Director: Richard Friedman
Year: 1987
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Abraxas; The Masterson Curse
Genre: Haunted House
Plot:
Moving into her boyfriends' new house, a former psychiatric patient and her son continue to experience strange events and visions caused by the ruthless former owner of the house, and realizing that the haunting has affected him as well they try to discover a way of stopping it from consuming him.
Review:
This one wasn't that bad of an effort. One of it's best elements is the fact that the backstory used to set up the haunting manages to work itself out rather well. With the idea of the house being haunted by the ghosts of the past who are looking to settle the score for the treatment inflicted upon them by the cruel slave-owner in the past, including featuring the actual backstory of them being shown to be killed on the property for disobeying his orders and practicing witchcraft, which is a fine and worthwhile showing for these kinds of films in order to setup a potential haunting. That the early setups inside the house bring about their early introduction into the supernatural happenings in the house, from finding the secret room filled with pidgeons to the discovery of the diary and the strange key on the grounds which all signal the start of the creepy action.
That also leads into the film's rather decent and enjoyable haunting scenes. With the first hauntings occuring through her nightmares of being attacked while performing for her song to the discovery of the bones locked in the attic and then the children's toys coming to life and playing on their own just before the death of the worker, this builds up rather nicely with a nice series of visions and sequences that further fuel her mental anguish. Since the attacks and visions are based more on her being the main witness to the action and her backstory being his patient as well as the backstory with the house, these come together rather nicely to deliver some pretty fun cheesy moments that move the hauntings away from psychosis into possession that matches the activity in the backstory. Featuring some solid action in this part of the film and really having a lot to like in the finale, these here hold this one up for the most part.
There are a few problems here. The main issue is the absolutely troublesome beginning to this one to get the film going as it takes a while to get the storyline setup. The exploits of the doctor at the asylum working with his patients isn't all that interesting, as making his rounds or showing how he cares for the more psychotic inmates doesn't really serve any kind of interesting action going on, especially with the plotless reasons for staying there as often as we do. That this is countered by the boring scenes of them packing up to move into the house just makes for an overlong and boring setup that takes forever to get going as the lack of horror scenes early on due to this issue is quite noticeable.
The other big problem with this one is the absolutely bizarre and chaotic final half that makes no sense whatsoever. The film throws the characters through several alternate timelines and periods of history with various figures from her past thrown together into one random series of hallucinations to torment her and yet none of it makes any sense since nothing comes of these scenes. There's no greater sense of understanding the events of the past or using them to have the upper hand in the big confrontation, and it just ends up going through it's scenes in such a random manner as chaotically as it does here just makes for a confusing time that lowers this one significantly. These here are the biggest problems to be had with this one.
Overview: **1/2/5
With some big problems and some solid positives in store, there's a few decent points in store here for fans of decidedly under-the-radar cheesy practical effects films from the late 80s onward. Give it a go if you're into that kind of film or are a fan of the creative side, while those looking for something more substantial from their films should heed caution with this one.
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