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6.0/10
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A disturbed telepathic man is unable to fully control his ability to transmit his dreams and visions into the minds of the people around him, or even influence reality. A female therapist tr... Read allA disturbed telepathic man is unable to fully control his ability to transmit his dreams and visions into the minds of the people around him, or even influence reality. A female therapist tries to help him, but his mother gets in the way.A disturbed telepathic man is unable to fully control his ability to transmit his dreams and visions into the minds of the people around him, or even influence reality. A female therapist tries to help him, but his mother gets in the way.
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Fitfully effective creep-out, one that sneaked in and out of theaters but managed to find a small audience once it premiered on cable in the mid-1980s. Lovely Kathryn Harrold is very good as a dedicated doctor attempting to understand a handsome young mental patient (Zeljko Ivanek) who is both telepathic and wildly unbalanced. An odd, off-putting piece, though certainly a curious one filmed quite well on a low-budget; its predilection for smashed glass and marauding insects and rodents may turn many viewers off however, and Shirley Knight's performance as the sender's mother nearly lapses into camp (though I actually welcomed this!). ** from ****
The 1980s are known as the golden age of slasher movies. It's worth noting that not all horror flicks from the era of the Rubik's Cube were slashers. A really good non-slasher is Roger Christian's psychological thriller "The Sender", about a man whose dreams manifest themselves. There are some VERY intense scenes. I liked the whole sequence in the operating room.
As is often the case with horror flicks, "The Sender" features an eye-opening cast and crew. Roger Christian won an Oscar for Art Direction for "Star Wars" and received a second nod for "Alien", but later directed the infamous "Battlefield Earth". Kathryn Harrold used to be married to MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell. eljko Ivanek was born in Ljubljana but raised in the United States and has appeared in a number of movies and TV shows. Shirley Knight has been in movies for over fifty years. Paul Freeman played the villain in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". And then there's writer Tom Baum: he also wrote wrote the 1975 animated feature "Hugo the Hippo", one of the most WTF movies ever.
Anyway, it's a neat movie. I recommend it.
PS: "The Sender" opened the 1982 Avoriaz Film Festival.
As is often the case with horror flicks, "The Sender" features an eye-opening cast and crew. Roger Christian won an Oscar for Art Direction for "Star Wars" and received a second nod for "Alien", but later directed the infamous "Battlefield Earth". Kathryn Harrold used to be married to MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell. eljko Ivanek was born in Ljubljana but raised in the United States and has appeared in a number of movies and TV shows. Shirley Knight has been in movies for over fifty years. Paul Freeman played the villain in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". And then there's writer Tom Baum: he also wrote wrote the 1975 animated feature "Hugo the Hippo", one of the most WTF movies ever.
Anyway, it's a neat movie. I recommend it.
PS: "The Sender" opened the 1982 Avoriaz Film Festival.
A doctor (Kathryn Harroler) tries to find out why a telepathic young man (Zelijko Ivank) is unleashing his nightmares and visions into the minds of the staff and patients and causing them injury. She thinks his weird mother (Shirley Knight) my be part of the cause. Crisp, suspenseful thriller with a solid premise and good production values & performances. One of the best horror films from the 1980's.
Rated R; Violence.
Rated R; Violence.
The Sender has some interesting concepts of the supernatural being housed in science and psychology. The picture unfortunately suffers from the rigors of making monsters out of science and doctors as they ignore and disbelieve the supernatural. The depiction of mental illness is poorly conveyed, but for a film made in 1982, this could have been progressive at the time. The film lacks the larger structure and bite that the Dead Zone was able to capture but a year later. (And no doubt due largely to Stephen King's superb story and Cronenberg's talent to maintain the story but transform it into film.) Acting is generally decent and rises to the occasion. This, and the unsuspected reveal at the start of the 3rd act brings this film to a 6 given the "movie of the week" nature of the story and plotting, as well as the lackluster ongoing tension that wasbnot sustained in this film. Tired of watching the Dead Zone? This one is worth a watch, but don't expect too much from it.
A suicidal mental patient(Zelijko Ivanek)turns his horrific nightmares into reality by choosing receivers for his demented thoughts from the local hospital.Psychiatrist(Kathryn Harrold)realizes the young man's power and tries to save him."The Sender" is a very creepy horror film that has slick production values.The acting is surprisingly good and the film perfectly mixes reality with unsettling hallucinations.There is only a little bit of blood,but the atmosphere of dread and fear is easy to feel.There are some wonderful moments of pure horror like the scene where an Etc machine is switched on and an entire operating room erupts in a slow-motion explosion.The film is relatively obscure,but if you get the chance watch it.8 out of 10.Highly recommended.
Did you know
- TriviaThe film's director Roger Christian has said of this movie in an interview: ''This was the beginning of my career as a director, and it was a real battle with the producer and the studios who were dumping it. They were hiding it and I was fighting...It came off the back of, first, Black Angel (1980) in particular got me a Hollywood agent, and a very good one, different from most of them. I was more interested in pursuing [Andrei] Tarkovsky [Andrei Tarkovsky]'s kind of way of filmmaking where I was making the film for the subconscious rather the conscious. I thought I'd better do something else, so I made The Dollar Bottom (1981)...That won the Academy Award, so that got me The Sender, and it was with Fox, 20th Century Fox, and then right when we were well into it, almost into production, they turned around and cancelled, and Paramount Pictures picked it up in three days, and we went straight ahead. But it's one of these films, I found out, as I said, Paramount were completely not interested in it, they really did nothing with it at the time, which was a shame... it was a very, very good script, and I got a really good cast of actors to do it, and it was a baptism by fire for me, with the producer and the studios and everything...''.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: Hidden Horror (1988)
- How long is The Sender?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,054,328
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $434,884
- Oct 24, 1982
- Gross worldwide
- $1,054,328
- Runtime
- 1h 31m(91 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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