Crime, Thriller & Mainstream Reviews (Page 4)

 Eureka Classics releases the two-disc Universal Terror Blu-ray set, incorporating three Boris Karloff films: Night Key (directed by Lloyd Corrigan – 1937 B/W), The Climax (directed by George Waggner – 1944 Colour), and The Black Castle (directed by Nathan H. Juran – 1952 B/W). This is the first retail release for Night Key and The Climax, and the first outing for all three on Blu-ray in the UK. The first print run of 2000 copies include a limited-edition O-card slipcase and a collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Karloff expert Stephen Jacobs (author of Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster). All three films are 1080p 2K scans of the originals. Extras include: Brand new audio commentary tracks on Night Key and The Climax by Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby; a brand-new audio commentary track on The Black Castle by author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman (Newman is invariable entertaining, like chatting to a mate down the pub!). There are also Stills Galleries and Trailers.

In Night Key, Boris Karloff plays the inventor of a highly elaborate security system which has been utilised by the police for some years with great success. When the alarm of any premises is silently triggered, a light flashes in police HQ. The number of the light is cross-referenced to an address and a police unit dispatched. However, the inventor believes it is now outdated. He has been working for many years on a radical new system which he attempts to sell once more to the police. Afraid that their expensive system will become useless in light of the new invention, the police take it on but decide to shelve it. The old inventor is horrified he has been duped. To him it is not the money that’s important but the fruition of all his hard work. In order to stress how outmoded the existing system is, he adapts the new one to emit a bridging electrical pulse matching that of the alarm systems and demonstrates he can break into protected establishments. However, a local crime boss and his gang kidnap him and hold his daughter to force him to break into places they can rob. Can this seemingly doddery old scientist turn the table on his captors and free his daughter before it’s too late?

This three-film set is marketed as horror (or, at least, terror); in actuality it is a crime/thriller with a sprinkling of science fiction. Notable for its format which became prevalent during the era of 1950s B-movies, it originates the central cast of the professor, his beautiful daughter, her love interest (in this case a police officer), and the villain – who in this case in just as much the police chief as the crime boss. Although far from edgy, it is imminently watchable. Karloff is convincing in his earnestness, tinged with angst or guilt as he is in many of his offerings. This one is like a Fu Manchu plot without the hammy elements.

In The Climax, Karloff portrays the physician of a theatre opera house. He had fallen in love with the star singer and become so besotted with her that her singing came between them. She subsequently went missing without a trace (but we all suspect what happened to her, don’t we viewers?). Now, ten years later a new young singer has arrived on the scene with a voice which matches the lost star, and the same musical is revived. The physician is devastated to hear the singing of his lost love and goes to extreme lengths to prevent her singing again – including hypnotism, association, and sheer force of will. But he hasn’t counted on the intervention of the woman’s betrothed and the young king.

This one is a difficult one to quantify. It is at times a suspense thriller, a horror, and even a musical. In essence, it follows similar lines to a Phantom of the Opera scenario. There are long, drawn-out stage sequences wherein we are obliged to endure high-pitched shrieking, which is supposed to be one of the greatest voices in the world. This is tempered by the entertaining excitement and eagerness of her fiancé, Franz Munzer, played engagingly by Turhan Bey. A very young Scotty Beckett also puts in a good turn as The King, who amusingly momentarily forgets his etiquette when watching the new starlet sing. It would have been nice to have seen what happens off-film before the beginning, and there would have been the running time available if not for the over-long stage scenes. Karloff’s presence has a calm intensity to the point much is made of his stare, in the same manner as Bela Lugosi’s is lit in a couple of shots during 1931’s Dracula. The dénouement is somewhat reminiscent of House of Wax.

In The Black Castle, a young nobleman knight-of-the-realm travels incognito, under invitation, to Count Karl von Bruno, seeking information on two comrades who he believes have been killed at the Count’s hand. They soon diplomatically butt heads when it is discovered the Count is a cruel and sadistic master, least not to his beautiful, arranged marriage wife. When our hero attempts to spirit her away, they are both imprisoned in the castle’s dungeon. They find help from the most unlikely source when the Count’s doctor offers them a potion which fakes death. This way they can escape the castle. But can the doctor be trusted?

The Black Castle is by far the most entertaining of the three films presented on offer here. Richard Greene takes centre stage as the swashbuckling hero, and Karloff shares the billing with fellow horror star Lon Chaney Jr. as the Count’s gruesome mute dogsbody. Karloff himself is the Count’s doctor, who remains pretty much in the background until the final quarter. Then his presence shines, giving the character an ambiguous quality. The difference is our hero and heroine are offered no choice but to trust him. The castle secret passages, traps and a deadly pool of crocodiles crank up the horror aspect. This is a movie that is wildly underrated in many reviews. Whilst not a strong as the Karloff at Columbia set which I reviewed in April 2021, Universal Terror remains of great interest. All of these gems from the classic horror stars deserve to be treasured. 

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2022) 

At a family reading of a will Herman Munster is delighted to learn he has inherited an English estate from an uncle. Now the new Lord Munster, he leaves his job at Gateman, Goodbury & Graves Morticians and moves his family from 1313 Mockingbird Lane to Munster Hall. The three remaining members of the previous Lord’s family are less than enamoured with the decision and when scaring them away fails, they resort to more desperate measures. This involves roping Herman into a dangerous two-family dispute – to be resolved in a sports car race. The other driver has been replaced and is out to kill Herman and wreck his Drag-u-la special. But Herman is more resourceful than expected and also uncovers a counterfeit ring...

The original black and white series of The Munsters ran for 70 episodes between 1964 and 1966, when it began to lose viewers to the Adam West Batman series. This was the first film outing for the show, and the first in technicolor. It was made straight after the series came to an end in 1966, screening at the end of the year as a support movie for Norman Wisdom’s Press for Time. The series creators Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher also produced and co-wrote this one. The full family is intact (Fred Gwynne playing Herman, Yvonne De Carlo as Lily, Al Lewis depicting Grandpa, and Butch Patrick as Eddie), aside from Marilyn (Pat Priest replaced by Debbie Watson). British comedian Terry Thomas is somewhat annoying, portraying a grown man acting like a little spoilt child, but John Carradine pulls off an intriguing butler somewhere between sinister and quirky.

Although this childish slapstick humour is not for me, the script is well-handled for a nonsense run-around. All of the characters are given something to do, rather than aimlessly following others around. Additional plot strands tie-up probably too well together, allowing Grandpa and Herman to embark on a spooky and dangerous snoop around to uncover the counterfeit money, and Marilyn to meet up with a gentleman who turns out to be part of the feuding family – the Munster’s long-time rivals. The car race itself is pretty zany, but an enjoyable romp reminiscent of Genervieve. It’s intriguing to see the Munster family’s horror cosmetics; on the whole they hold up pretty well.

All of those who enjoyed the series re-runs will undoubtedly love this one, but for newcomers it will perhaps appeal more to a younger audience. The only extra is a theatrical trailer.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2022) 

Avian flu wipes out a little village in the Northern Philippines, and appears to spread to a poultry farm just outside Tokyo, Japan, when one of the residents travels to a wedding with a chicken as a gift. The authorities move in to contain the new outbreak, but many more people fall seriously ill, and it is spreading at an uncontrollable rate. As the public panics and natural order quickly dissolves, stripping Japan of its normality, a woman scientist arrives at the central Tokyo hospital with the directive to identify the virus. However, the pressure is on, with deaths now rising into the millions...
 

Let me begin by stating that, generally speaking, I’m not a big follower of natural disaster movies. It’s normally all about the spectacle rather than the inherent story (in other words, how other people are affected by events). The prospect of sitting through well over two hours of this scenario did not fill me with enthusiasm. I was, however, intrigued with how a Japanese director (in this case, Takahisa Zeze) might approach the depiction of a virus which could effectively break down a stable society.
 

The first part of the movie is somewhat slow to start, but that is probably due in part to too many characters being forced on the viewer practically simultaneously, and the fact that the initial inferred plot of avian influenza appears completely uninteresting (even if it does seem to spread from the Philippines to Tokyo and the rest of Japan).
 

Then a strange thing happens. The moment the virus is discovered to be something completely new, and not bird flu after all, events become much more personal as, conversely, the pandemic spreads. The handful of key characters emerge from the seeming cast of thousands, and suddenly we’re given realistic fictional people to identify with and care about.
 

The idea of the female scientist who is brought in to a hospital to help identify the virus having a past with one of the major doctors might conceivably be seen as being contrived (especially as neither of them look old enough to have much of a past), but it works, giving the isolated human events a central point.
 

Miraculously, the film turns into something very special, The vast majority of the actors are top notch and highly convincing in their reactions to a multitude of emotional traumas. You never at any point feel that a character is safe; many writers and directors are too protective of their main players, therefore inducing an involuntary predictability, but you never know here who is going to survive and who will perish.
 

Some people will need a box of tissues, as Pandemic cleverly tugs at the heart strings, and the film concludes on a thought-provoking touch of poignancy. Highly recommended, and worth sticking with though the first half hour of so when I wavered and very nearly prematurely wrote it off. 

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2011) 

Lt. Ethan Bishop is assigned to Precinct 13 in Anderson, which is being systematically shut-down and moved elsewhere. Only a skeleton crew of the captain, a desk sergeant and two administration women are in place. Bishop is understandably expecting a quiet night, but chaos is about to descend in a manner he could never have predicted. A handful of dangerous prisoners (including the notorious Napoleon "Got a  Smoke" Wilson) are being transported by bus to another location, but when one of their number falls seriously ill they are obliged to divert to the nearest police station - namely, Precinct 13. Meanwhile, a man is driving through the district with a little girl. As he stops to make a phone call, the girl goes to get an ice-cream... just as a street gang member is confronting the driver of the van. Consequentially, she is gunned-down. The distraught man drives after the gunman and kills him, but when the rest of the gang appears he is forced to flee for his life to Precinct 13. What follows is all-night assault on the station. If Bishop and the others are to survive, they will need the help of Napoleon Wilson. But can they trust him...?

This is much more than a straightforward street gang shoot-em-up. Carpenter ideally wanted to make a western in the vein of his hero Howard Hawks, but westerns were beginning to become outdated, and he couldn't afford the sets and costumes. So, he elected to do something rather clever; he wrote a then contemporary reworking of Hawks' Rio Bravo, with a siege situation on a police precinct. It's important for the sake of the story that there is only a handful of people holding out in an essentially disused station. The telephone lines are dead so there's no contact with the outside world, and no back-up support from other units. There is also a limited supply of ammunition for the few guns they have. The gang uses silencers so that their gunshots cannot be heard and attract unwanted attention. The Street Thunder gang created by Carpenter is interracial, raising its status to pure retaliation against the police for its surprise shoot-to-kill attack on the gang at the start of the film.

Assault on Precinct 13 was the first of a number of films he would make with a siege theme. He also incorporated a strong woman character (Leigh, named after Leigh Brackett - the writer of Rio Bravo) which he always felt was very important. Carpenter edited the movie under the pseudonym John T. Chance, which was the name of the sheriff in Rio Bravo. There's an element of wry humour present, especially in the scene when the hot potato game is played to decide who goes into the sewer through a manhole cover to seek escape. This is also John  Carpenter's first full music score, and he produces a memorable theme said to be influenced slightly by Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song' and the music from the Dirty Harry film.

Remembering what happened on Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13 was the first film he had total control over; something he would insist on from this point onward. The film was released to a muted response in America. The MPAA made Carpenter cut out the scene wherein the little girl is shot dead. This he did, but only in the version sent to the MPAA, thereby sneaking the film out intact. He obviously knew that the entire plot pivoted on this moment, because the avenging man is followed to the precinct. It was its release in Europe which proved momentous, particularly its successful presentation at the 1977 London Film Festival. Irwin Yablans of Compass International saw the film and asked Carpenter to make a movie of his idea for babysitter murders set on Halloween.  A classic and timeless movie was about to take the industry by storm.

Extras on this disc consist of a Q&A with John Carpenter & Austin 'Bishop' Stoker, a Carpenter Commentary (always worth listening to, believe me), a Photo Gallery, Trailers and the Music Score. 

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2008) 

In this, one of a number of Hammer Films being re-released in Doubleplay editions to celebrate 60 years of Hammer Horror, a young woman who has suffered a nervous breakdown and has been undergoing psychological counseling meets and marries a man who has secured a live-in job at a remote boys school. Having been attacked by an intruder with a prosthetic arm at her previous home, she is far from stable, but when her new husband is regularly sent away on errands by the headmaster she is left to her own devices. Attacked again, she suspects the creepy but gentlemanly headmaster, but is he the real enemy...?

It turns out the school suffered a serious fire in the past and was closed. The headmaster bought the building and restored it to its  former glory, and now carries on as if nothing happened – except there are no children. He has electrical switches which activate recordings of the children in lessons or in the dining hall. Just that idea is bizarre. Peter Cushing, however, plays the part with formal aplomb (he really was an outstanding actor). He only makes a handful of appearances here, but it’s enough to make his mark. In fact, I believe he only filmed for two or three days.

Joan Collins is suitably snooty as the headmaster’s wife, Ralph Bates is solid enough, and Judy Gleeson spends the whole thing looking stunned and confused – which works well as the fragile victim of the piece. The final moment of the film confirms this is just the right characterisation.

Fear in the Night from 1972 works really well as a suspense thriller rather than out-and out horror. It is one of only a small number of Hammer movies with a then-contemporary rather than period setting. It is undoubtedly the Jimmy Sangster show, as the regular writer turned in the screenplay as well as both producing and directing. It was his final contribution. Check out his great autobiography Do You Want It Good Or Tuesday? He connects the scenes in this film using linking dialogue – even halfway through a sentence – and in one case with a kiss. This gives the false impression of a fast-moving plot. It’s a neat trick.

I first reviewed this movie in 2006 but, as it was part of The Ultimate Hammer Collection Box Set (over 20 films), space and time prevented more than two or three lines. So it’s definitely nice to get this opportunity to review this one in its own right. There’s a short documentary wherein Hammer historians talk about the movie. I’m sure there was a Jimmy Sangster commentary on the disc included with the Collection Box Set, but for some reason it’s not included here. 

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2017) 

A spate of kidnappings of young women take place in various countries, after which their fathers travel abroad for weeks at a time. It seems the men are all scientists or engineers skilled in the transmission of radio waves, being forced to work under threat of harm to their daughters. The villain of the piece plans to have constructed for him a piece of apparatus compact and powerful enough to direct masses of energy from one point to another. In doing so, he will possess a weapon with which to hold the world to ransom. And who should be behind this dastardly wicked and evil scheme? Why none other than Fu Manchu. What do you mean, you guessed that from the title?...

On the case is Assistant Commissioner Nayland Smith (Douglas Wilmer) of Scotland Yard, with his regular companion Doctor Petrie (Howard Marion-Crawford), an eminent pathologist. In all but name they are Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson; Smith is too perfect for his own good, and Petrie is an educated but bumbling fool, prompting recall of the Basil Rathbone portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character. For no other reason than it appears logical, Smith suspects his arch nemesis of the kidnappings. Can it be true? Could Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) still be alive? You betcha stick-on-moustache he is! After two attempts at abduction are foiled in London (right outside the Tower!), the third succeeds, and it is then up to Smith to find the underground lair of Fu Manchu before terrible devastation is wreaked in the name of power.

The first demonstration of power is to be the destruction of the Winsor Castle (obviously, they only succeeded in setting it ablaze 25 years or so after the fact!). However, the Winsor Castle turns out to be a ship. The next main target is to be the international peace conference taking place in London. "Quick, men, on to the roof. Destroy that aerial before it picks up EastEnders."

The villain's underground headquarters is reminiscent of a Chinese temple, and the characters within this setting play very much like an episode of Thunderbirds in which Fu Manchu could so easily be The Hood. There's even a pit of peril, in this case containing snakes.

"Mister Tr...acy. I th...think we're g...going to need p...pod five."

"Okay, Brains. Off you go, Virgil. Be careful, son, he has a radio and he's not afraid to use it."

Watch it in glorious SuperOrientNation.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2003) 

Our dastardly Chinese master criminal returns to the seat of his ancestors (and a very comfy seat it is too) in a province two days from Shanghai. He fakes an earthquake to seal off access to outsiders, before kidnapping a missionary doctor and his daughter, bringing them in across the mountains. Threatening the daughter, he persuades the doctor to surgically change a person to look like his enemy Assistant Commissioner Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard. Miraculously, 48 hours later the facial paint by numbers is completed, and Fu Manchu arranges a switch whilst Smith is holidaying in Ireland. The real Smith is transported as a prisoner to the Chinese province; meanwhile the impostor returns to London, commits murder and is promptly sentenced to death. The Chinaman intends to do the same to prominent law enforcement officers around the world as a demonstration of his power to the underworld. In this manner he will group all the world's main criminal organisations together under his leadership. But has the Fu Man bitten off more than he can chu? (sorry, I couldn't resist that one)...

Here we have another film based on Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu stories. All of the main characters return (Douglas Wilmer as the bogus Smith spending half the movie looking like a corpse freshly pulled from the grave), and the format is pretty much the same. Although this is set around the same period as the Sherlock Holmes tales, there is an element of overacting amidst the formal properness of the educated professional characters which reminded me of The Green Hornet with Bruce Lee and particularly the camp sixties Batman series, but without the fun. The many fight sequences are comical without intending to be so. Large curved blades look to be cut from tin and have painted on bloodstains. Each fighter waits until his opponent is ready before attacking, and Fu Manchu's assassin henchmen go down like a ton of bricks under a good old British bunch-of-fives.

Surely this was money for old rope for our very own master of horror, Christopher Lee. He has very little to do, the main requirements for the part apparently being to look evil and occasionally tweak his moustache. Granted, his villainous part is a thinker rather than a doer, but it seems an incredible waste for such an accomplished actor. I'm sorry to say that the best thing about this film is the scenery which at times is stunning. With no extras apart from the trailer, these films do not appear an attractive purchase. Perhaps two films packaged together as a single release might have been worth a tenner of somebody's money.

According to the conclusion of this film, "The World will hear again from Fu Manchu." I feel another review coming on..

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2003) 

A young woman attempting to pick her life up  after a less than acrimonious split with her boyfriend, is looking for a new apartment. She comes across one barely finished, but in a prime location and at a very reasonable price. The owner appears to be a perfect gentleman, but appearances can be deceiving. Very soon, she begins to get the impression that something is seriously amiss - particularly when she invariably wakes up in the morning feeling tired and unwell. As if that isn’t enough, she has a number of unsettling encounters with the landlord’s sinister elderly father. To convince herself she isn’t paranoid, she has a camera system installed. But she remains in imminent peril...

As I opinioned when reviewing Let Me In, news of  another outing from Hammer Films is genuinely cause for celebration. The company has a legendary reputation. The Resident has the huge added selling point of starring, alongside Hilary Swain and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, veteran actor Christopher Lee. Although Lee has been at pains to distance himself from his horror icon status over the years (for heaven sakes, WHY?), this is a coming home of sorts - and he proves quite beyond doubt, despite his advanced age, that he still packs a chilling punch.

Nevertheless, after tearing down the drapes and stripping off the wallpaper, this film is simply a stalker thriller, based in an apartment building. I have to say that this has been done a thousand times now; Pacific Heights, John Carpenter’s Someone’s Watching Me, Panic Room, and many in between. In terms of originality... well, it isn’t. However, it is competently plotted and well-structured, and even tense in all the right places. It’s just that it’s predictable and, consequently, the spark of enjoyment flickers and dies pretty early on. Simple ideas are often the best, but there is a limit.

Let’s see something more original next time, Hammer, it’s what we - and you - deserve.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2011) 

Brenda is a naïve young woman who tells her mother she is pregnant and wants to find the father. In fact, she wants to go to London to find her Prince Charming and have a child with him. Securing a job in a boutique, another girl offers her a room at her place. But when Brenda is betrayed, she walks the streets where she meets a wealthy young man with a dog. Thinking all her prayers have been answered she stays with him, only to discover the man Peter is seriously unhinged, with psychotic tendencies...

Straight On Till Morning is another in the collection of Doubleplay releases from Hammer Films via StudioCanal. In the early 1970s Hammer wanted to go in a new direction, returning in part to  their psychological thrillers of the 1950s. This was marketed as a double bill with the similar format Fear in the Night. Straight On Till Morning is quite a departure from their standard horror theme. Hammer’s attempt to be gritty and realistic in the urban hardship of late '60s Liverpool (this was originally screened in 1972) comes over like an amalgamation of Cathy Come Home and Peeping Tom.

Creating a groovy and happening London full with beautiful women and promiscuity makes it all the more surreal when the serpent is revealed in paradise. Rita Tushingham handles the role of the innocent ‘Plain  Jane’ very commendably. Shane Briant is infinitely superior in this than the mess that was Demons of the Mind – although he regularly sinks into a trance-like state in both films. As for the very popular James Bolam, he’s woefully underutilised.

This film is directed purposefully off-kilter by Peter Collinson of The Italian Job fame (one of my all-time favourites) by way of shooting through scenery and other objects. However, the choice of music is not good; Roland Shaw’s horrible jazzy music played throughout drives you to distraction.

The ending is left ambiguous as, after Peter mentally tortures Brenda by playing her recordings of him killing his dog and the friend who had betrayed her, he is seen alone and slowly rocking himself. Is Brenda dead? We’ll never know. A bold new approach from Hammer with a  shocking plot theme for the time, but which only succeeds in part. 

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2018) 

 Jill Johnson is a babysitter for Dr and Mrs Mandrakis. Early in the evening she receives a distressing call. A voice on the telephone asks, “Have you checked the children?” This is the first of a series of calls which prompt her to call the police. The children are brutally murdered, and the police find the killer still in their room, but Jill survives because she hadn’t gone upstairs and checked on the kids (not likely, is it?). Seven years later the killer escapes from a psychiatric hospital. Charles Clifford is a police detective turned private investigator, hired by the father of the children to find their killer, Curt Duncan. Clifford suspects Duncan has returned to the city he knows. But also living there is Jill Johnson, now with two children of her own...

Fred Walton’s When a Stranger Calls was released in cinemas in 1979, just a year after John Carpenter’s Halloween. Whether they were aware of each other’s existence is in question, but either way you can’t avoid the similarities. The working title for Halloween was The Babysitter Murders, and there had been a real life event wherein a babysitter and the children had been killed by an unknown assailant. Walton and his fellow scriptwriter Steve Feke loosely did that story as a short film called Sitter (included on this disc), in order get backing to turn it into a feature. Carpenter – who had already gone through this process with his first feature, Dark Star – famously went down the route of the faceless psychopath in the darkness, and the rest is history.

I don’t think Stranger possesses the impact it once had; however, it has got certain strengths. Carol Kane goes for an impactful performance as  Jill, which is infinitely better than Lucia  Stralser’s somewhat subdued variation in the aforementioned short, Sitter. It’s not so much a vulnerability, as much more intensive and expression-filled shock/horror. Her reaction to receiving a call from the police, telling her they’ve traced the menacing calls to the house she is in, puts a brief shiver down your spine.

Charles Durning as Clifford the P.I. is solid as you would expect an established actor to be, but the surprise here is Tony Beckley. He plays the killer with a lot of uncertainty. It is said that Beckley lacked confidence in the presence of more well-known performers, and so doubted his ability greatly. This comes through strongly as a  vulnerability which conflicts with his ‘needs’ –  something which is seldom, if ever, seen in the portrayal of a twisted villain. The final scene, wherein he is revealed to be in the bed with  Jill, when she believes it to be her husband, is very well handled for a low budget film. (6)

When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) has a young woman babysitting for a couple, when there is a knock at the door. Someone wants to come in and use the phone to ring the vehicle breakdown service. She takes verbal details and assures him she will ring them. When she discovers the phone is dead, she feels it is safer to pretend she has rung. But that is  just the beginning of her nightmare. Both of the children are missing, and five years later it starts again when she realises someone is getting into her apartment and making subtle changes to unnerve her. When she reports it to the police, they are far from convinced, simply calling the campus psychologist. This turns out to be Jill Johnson, the babysitter from the original film. She in turn calls in the help of her friend Charles Clifford, who had saved her life. He is convinced the girl is genuine and does not have psychological problems – even after she supposedly attempts suicide. Furthermore, he believes the perpetrator to be a ventriloquist; able to throw his voice to sound like he is outside when he is actually inside with the victim. Jill’s life turns full circle after taking an interest, when the unbalanced new killer turns his attention to her...

This is a made for TV sequel to the first film. Again, there is a prolonged babysitting sequence to start the film, but this time around there is significantly more meat on the bones. It begins as a mystery, and we are actually in the last third of the film before the killer is even seen. Less shocks, you might say, but more inventiveness. It may help that we are already familiar with two of the characters, but for me – as scandalous as it might sound – I think this second film is infinitely the better of the two. (7)

Second Sight Films should be commended here for proving that two films  will comfortably fit on one Blu-ray disc, with room to spare for special features. Here we get the short film Sitter – newly  restored; and separate interviews with Fred Walton, Carol Kane, Rutanya Alda, and composer Dana Kaproff. There was a 2006 remake of the first film (Walton wasn’t involved) but, although it did okay at the box office, it’s a bit of a non-entity.  

(Review originally written by Ty Power for reviewgraveyard 2018)