Customer Reviews

Praying Mantis [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jane Seymour stars as "Linda Crandall", a charming, attractive widow who seems perfect in her new fiance's life, Don McAndrews (Barry Bostwick). But her "other side" reveals a self-destructive form of split-personality disorder. Apparently she was abused and tormented as a child by her alcoholic mother. She talks to herself in the mirror but actually believes she's talking to her mother. She even cuts herself with razor blades! Don's sister-in-law, Betty (Frances Fisher) dosen't trust Linda and knows she's hiding something. Meanwhile, Linda does everything in her power to keep other women away from her man, and even brutally murders a waitress who Linda believes was coming on to him. But when Betty see's Linda's picture on a Wanted by F.B.I TV show for marrying and then murdering her husbands, she snoops through Linda's things and discovers 5 gold wedding rings! This is where things take an intense turn into madness where Linda has a severe breakdown and smashes the mirror after discovering that Betty took the rings. Betty is in for a deadly payback. The intense, and scary plot will leave you biting you nails!

The script takes Jane Seymour away from her usual role as "good guy" or sympathetic female.. who needs a hero to help her..The audience knows at the very beginning she is the "bad guy"..but her compelling performance of the "abused woman" keeps us in suspence to find out why this "black widow" is doing these murderous deeds.. A good suspence. but only 2 stars.. directing and editing gets a 1/2 star..

This movie has it all. Suspense,Drama,Comedy and most of all Jane Seymour! The usually sweet Jane is at her best here. Don't expect to see the old Doc Quinn here! Her character in this movie is one you wouldn't want to meet in an alley. You will have a ball watching ths one!

This TVM directed by James Keach was clearly created as a change of pace for his wife, Jane Seymour, abandoning her signature mane of long hair and playing a serial killer. The treatment begins with material from Black Widow, establishing that Seymour has a pattern of marrying older men and then murdering them on their wedding night. However the bulk of time centres on her pursuit of Barry Bostwick. The fun of the Theresa Russell character in Black Widow was that she acted quickly - she hunted, killed then moved on without fuss. However the decision here to focus on one potential vicitim, with obstacles in the form of suspicious friends and relatives, is a fatal (no pun intended) error, since the dialogue is less than inspired. The only line I didn't anticipate is an exchange between Seymour and Bostwick. He asks if anyone has ever said no to her, and she replies "Never twice". Seymour comments that she is attracted to men who resemble her father, and though the notion of child abuse creating an Electra complexion is psychologically dubious, it becomes perversely plausible since this is the only possible reason anyone would be interested in someone as incredibly dull as Bostwick. Seymour actually has more sexual chemistry with Bostwick's son (an idea left unexplored) and since Bostwick isn't worth looking at, our focus is even more shifted to Seymour. Her severe helmet hairstyle actually succeeds in nearly making her unrecognisable, but whilst she plays self-consciousness well, she cannot convince in her attempts at being a threatening presence. Keach uses her sociopathic smiling for camp effect, as well as the titled camera angles, the clumsily staged scenes of violence, the inevitable slow-motion, and Seymour talking to herself in mirrors. Seymour's expression of neurosis is superficial, but still she retains our empathy, in spite of silly insults like her cover as a writer blown by her thinking Anna Karenina is a writer, and the subplot of the FBI tracking her being arbitrary. Keach provides one inspired touch of Seymour having a box to hold all her wedding rings, and though Frances Fisher has a rather thankless role as a rival for Bostwick (!) and therefore competition for Seymour, she does get one funny drunk scene. Although explained away by the context of serial killing, this teleplay actually demonstrates the modern notions of a small number of dates before a wedding is proposed, and sexual relations experienced as part of courting. These social observations are either a reactionary endorsement of prudence, or anarchial proof that marriage is death.

OK, it's not blockbuster material, I freely admit that. It will always have that "made for TV movie" taste about it. However, the acting's really not half bad, for what it is. The story's not bad. It's a painfully familiar pathological lier serial killer formula, but there's enough character development of the killer without going overboard, and Jane Seymour did it pretty darn well. But, and those who know me will understand what I mean, that hair is to DIE for! I'm giving this at LEAST an extra two stars just for the hair. Jane's usual style, although very pretty, is utterly eclipsed by this be-all-and-end-all of brunette Pageboy Bobs. She's always been pretty to me, as far back as my brief childhood exposure to her in Battlestar Galactica, but now I feel I can truly die happy having seen JUST HOW pretty she can be, above and beyond anything she can do with the long blonde. With the Bob and that AMAZING figure she has, and the bizarre scariness of the psychotic character she's playing, she is going into my personal log book as being the person I'd like to have poison me. If you've got to be killed by someone, well she'd be my choice. :)

Yeah, Jane playing an evil character! She already showed us in East of Eden that she can do this very well, and so she does in Praying Mantis. It is great!!!

it's about this woman Linda Crandall,who Murders her husbands on their wedding night. She was abused as a child. I think,either by her mother or father. She talks to herself in the mirror,Sounds like me.I think these things,You Stupid girl! She has 5 Wedding Rings from each of her 5 dead husbands. she also takes a picture of them. Don's sister-in-law Betty is convinced that Linda is hiding something.