Director: Janet Greek
Year: 1988
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Cult
Plot:
Rescuing a woman from an abusive boyfriend, a lawyer enters into a relationship with her that puts him in contact with the coven of satanic worshippers intending on using her mystical powers to complete a deadly ritual and sets out to stop them before it's too late.
Review:
This one here wasn't really all that enjoyable and had a few issues going for it. The film's main issue here is the way this one really manages to drag out their impending romance throughout the first half which really manages to make for some really uneven times. They fall into each other really quickly here and then really drag it out after the fact which really slows this one significantly when there's a disproportionate amount of time on a rather lame and schmaltzy series of scenes that don't go anywhere so immediately into the movie. It's all of about ten minutes before they're together and getting quite intense in the relationship, which is hardly a significant wait here to get that intense into matters here then to turn it around into a dreadfully dull series of interludes that are nowhere near appropriate for a horror film.
All of these here manage the unfortunate task of keeping the film's horror trappings so late into the film that these are just so unworthwhile when they appear that it's really hard to take what's going on seriously based on what's given in so many of these scenes. We don't get a true measure of the group's powers until so late into this one that there's little about it that works as a horror film during this segment due to the lame-ness of the chosen powers and the sporadic nature of its appearances in the film. These here really hurt this one enough to the point of it downgrading the film enough that a lot of the positives featured here aren't all that impressive when we do get to them. That basically comes from the few attempts here to showcase the cult's powers which are based around quite impressive displays here from the supernatural powers against those who have wronged them, the different torments to stay away once they've stolen her back, and then devolves into the nice action of their hold-outs against him.
All of this really saves a lot of face against the dull first half by making the second half a lot more fun and exciting with plenty to like about it. From their attack on his house where they use the witchcraft powers for safety against the approaching horde attempting to break into the house, while the aftermath of all that is quite an impressive display of the powers that they use against them. It all leads into the fun finale at the beach as his attempts to track her down following the second abduction bring them to their sacrificial ceremony It's quite chilling and works more at delivering the impressive and original twist that sells this one nicely. Though it does tend to go on a little longer than it really should've, this one is still fun enough to really get some great points out of it when it really mattered.
Overview: **.5/5
Decent enough when it really matters but still let down heavily by some big factors, this one comes off as watchable for the most part as there are enough issues to hold this one back. Those who are fine with these factors or are fans of the approach taken here will have the most to like here while most others should heed caution here.
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