TV-made thriller involves Parker Stevenson as a pop singer who is suddenly and mysteriously struck ill; needing a break from his busy schedule, and picking up a young nurse from his recent hospital stay, he happens upon an empty, isolated palatial estate in rural California, one with a dark past. Crack TV writer David Levinson penned this third-rate haunted house teleplay, and was a little late in getting it made--by 1981, the genre had pretty much played itself out. Lisa Eilbacher is the nurse who is ultimately the key to the strange happenings (after being introduced, top-billed Stevenson hasn't much to do). With her serious elfin face and worried little expressions, Eilbacher's later claim that she's never felt so at home as she does being in the house is rather preposterous (this despite the fact the local librarian was recently killed in the driveway!). The scenario itself seems awfully familiar (as does Billy Goldenberg's spooky music, with its echoes of Bob Cobert's score for 1976's "Burnt Offerings"), although the locations are interesting and the supporting players add some interest (much more so than the sleepy leads). The house, it turns out, is obsessed with Eilbacher (which is a ridiculous angle, but let it pass), even returning her old Raggedy Ann doll from childhood; however, nothing in the final 15 minutes manages to explain the fill-in-the-blanks plot. Is there a ghost in the house or are the bricks and mortar holding it up responsible for the haunting?
Review of This House Possessed
