates in his murder while out on a nocturnal skinnydip. As Sarrazin starts to investigate the roots of these bizarre dreams, he comes to realize that the players in his dream have actual real life counterparts and comes to believe that he is the reincarnation of the doomed husband. As he discovers each new piece to the puzzle, certain parts of the dream vanish giving him a sense of peace. Unfortunately, his investigations bring him into contact with the man's (his own?) daughter, played by Jennifer O'Neill, with whom he falls into a romance, as well as the murderess herself (Margot Kidder), who begins to believe that there is something off about her daughter's new boyfriend. Director J. Lee Thompson ably conveys a surreal quality to the visions/dreams and injects the film with a sense of impending catastrophe that it fails to shake even after its lead starts regaining some peace of mind. However, the reincarnation aspect brings up questions that the film fails to address or even touch on. Most glaringly, why does Sarrazin's laid-back rather docile Peter Proud share so few personality traits with his violence-prone predecessor? Peter Proud is not depicted as either a woman-beater or especially violent about much of anything, so at what point did the "soul" which inhabits his body learn its lesson? Why does Sarrazin not feel uncomfortable with the ramifications of courting and having sex with a woman who is his predecessor's daughter? Granted, they are not blood related, but there seems something a bit incestuous about the whole romance. The acting contributes to the oddity of the film. Sarrazin's overly restrained acting always seems to keep Peter Proud as an aloof character, even during his more emotional moments. It is almost as though neither he nor the film want us to get too attached to Proud and his plight lest we be upset about what the film has in store for him. O'Neill is lovely, but again the romance between she and Sarrazin is surprisingly muted. By contrast, Margot Kidder is fairly terrific as the beleaguered battered wife who thinks she has gotten away with murder only to be confronted years later by the soul of her restless husband. Her increasing paranoia and desperation in the final scenes are almost palpable. Tony Stephano also pulls off a difficult passage as the "dream" man - a guy charming enough to make us believe that Kidder would fall for him, but with a hair-trigger temper that is truly frightening. An underrated film to watch out for, especially for those interested in the unusual.

laubklein2 This film can be divided into two sections...research and love. Both are creepy/scary and wonderfully fun in a late seventies early eighties way. Which is strange because it's '75. We got your fast cutting and your repetition and your silly piano pounding (literally) soundtrack. Remember composers the harder you pound the more intense the scene. NEVER FORGET THIS.Now if you don't take this film seriously you'll love it... GASP as Margo Kidders hair changes it's greyness.HOWL with joy as Peter Proud finds his older self or er...whatever he does.SCREAM with fright as Marcia kills Jeffery for the thousandth time...and drown you sorrows with Margo Kidder as she slams back another vodka...(this might be a fun drinking game)I recommend it's not as bad Manos and not as good Chinatown...but what is...I do love this but it sort sucks...Also bonus feature...what major scene is missing from this film? Can you tell me? It must be here and yet it ain't...Nice writing Mr. Erlich...please beware every time this guy gets bored he writes a sex scene and man is he bored with life...Also Peter's first girlfriend is the worst actress in the film...Her name is Cornelia Sharpe...you'll know when you see her after all she has been in cinematic greats like: Crazy Joe, Cover Girls, and Busting. Have fun with this flick but don't take it seriously...great Tiki Drive In Trash!!!!