3.0 out of 5 stars
Slightly Better Than Average '70s Psychological Thriller, December 23, 2010
This review is from: Haunts (1977) (DVD)
**NOTE - This review may contain spoilers**
What do you get when you take one part "Repulsion", one part "Homicidal" and one part "Sheriff Lobo"? The answer is "Haunts", an unassuming '70s thriller no one has heard of but one that can pass 90 minutes with little discomfort.
May Britt (who IS she?) is a Scandinavian farm woman who looks like Jean Arliss from William Castle's "Homicidal". In one scene, much to my delight, she even smashes a picture frame with the same demented frustration as Arliss did in "Homicidal"'s flower shop scene.
We learn from the start she's a little off-balanced because she has dreamy childhood flashbacks involving attempted molestation (as she's milking her goat!)
What's upsetting her even more is that a scissor-wielding maniac is stalking and killing the women in her rural community.
It's clear that May is frigid and uncomfortable around men due to her past. She is repulsed by the butcher, with whom the town tramp Nell flirts shamelessly. (Nell's big scene at the local watering hole as she switches back and forth between lonely drunk and big-mouthed bitch were the comic highlight of the film.) May also rebuffs the advances of the new guy in the church choir.
As the movie progresses, May is raped by the butcher, not once, but twice, and I had to keep guessing to figure out where all this was going.
I assumed there was going to be some sort of lesbian revelation, or that her strange uncle (Cameron Mitchell) was somehow responsible.
3/4 through, there is a police chase in a sawmill which I thought would produce some serious gore, but it did not deliver.
Needless to say, things got a little muddled towards the end but it did make for anything but a routine who-dun-it.
While most people would be disappointed by the slow pacing and lack of gore, I rather enjoy this type of film much more than the big-budget CGI, MTV-style edited garbage of today.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
A haunting experience, March 16, 2008
This review is from: Haunts (1977) (DVD)
It would be nice to write a review of this DVD, however the disc was defective and would not read in either of the DVD players I have in the home, I would think that Amazon would at least check the product before it is allowed to be shipped.
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