Change Your Image
jkevinstevens
Reviews
The Invisible Maniac (1990)
Horror? Yes, But...
When I first viewed this on YT or somewhere (good print/720p upload, at least), I was home sick in bed, and the comedy bits flew right past me; what remained was pure horror. Not petrifying, hair-on-end horror, but the kind that creeps in more upon reflection.
On one hand, we have a typical/formula stalk-and-slash, while on the other hand we have some of the more frightening aspects of the original Universal 'Invisible Man' (and even more-so the recent, as of this writing, 2020 re-imagining of the mythos). Without whatever (to me) unconvincing attempts at comedy relief, the crazy laugh is just the crazy laugh of a sadistic sociopath - perhaps not unlike the last thing many actual victims of violent rape and murder may have heard.
And that's the 'horror' part of this film - though I'm unsure whether that's exactly how this production was supposed to turn out. Was there an audience anywhere who thought any of this comedy worked well enough to consider 'funny'? I'd be curious to know.
Maybe a year after that first viewing, I watched again with some friends, and of course it was way more of a goof, but my friends all agreed there was no real comedy, and it's really just a horror film about a sadistic, murdering rapist/stalker. That all being said, as you can see by my eight-star rating, I don't exactly hate this one. Quite the contrary; if viewed in the 'not-funny/bad-comedy'+sadistic murder=compelling horror, if a tad unpleasant.
Mysterious Two (1982)
Well, Now I Have To See This Again!
This was a network TV (CBS, NBC, or ABC) movie-of-the-week production that aired a couple of times. I just stumbled across one of those airings, and recall it was totally engrossing.
The story, as I remember it, had more to do with two grifting cult-leaders, though you have to stay til the end to discover that. It's pretty convincing in a suspenseful, are-they-or-aren't-they kind of way. They build an amazing structure (with the money they glean from their followers) in anticipation of an otherworldly visit predicted for a certain date, but on the very day it was supposed to happen, the mysterious two vanish, leaving behind a large group of beguiled cultists to wonder whatever happened to their big day.
I do not remember any of the cultist followers disappearing, as alluded to in other reviews here, which is why I need to see this again.
Deadly Games (1982)
Way Too Stagey - Minor Spoilers
It's almost as if the writer were projecting, "I have written for off-off-Broadway!!" And so, the actors can't even inhabit these stilted characters. They do what they can with it, but the writer is also the director here, and they had to place their trust in him, which turned out bad.
That being said, despite all the talking and talking, Jo Ann Harris is fun to watch as Keegan, the murders are pretty grim, and the cleaned-up video looks passable (I believe the old VHS copy must have been a bad transfer, from what I've read in the reviews here), and the camerawork, while not the least bit showy, is at least competent.
It's funny because I remember passing this by, flipping channels, during the pool scene when the film was still very new, and the weirdness of that scene stuck with me for some reason - and then here it is in this turkey! Also, one of the murder set pieces near the end is a direct ripoff of a much older film, called 'Terrified' (1963), but done effectively enough.
So, four stars. This could have been a decent film with a rewrite or three. The first of the double-twist endings was predictable, and the second one seemed to be just tacked on as an afterthought, but Harris is fun to watch.