HAUNTED (1977)
D. Michael G. Degeatano
D. Michael G. Degeatano
CODE RED DVD
This older drive-in style potboiler
is one of the releases from Code Red that features ex-wrestler Maria
as a host. Seems that most of the movies she hosts are really bad.
Some so bad they are great like NIGHT OF THE DEMON or MARDI GRAS
MASSACRE, but others like this one leave you wondering why they
bothered to put it out at all. Even she comments after the movie on
how futile and pointless it all was.
The story begins promisingly enough
with a very well acted prologue. An Indian maiden is stripped bare
and set off on her horse to die. Turns out the soldiers and townsfolk
all conspired to kill her and lied about the charges she was
sentenced over. Cut to modern day and the town has become a
dilapidated tourist trap. Resided over by an old man (Aldo Ray) his
psychotic wife (Virginia Mayo) and his two sons. Seems the lady of
the house never got over an affair she had with old Aldo's brother
when they were all much younger and has driven herself insane with
the good memories of loving this man. This man she can never have
because he up and vanished one day. The kids hate their father and
disrespect him at every turn. Into this mess comes a young woman (Ann
Michelle) who sets the delicate balance of the house askew. The
eldest son decides to put mom into a nursing home and sell the land.
Meanwhile mysteriously a phone booth has been installed in the
cemetery next door. A phone-line to talk to the dead.
The problem with HAUNTED is that it is
slow. People talk a lot, and the town has a weird atmosphere
to it. But as for action, there literally is none. Nothing scary
happens until well past the one hour mark and then it is so little
that you are shocked when the movie is over.
Review © Andrew Copp
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