So, I explained my thought process on the older titles with which to pair blocks of the new Twilight Zone. Although I’d heard of this movie vaguely (or maybe I confused it with the Vincent Price movie Tales of Terror, LOL) I didn’t know anything about it. It is available for free to Amazon Prime members though!
It stars Karen Black, whom I remember for her bravura turn in Five Easy Pieces and her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock’s final film Family Plot, in every story.
I’ll start off with the positives – she’s great and the movie is beautifully filmed and scored, with some amazing visuals in the last story.
How would I rate the most important part – the writing* – though? Let’s look at the stories one at a time. Note: they’re all named after the character(s) Black plays in them.
“Julie” – VERY compelling story about a bookish instructor (I believe she teaches community college although that’s not made explicit) and the walking embodiment of toxic masculinity who fixates on her. All the women who have come forward in the past two years thanks to the #MeToo movement and the Brett Kavanaugh outcry made me realize how helpless a woman would be in this situation and how much the men in charge would probably make HER suffer as a result of the male student’s actions. I was transfixed.
All that said, your feelings about “Julie” will come down to the ending. It was okay but felt a little gimmicky. I had confidence in writer Richard Matheson to find a more ingenious way out of the conflict he’d written; didn’t’ seem like he had it though. Plus after the reveal the story continued through two additional pointless scenes.
“Millicent and Therese” – By far the weakest of the three. All it really did was spend the entire time telegraphing the supposed twist ending. If you do stream the film forward through this part. The only nice thing I can say is that Karen Black, with her blonde hair and revealing clothing, looks great as Therese.
All right, I will add there is something mentioned in the characters’ backstory that lends a moving tragic quality to the ending.
“Amelia” – A woman, trying hard to gain independence from her beyond-overbearing mother, finds herself attacked by a Zuni doll that comes to life. A LOT of claustrophobic terror and some surprisingly chilling gore, but too often the heroine’s actions didn’t make sense to me. Plus the ending left me with an unanswered question. Still, nice little piece of tawdry horror, and Black particularly shines considering she’s the only person we see or hear in the entire thing!
Bottom line: Julie -63/100, Millicent and Therese – 31/100, Amelia – 74/100
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to comment.
*Maybe I’m biased since I am a writer. If you really wanna see how good I am though, come to the performance of my play Inversion September 21st, 2019 at the Bonita Center for the Arts in San Dimas, CA!
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