Sunday, October 11, 2015

Brief Thoughts - WITCHBOARD (1986)


The other night watched Kevin Tenney's WITCHBOARD (1986) for the first time since the days of VHS rentals. I enjoyed it back then and I'm happy to say that this viewing confirmed my original opinion. WITCHBOARD is a well constructed little supernatural horror tale that builds its suspense very cleverly with well defined characters that have believable personality conflicts. Although the acting is not always great there is enough talent onscreen to effectively communicate the feeling that these are people that have an existence beyond the story and have a history that impinges on the events we are witnessing in the film. It helps that the script is smart enough to build a pretty good mystery and follow it through in ways that cut deeply into the relationships it presents. This is good, solid horror filmmaking. I much prefer this to the much better loved next movie on director Tenney's resume NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988) which has always disappointed me every time I give it another chance.





2 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks like Tenney started out strong and went down hill fast. I've seen Night of the Demons and Pinocchio's Revenge( terrible ), but the rest of his resume doesn't look much better.

Unknown said...

Tawny Kitaen left her mark on me long before she fucked up the paint job on David Coverdale's twin Jaguar XJ's. This movie hit me when I was 20 years old and a red head like that can cause intense desire in a young mans heart. I am not saying that she is a good actress, but watch her in this movie and I think you will understand that if I can sit through this it must be because of the girl.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087903/?ref_=nm_knf_t3