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3.0 out of 5 stars
mind over matter, March 15, 2001
This review is from: Fury Within [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Director Noel Nosseck directs the action sequences of this thriller so well, with particularly good editing, that it's a pity that the script is so weak when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Ally Sheedy stars as the mother of two children, being divorced by Costas Mandylor, who is a victim to some paranormal harassment. When it is believed that the behaviour is being triggered by a poltergeist agent, who has no control of the limbic part of the brain which is the source of primitive drives and the unconscious "phantom dog", this thriller takes on a sci-fi horror movie tone. However, unlike titles like Scream where the killings are all there is, the script pauses to consider the affair Mandylor is having with Jodie Dry. Dry at least tries to add some depth to her cliched character but she's up against Mandylor's dull presence. Nosseck seems to have no appreciation of Mandylor's hunk appeal, since he positively desexualises him, to such an extant that we think Sheedy should be grateful to be rid of him. Sheedy is another problem. Although her role in High Art allowed for a breakthrough from her previous vacuous presence, here she can't make the leap to be a convincing mother - she's more like a concerned older sister. Horssek uses her well in the first visit of the phantom dog, focusing on her stillness and strength, and she is able to suggest the pain of her predicament but there is an essential falseness in her interaction with Mandylor, even allowing for his ineptitude. She is given one contexually funny line after she is hurt, when the force pushes a fridge into her during a kitchen free for all. When asked how she feels, she answers dryly - "like I got hit by a fridge". The subsequent paranormal events are inconsistent - one where graffiti is written on a wall is undermined by the height of the writing and the shortness of the person who is accused of doing it - and another where a basketball goes riot turns out to be a red herring - but there is also a pleasing lackof hysteria in the reactions. When Sheedy is discovered holding a gun by her maid, the maid is calm and logical when she asks why Sheedy has it. When we finally see the phantom dog materialised it is disappointing that it appears to be a computer-generated monster, even when the idea of a vengeful id comes from Freud and Shakespeare's The Tempest via Forbidden Planet. The conclusion is acceptable if flawed but the wrap-up maudlin and unbelievable. Even the expected hereditary evil-never-dies idea would be preferable to the compromised choice. However in spite of these, one is left with the anticipation of Nosseck's next project, with a better script and improved casting. The film was made in Queensland which explains Dry, Steve Bastoni as a physics and paranormal scientest brought in to help, and the appearance of other Australian actors in the cast in supporting roles.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
un-SCARY movie....alley sheedy needed work?, January 6, 2003
This review is from: Fury Within [VHS] (VHS Tape)
this a waste of film and man power, the movie starts out with a old geaser feeding a pit bull with unbloody meat ,ahh chicken? anyway these kids sneak over his fence two get apples off his tree, the dog brakes his chain and goes after them ,they get away? the old geaser gets a heart attack and dies... the animal controll with the police find the old geasers body,they filmed the scene with a little blood spot on his shirt, the animal controll guy tells alley sheedy the dog ate nibbled the old geaser, the dog and the old geaser go after ally sheedy, the dog alive.....the old geaser a ghost........this movie cuts away went you might see anything bloody? alley sheedy must of needed money the week she read this script, this is a dumb dumb dumb movie,the filming is not worth watching for free! its work to watch it!
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