Appointment with Fear (1985)

Director:

Ramsey Thomas

Writers:

Gideon Davis, Bruce Meade,

Stars:

Michele Little, Michael Wyle, Kerry Remsen

Cast

Credited cast:
Michele Little	...	Carol
Michael Wyle	...	Bobby
Kerry Remsen	...	Heather
Douglas Rowe	...	Detective Kowalski
Garrick Dowhen	...	The man
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dayton Allen
James Avery	...	Connors
Pamela Bach-Hasselhoff	...	Samantha (as Pamela Bach-Hasselhoff)
Vincent Barbour	...	Cowboy
Gertrude Clement	...	Old Woman (as Gertrude M. Clement)
Nick Conti	...	Young Detective
Danny Dayton	...	Norman
Anson Downes	...	Policeman #1
John Escobar	...	Policeman
Brioni Farrell	...	Mrs. Sorenson

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

slasher | murder | splatter | independent film | surprise ending

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Taglines:

Trapped in a world where death is not the end!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Deadly Presence

Filming Locations:

Raleigh Studios - 5300 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gantuan Productions, Modern Systems Network International, Ansonia

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Who Is Alan Smithee? (2002)

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Soundtracks

"Everything at Once"
Music and Lyrics by Christopher Maggi
Sung by Christopher Maggi

User Reviews

Forget the appointment!

Um, yeah. It's puerile… not wonder why the fetchingly detailed video artwork is eye-catching as it draws you in (and how many times have we've been fooled by that?) to only to find when you watch it. Boy what a mistake! Hey a friend gave this one to me (with a smile on his face), but in all honesty I don't know what to make of 'Appointment with Fear'? If this was supposed to be a supernatural slasher, it wasn't much of one. So randomly bizarre and tacky, but even more so deadly dull. It does seem to have a lot going on with something always happening, but the terribly thought-out material (it's a wonky script) is a complete shambles with numerously pointless developments (what was the deal with bum they virtually kept as a pet?) and unrelated padding that throws out ideas with nothing to entirely back it up. All of this build-up and all we get is one abysmally meandering set-up after another with no real groundwork. Tacked on is a lame climax, with an even lamer freeze ending. Ugh!

The concept which has a criminal lying in hospital in a coma, but managing to leave his body in a spiritual sense and go after his baby (no not teleporting, but in his mysteriously white van in psychical form) to murder it for the reason of staying the king (something of a Egyptian Demigod) for another year. He takes care of his wife, but the baby finds itself in the care of some hopeless teenagers that spend the night at forlorn house in the desert. Soon they find themselves caught in the terror in trying to protect the baby, as a lone, worn-out police detective is the only one who they can turn to.

I guess you call it plain dumb, or simply an interesting idea poorly realized, which has got to count for something. Director Alan Smithee (yeah I wouldn't blame them not wanting their real name tagged to this project) shoddily puts this low-end feature together with blotchy imagery and distracting techniques. The unhinged music score is overkill, editing around certain sequences is jerky and it seems to lose concentration with the camera closing in on redundant images… e.g. dolls? However it demonstrates a fluid glide in some looping camera shots when centering on the action at the remote villa. Then you even begin to question that! Atmosphere is non-existent with inept staging of the deaths (as most of them occur off-screen) and what we do see is impulsively ramshackle. They're bloodless and tensionless… oh no that's not good and our good old villain looks quite plain (while trying hard to evoke a serious face of pure evil!) and what he does is no better… driving about or just loitering around. As for the performances they're mainly annoyingly drab and oddball, however I didn't mind Michele Little as the main heroine, even though her constantly recording sounds with her microphone got numbing. The cast is made up by some faces that appeared in other horror/teen features like Debi Sue Voorhees, Kerry Remsen and Michael Wyle. James Avery shows up in minor part too.

"Appointment with Fear" is a drawn-out and hackneyed appointment that's well worth missing.