30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Mix of Fright and Camp, March 12, 2001
I gave this movie five stars not because it is an Oscar-quality classic - far from it - but because it succeeds on its own terms. It is scary - very, very scary. (If you watch it at night, I dare you to go to sleep without double-checking that the doors are locked!) The over-the-top performances, particularly Joan Crawford's, are also unintentionally funny. It works because the camp does not diminish the fright and the scares do not get in the way of the hilarity.
Why is this movie so scary? Others have mentioned the isolated farmhouse, the hazy atmosphere, the feeling of being alone, and the naiveté of the girls. Although some have criticized the teen-age actors, I think the story holds together because Libby and Kit's silly behavior (trying to appear sophisticated while really looking childish) is believable of 15-year-old girls then and now. Crawford, as a domineering neighbor, adds the camp. The slam-the-car-door scene is priceless! And have you ever seen a made-for-horror-movies necklace like the one Joan wears here?
This is not a movie which could be made effectively now (a poor remake was made in 1988) because the plot devices demand a 1960s-type telephone system. Today, a parent calling up to check on a child could almost always ring through on "call waiting"; ripping a telephone out of a wall is meaningless in the age of cell phones; and "Caller ID" and "Call Return" should make phony phone calls a thing of the past. Even at the time, it required viewers to suspend logic to believe that Mrs. Mannering, hearing non-stop busy signals, would not demand an "emergency cut in," which did exist at the time, or that this middle-class family lacked an extension phone. But these are minor nits.
The letterbox version now being sold is excellent. Make sure you see the trailers before and, especially, after the film. If you like this film, you will also like Strait Jacket, another Castle-Crawford pairing.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IF YOU WANT 'CAMP', THIS IS THE MOVIE FOR YOU!, February 7, 2000
If you want chilling, hilarious fun, this is most definitely entertainment at it's CAMPIEST best! Joan Crawford, as 'Amy', is totally filmed through gauze to soften the effects of her hard living & hard drinking years in Hollywood. Be sure to catch the scene where she is serving a cocktail & almost falls on her face! (And it wasn't even edited out! ) Notice the scene where she slams the car door & her beehive hairdo literally falls apart! When she screams, "Get outta here!", her voice sounds like an outraged truckdriver! The overacting is just priceless - every scene is better than the one before! Her long, dramatic death scene is done to the hilt! This is 'Mommie Dearest' to the MAX! I love this movie! Get out the popcorn, mix the cocktails, & get ready to be scared & to LAUGH your head off! We love you, William Castle! I give this film 5 Wire Hangers! It's absolutely TERRIFIC!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If Hitchcock had directed The Patty Duke Show..., September 29, 1999
This review is from: I Saw What You Did (DVD)
In the days before caller ID when I was in my early teens, my friends and I would sometimes fight boredom by making prank phone calls: "Is your refrigerator running?", that sort of thing. That was when I first saw this movie on TV, so it really hit close to home. Did it teach me any lessons? Not unless you include a few new phone ideas, but it did give me a favorite guilty pleasure movie. After over 20 years of waiting it's finally on home video. Some of the humor and acting seem a little dated now, but most of the suspense scenes are very intense even by today's standards, and it's as much fun to watch as ever.
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