TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

preppy-3 Remake of the 1946 classic. Helen Mallory (Jacqueline Bisset) has been rendered mute after seeing her husband and only child die in a fire. She is now staying at her uncle's mansion and getting treatment. However there is a killer on the loose who kills people who have disabilities. Is Helen next? Pointless redo. The original is a classic--what's the point or remaking it? I caught this on TV late at night back in the 1970s. I had seen the original and was interested in seeing how this stood up. Sadly it turned out to be pretty bad. Despite a great cast (Bisset, Christopher Plummer, John Phillip Law, Elaine Stritch) this is pretty slow-moving and dull. There's virtually no suspense or atmosphere and it looks like it was made on a very low budget which hurts. The cast tries their best but even their considerable talents can't liven this up. You can safely skip this one. See the original.I give it a 3 because the cast does try and Bisset looks stunning (as always).

lottatitles As a child, the 1946 version of this movie was one of the most terrifying I had ever seen...and I loved scary movies. Years later, it still scared the hell out of me. This re-make is a travesty. I don't know what the director and cinematographer were trying to achieve, but it wasn't The Spiral Staircase. Apologies to Christopher Plummer, Mildred Dunnock and Elaine Stritch for having to endure this drivel. Times must have been bad then and paychecks much needed. If you want to see a brilliant horror film, see the original.

WritnGuy-2 Searching the video store, I saw the cover for this and remembered reading about it. I decided to give it a whirl, because there was nothing else catching my eye at the moment. Jaqueline Bissett plays Helen, a young mute, who is currently staying at the Sherman Institute. The rest of the people in the house are wary of the fact that women with disabilities are being murdered, and a blind woman was killed that day. That night, though, the killer has spotted Helen as his next victim. And with a thunderstorm threatening to kill the power, this killer starts eliminating those at the house, closing in closer and closer to Helen.Does that sound like a good movie? I don't know, I thought so. Well, I was wrong. It's very dull for the first three quarters, with characterization up the wazoo, and a couple of suspicious moments. And, supposedly, it's a mystery of who the killer is--but it's not!! The killer is way too obvious! I don't know if it was just because I knew the motive from reading about the original movie, or if movie was just really bad at concealing the killer's identity. And, this isn't a spoiler, because even the plot summary said it, the killer is Dr. Sherman. But, there are a few holes. First of all, why does the killer kill off people who aren't disabled at the house? Well, the killer's achievements at the house only rank up to two or three, but still, they're all perfectly "normal" people. And why does Steven drag Oates's body outside after he finds it in the foyer? Doesn't that mean that he's an accomplice in something? I don't know, that left me hanging for a while. Still, there are some good things. The last quarter of the movie is quite exciting, with Dr. Sherman chasing Helen around the house. And the movie utilizes her disability well, especially when trying to contact help over the phone. There was a lot of suspense in those scenes. Also, the characters are all quite likable. Mrs. Sherman was very entertaining as the witty mother of the doctor and Steven. And Mrs. Oates was just a very likable character, as the cook. And of course, Helen, played with all innocence and huge doe-eyes by Bissett. Overall, not a great movie, but the final quarter is quite interesting. I have yet to see the original version, though, and I have a feeling that might be better.

PepperLu The plot summary currently available for this movie is totally incorrect. The viewer has gotten the original film (starring Dorothy McGwire and Ethel Barrymore) mixed up with the television movie starring Jacqueline Bisset and Christopher Plummer. In the remake, Ms. Bisset plays a woman who has become mute because of the trauma of watching her child die in a fire and her husband die trying to rescue the girl--he falls off a ladder and lands on the spokes of the wrought iron fence! She is romantically involved with the doctor who has been treating her. The bad guy in this version is played by Christopher Plummer, who portrays Ms. Bisset's uncle in the film (sorry, can't remember character names). He, not the doctor, as stated in the current viewer summary, is the killer. His father couldn't stand to see physical imperfection or illness and, evidently passed his fetish on to his son--who has added to it the element of psycopathy, leading him to commit numerous murders in his effort to rid the world of imperfect people. Pretty stupid, really, as much as I like Christopher Plummer. I hate to see fine actors lower themselves to appear in productions unworthy of their talents. The original was not quite so far-fetched and much better acted by Dorothy McGwire in the role of the mute.