Just read the cast for this film — Chris Sarandon (THE PRINCESS BRIDE), Martin Balsam (PSYCHO), John Carradine (THE HOWLING), Ava Gardner (THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA), Burgess Meredith (ROCKY), Eli Wallach (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY), Christopher Walken (THE DEER HUNTER), Jerry Orbach (TV’s LAW & ORDER), Beverly D’Angelo (NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION), Jeff Goldblum (THE FLY) and Tom Berenger (MAJOR LEAGUE). Now most of this cast serves in cameo roles, but it adds a pedigree to the film that makes it feel more lush.
The real star of the film is Cristina Raines (NASHVILLE) who plays rising model Alison Parker. She is dating defense lawyer Michael Lerman (Sarandon), whose wife committed suicide two years prior. Alison has attempted suicide twice in her life and is skittish about marrying Michael. So she sets out to rent an apartment of her own.
Rental agent Miss Logan (Gardner) shows her a beautiful place overlooking the water. Unsettling is that a blind priest named Father Francis Matthew Halloran (Carradine) is at his top floor window all day long staring out into space. Alison meets her neighbors including the cheery Charles Chazen (Meredith), but as she gets to know more of them the weirder things become. Strange noises at night haunt her and she becomes ill. Plus a mysterious priest Monsignor Franchino (Arthur Kennedy, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA) seems to be following her.
The tone is creepy and the plot twists and turns nicely. Director Michael Winner (DEATH WISH) creates a TV movie soap tone to the beginning of the film, which is weird, but helps add a disconcerting feeling once the strange stuff starts happening. The cast performs well and the visuals can be original. The major negative thing I’d say about the film is Winner’s casting of real deformed people as hellish monsters. It’s exploitative and tacky. Yet, in the end, the film works as a solid horror thriller that actually has some surprises in store for the viewer.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
