Psychic Killer (1975)

          Now matter how keen low-budget ’70s producers were on the notion of making thrillers about people using astral projection to commit murder, this weak film and the following year’s even worse The Astral Factor reveal the basic problem with creating suspense around astral projection—there’s nothing innately suspenseful about watching a dude sit in a chair while his projected image flits about elsewhere. That said, Psychic Killer straddles the fence between watchable escapist silliness and tiresome junk. Although the picture definitely falls into dull ruts at regular intervals, there’s just enough clarity and pace and sleaze to merit a casual viewing for those who enjoy vintage supernatural-horror cinema. Hell, the movie even boasts a tangible connection to an earlier era of fantasy flicks, because leading lady Julie Adams—still an elegant beauty at the time this picture was made—gained immortality two decades prior by starring in The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

          Psychic Killer stars Jim Hutton (Timothy’s father) as Arnold Masters, an everyman convicted for a murder he did not commit. While in jail, he meets a strange fellow named Emilio (Stack Pierce), who claims to have the ability to mentally project his image. Emilio dies soon afterward, bequeathing to Arnold a magical talisman that facilitates astral projection. So when Arnold is unexpectedly exonerated and released, Arnold uses his newfound ability to menace the people he blames for his imprisonment. Some of the resulting kill scenes are colorful, as when Arnold’s spirit possess a showerhead and boils an evil nurse to death with hot water. (Maybe try exiting the shower?) Other kill scenes are campy, notably the bit during which Arnold compels a crane to drop a giant rock onto a heartless businessman. Eventually, the trail of bodies leads to Arnold, so intrepid policeman Jeff Morgan (Paul Burke) investigates, enlisting Arnold’s prison psychiatrist, Dr. Laura Scott (Adams), for help.

          Cowriter/director Ray Danton and his collaborators have difficulty maintaining a consistent tone, so the movie wobbles between jokes and jolts, with neither element achieving much power, and things take a turn for the goofy near the end. However, the picture is made with a fair amount of professionalism behind and in front of the camera, and the storyline has an appealing meat-and-potatoes simplicity. Too bad composer William Kraft couldn’t sustain the Jerry Goldsmith-style grandiosity of his opening-credits theme music all the way through the film’s score.

Psychic Killer: FUNKY

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)

          Some of the creepiest movies of the ’70s were actually made for TV, perhaps because the medium’s restrictions against gore forced filmmakers to concentrate on atmosphere and suspense. Additionally, the way TV movies came and went overnight lent a sort of mythological power to the best such pictures, with viewers wondering if they really saw what they thought they saw. Given these factors, it’s understandable why an otherwise unassuming flick like Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark could gain minor cult-movie notoriety: While not a great film, the picture was creepy and strange enough to lodge itself in viewers’ collective memory. (Proving the picture’s enduring appeal, a big-screen remake was released in 2011, with Katie Holmes starring.)

          Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is haunted-house picture notable for the bizarre-looking creatures that harass the story’s heroine. The critters are doll-sized, fur-covered humanoids with ugly little wrinkled faces, and they use simple tools like a rope strung across a stairway to cause lethal accidents. In shots where the creatures interact with normal-sized people, oversized props and careful editing are used to sell the illusion that these tiny tormenters are scuttling around underfoot, trying to drag the humans down to their mysterious realm, which can only be accessed through a basement fireplace. For unsuspecting viewers in 1973, discovering that Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was a full-on creature feature must have been alarming, and even though the supernatural concepts of the movie are both ridiculous and unexplained, the idea of gremlins lurking in the shadows of one’s own home is an irrational fear many people share.

          The story begins when a young couple inherits a musty mansion. The husband (Jim Hutton) is often away on business, so his wife (Kim Darby) is stuck at the house, bickering with a cantankerous handyman (William Demarest) and trying to figure out if the weird creatures she’s seeing are real or imagined. Neither Hutton nor Darby is an acting powerhouse, and Demarest gives a perfunctory turn, so it’s not the acting that gives Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark its mild spookiness; rather, the picture’s potency stems from the filmmakers’ wholehearted commitment to an outlandish narrative. The movie gets down to business immediately and escalates steadily, never pausing for distractions like character development, and there’s always something admirable about a no-frills fright machine. So, while Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark can’t match the nerve-jangling intensity of the best ’70s TV horror, like Duel or Trilogy of Terror, it’s a distracting trifle nonetheless. (Available at WarnerArchive.com)

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: FUNKY