As did his peers John Carpenter and Tobe
Hooper, Wes Craven made a pit stop in telefilms between his early independent
efforts and his later success with big-budget movies. Yet while Carpenter made
the respectable biopic Elvis (1979)
and Hooper directed the passable Stephen King adaptation Salem’s Lot (also 1979), Craven marked time with this silly
supernatural thriller starring Linda Blair. Reflecting none of the gonzo excess
of his earlier pictures and none of the playful wit that made him famous in the
’80s and beyond, Stranger in Our House—also
known as Summer of Fear—is wholly
unimpressive from an artistic perspective. Yet because the movie is coherent
and technically proficient, it demonstrated Craven’s ability to phone in a hack
job as effectively as the next guy. Happily for horror-movie fans, Craven found his
voice with 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm
Street, blending the polished filmmaking he demonstrates here with the
out-there qualities of his earliest endeavors while also introducing the
crucial element of humor.
Stranger in Our
House revolves around the middle-class Bryant family, parents Carol and Tom
plus kids Peter and Rachel (Blair). When Carol’s sister and her husband are
killed in a car crash, the Bryants take in their newly orphaned niece, Julia
Trent (Lee Purcell). She’s overtly wholesome, with her Ozarks accent and shy
politeness, but Rachel spots trouble immediately, because—cliché alert!—an
animal, specifically Rachel’s beloved horse, reacts badly to Julia’s presence. (As
in all mediocre movies of this sort, nobody finds the animal’s reaction
noteworthy except Rachel.) Things proceed very much according to formula. Julia
steals Rachel’s boyfriend, Rachel finds weird artifacts among Julia’s
belongings, and Rachel consults the neighborhood occult expert. (Wait, your
neighborhood doesn’t have an occult expert?) Things move along at a fair clip,
though nothing truly frightening or suspenseful happens. As for the acting, Blair is insufferably whiny, and Purcell’s adequate work gets undercut by the goofy final scenes.
Stranger
in Our House: FUNKY
1 comment:
I have to disagree in that I really love this movie & feel as though it's one of those sort of subtly cult-ish items that grabs you more with hidden undercurrents every time you re-visit it ... It starts out feeling like the worst sort of Hallmark type family film -- & for the first 15 minutes you think that's what it's going to be ... And then gradually you start to realize that the schmaltzy veneer is hiding this "Craven" menace below ... I found it to be much more effective than many of Craven's (lesser) theatrical films -- and I would rate the darkroom scene as a world-class , old-school kind of jump scare ...
Post a Comment