ArchObler

"Hey, look at me I'm on drugs! Look at how subversively freaky I'm acting!" is what Conrad Rooks seems to be saying in every scene he's in in this movie he also wrote and directed. This is what happens when you give an untalented drug addict a vanity project. There's also a great number of trite shots of Cheyennes and Indians and people a part of other cultures which eventually seemed to be a part of the public consciousness only as a conduit for 60's trippiness. William S. Burroughs has a lot of weird charisma though, the same kind he had in Drugstore Cowboy years later. Maybe if he had been the lead this would have been worth seeing but I still doubt it. * out of ****

From about the ages of about 10 to 15 I was a huge professional wrestling fan. Especially the WWF. I knew everything there was to know about every wrestler and even saw a few live shows when they came to town. But then there came the time when I just lost interest. It happened almost overnight. This film might just work best for people like that; the people who look at their past interest in this freak show sport with a little bemusement. Despite the fact that it's all rigged, what the wrestlers are doing is still fairly impressive. They're professionals who occasionally put themselves in genuine physical danger to put on a good show. But it was sad to see Jake The Snake Roberts, one of my favorites when I was a kid, struggling with his career, his daughter, and with his drug addictions. A sharp reality amongst this bizarre form of escapism. ***1/2 out of ****

One of my favorites as a kid, and still great to see today. It's not entirely satisfying though. The problems with the film mainly come from the second half. The use of Scatman Crother's character when he makes his way back to the Overlook is clever and must have seemed great on paper, but it takes a lot of time and may cause a lot of impatience to some viewers. Also when the spooks of the hotel finally make themselves visible to Shelley Duvall, it's a bit of a letdown, since they're just a few random shots of things that have been seen in a lot of ghost films before. The moods of hauntings, possessions, and isolation have never been handled better though. This is one of scariest films ever made, it gives me the creeps, and Jack Nicholson's rant to Duvall about bothering him while he's working is a classic. The final chase through the maze is ingeniously handled, it has a real sense of danger. ***1/2 out of ****