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VHS MOVIE REVIEW : ALISON'S BIRTHDAY (1979)
Extremely talky Australian supernatural horror film, with a couple of good sequences to redeem it. When Alison (Joanne Samuel) is sixteen years old, she and some school friends play with a glass ouija board and a spirit comes forth to warn Alison not to let "them" get her when she turns nineteen. Cut to the present and it's a few days before her 19th birthday. She seems like a well-adjusted girl who's in love with her disc jockey boyfriend Pete (Lou Brown). Since she was a young girl, she's been an orphan and it seems like she has a good life, but something begins to happen to her that changes her sunny outlook. She begins to have nightmares about a cult of people in robes repeating "Hail Myrne" over and over and the occupants at the boarding house she lives in seem to pay very close attention to her. Perhaps too close. She becomes a virtual prisoner in the boarding house, as the resident "doctor" seems to be drugging her. Pete tries to get her out of there, but is defeated every time he tries. The strange people even hypnotise Alison to get her to say to the police that she doesn't want Pete around any more. As Pete digs for more clues as to why Alison is acting so strangely, he comes across the word "Myrne" which is a Celtic demon, that a cult of witches worship. Together with his friend Sally Brown (Lisa Peers), Pete pieces together what is really happening. This is the 19th year of the Myrne calendar and, because of her birth date, Alison is a very special person for them. They need her body to bring back a demon, which will give the cult members very special gifts, like eternal life. It then becomes a race between Pete and the cult as to who will get possession of Alison. It's apparent that director/screenwriter Ian Coughlan (who died of cancer in 2001) has watched ROSEMARY'S BABY maybe one too many times, but he does inject some terror into the proceedings, especially a tense moment in a graveyard that involves a pitchfork and an ending where good does not triumph. Still, it's rather talky and bloodless and reminds me of those 70's Australian TV movies that Paragon would release on tape (ie: NIGHT NURSE; IMAGE OF DEATH; DEATH TRAIN): Somewhat entertaining, but missing elements that would make it more enjoyable, like nudity and gore. Also starring Bunney Brooke, John Bluthal, Vincent Ball, Margie McCrae and Julie Wilson. A VidAmerica Home Video Release. Not Rated. { text from critcononline.com }
VHS MOVIE REVIEW : AMITYVILLE: A NEW GENERATION (1993)
The last installment, AMITYVILLE 1992: IT'S ABOUT TIME, took the premise "What if objects from the Amityville house (which was destroyed) found their way into unsuspecting hands and cursed their lives, causing death and destruction?" In that film a cursed clock caused plenty of problems for a suburban family before it was destroyed. In this installment, a demonic mirror is the culprit. An artist named Keye (Ross Partridge) receives an unusual looking mirror from a bum (Jack R. Orend) on the street. He brings it back to his apartment complex, which houses an odd assortment of artists including Julia Nickson-Soul as a painter of demonic portraits and Richard Roundtree as a twisted sculpturor. When the mirror causes the death of Soul and her abusive boyfriend, a police detective (Terry O'Quinn) becomes interested in Keye's life. When the bum is found dead, the detective discovers that the bum was actually Keye's long-lost father who committed a series of brutal murders of his family in the Amityville house when he was a teen. Keye has no memories of his father since he saw him kill Keye's mother when they were visiting him at a mental hospital years before, that event causing his mind to block out the bloody event. With help from the detective, Keye is able to remember those repressed memories and get on with his life. But the mirror contains the spirit of his father, who tries to make Keye commit murder in the same manner as he did to his family. It all culminates in a showdown at an art exhibit where Keye must decide to either kill his friends or destroy the mirror. This edition of the Amityville franchise is low on originality, low on shocks and, worst of all, low on blood and guts. At least AMITYVILLE 1992 had a playful screenplay and good effects. A NEW GENERATION contains neither, as it just meanders to an unexciting conclusion. Terry O'Quinn and Richard Roundtree do add some class to the proceedings. Unfortunately, their screen time is way too short to recommend this loser. Director John Murlowski previously made RETURN OF THE FAMILY MAN (1989), a cheap carbon copy of the Terry O'Quinn-starrer THE STEPFATHER (1987). I wonder if Mr. O'Quinn was aware of this? Mr. Murlowski later went on to make the decent actioner AUTOMATIC (1994) and CONTAGION (2001). Also starring Lala Sloatman and David Naughton. A Republic Pictures Home Video Release. Rated R. { text from critcononline.com }
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