Hostile Takeover (24 Feb. 1991)

Director:

Randall Moldave

Writer:

Jonathan Valin

Stars:

Dennis Christopher, Tracey Walter, William Lanteau

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Dennis Christopher	...	Laurence Bauer
Tracey Walter	...	Ed, the Janitor
William Lanteau	...	Tom Hart
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pam Grier	...	Matilde

Storyline

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Release Date:

24 February 1991 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Laurel Entertainment Inc.

User Reviews

A lesson in voodoo economics

A greedy executive turns to voodoo to increase his fortune but is unwilling to pay up when the gods come to collect their share...

"Hostile Takeover" is an average episode. There was nothing about it that really made me sit up and take notice but it wasn't horrible either. They probably could've done a little better job on this one.

The executive's office looked really fake for some reason. I guess it was maybe the fact that it had no windows, no carpet, and everything was the exact same color. Isn't that one of the perks of being an executive: getting the corner office? It looked more like a mausoleum which I guess now that I think about it is probably sort of fitting.

The reasons behind Pam Grier turning from helping him to haunting him aren't terribly clear either. He goes to her shop and tries to perform a ritual. He suddenly turns on her without reason and she turns into a corpse (which also looks fake, by the way). Then she starts bothering him but, of course, as we all know, there has to be a bigger threat lurking out there --yawn.

Which brings us to the ending. You can see it from a mile away, it's rather lame, and it seems a bit unfinished. The monster, in keeping with the prevailing theme of the episode, looks even more fake than anything else. The one thing I'm curious about is how they did the effect with Pam Grier scraping her nails across the computer screen. That actually didn't look too bad.

I did get some mild enjoyment from "Hostile Takeover." It's always fun to see a nasty executive get what's coming to him and Pam Grier's performance is unintentionally funny. However, as bad as things would be now, they would only get worse.