Olivia

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Olivia; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.00 Direction: 1.50 Pace: 1.00 Acting: 0.50 Enjoyment: 1.00

TOTAL: 5.00 out of 10.00

This Ulli Lommel movie takes a step forward in cinematography but takes two backwards in the acting and story departments. And that is both a shame and a mystery as The Demonsville Terror (1983) was a much better affair.

Lommel, John Marsh, and Ron Norman give the audience a wishy-washy tale of a woman who is either haunted by her dead mother or is suffering grave psychological issues. For one thing, the writers could have structured this doubt better. How good would the narrative be with the possibility that Olivia's mother had returned from the dead(?) It would keep the viewers guessing and involve them greater in her tale. Sadly, they don't handle this or her mental problems too skilfully. But the worst element is the characters. They are too dispassionate, and their dialogue is atrocious, and in the worst way - There's no accidental humour in their chatter; it merely makes your skin crawl and soul cringe. This obstacle is regrettable because the synopsis isn't lousy. After witnessing the murder of her prostitute mother, Olivia grows up to be a repressed doormat of a human being. But then. One night, her dearly departed mother starts talking to her and out steps a new Olivia; down her mother's prostitution road. During one of her nightly outings, she meets the love of her life, and things start to look up for Olivia - until mommy rants her wicked words in her skull. Then her world falls apart when her curious hubby spots her with the new infatuation. Will life work out for Olivia and the men in her life and the mother in her noggin, or will she fall into the rabbit hole? There are plenty of opportunities to add intrigue, romance, and eerie suspicions, but the writers fail to add the slightest smidgen of interest.

Luckily for the viewer, Ulli Lommel's skill behind the camera has increased a hundred-fold from Boogeyman. He proffers many superb compositions and alluring and stimulating camera pans. It's a shame that he's yet to master the pacing, as this is where the direction lets the film down. It's all too slow. Combine that with the poorly structured story and stale characterisations, and you teeter on the edge of boredom. Somehow, Lommel keeps the movie's head above the tedium line, and I put this down to his cinematography.

As I view these Lommel flicks, it becomes evident that one of his principal players, Suzanne Love (who's been the lead in all of them so far), is a hit-and-miss performer. In Olivia, she misses massively: She's too flat and dull. I can understand the dullness of Olivia's married persona, but when she becomes the prostitute and later the lover, she should be more vivacious and alive, but she still comes across as bland. At least she's not as wooden as Jeff Winchester, who portrays her overbearing hubby, Richard. He demands some respect, however, because he depicts the best corpse I've ever seen in a movie. The scene where Olivia dumps him into a travel trunk is brilliant. Winchester doesn't make it easy for Love, but it looks more realistic than most.

I cannot recommend Olivia to any movie viewer. I believe it's Ulli Lommel's version of watching paint dry. Though he does a fantastic job of making a namby-pamby tale performed by spiritless performers strangely appealing, it's just not enough to warrant you guys and gals wasting your time. Go check out The Demonsville Terror; it's infinitely better than this picture.

Tell your mother to Shut Up and come here to look at my IMDb list - Killer Thriller Chillers to see where I ranked Olivia - or to find a better movie to watch.

Take Care & Stay Well.

I like Ulli Lommel's film The Bogey Man so much that I have 3 different copies of it; I even have 2 of it's poor sequel. I also collect many of the 88 Films releases, so when this came out I just had to buy it. The British blu ray comes with an enticing cover (film is entitled Prozzie) and is part of 88's Slasher Classics Collection. This, however, is NOT a slasher movie, much more a psychological thriller with a bit of sex and horror thrown in. I prefer the first half of the film, which is set in London. It's pretty dark and has a few Lommel touches reminiscent of The Bogey Man. But when the action moves to Arizona the plot becomes pretty silly & unbelievable. This film grew on me after a second viewing, so I'm glad I hung on to my Blu Ray copy as I had contemplated selling it.

It's hard to understand the negativity around Olivia. Yes it's completely mis-soled as a flesh and fear stalk and slash, it is in fact a sweet love story about a child escaping her damaged past with a bit of horror, social realism and domestic terror thrown in. Of course compared with Crimes Of Passion or Track 29 is lacks thy the fireworks but there are lots of little moments where the camera lingers on bridge lights or the parrots which Ulli Lommel adds to give it a strange stylish flourish. The cast (apart from Robert Walker) are universally great especially Suzanna Love in the title role, even the bit parts are played with utter sincerity and a fair amount of talent. White of the Eye is a similar film which has a much better reputation but Prozzie (Olivia or Double Jeopardy) has oodles to recommend it, in fact it's almost a precursor to David Lynch's Lost Highway without the surrealism. The only criticism, much like Olivia or Jenny, the film doesn't quite know what, or indeed who, it wants to be.

Variously known as, Olivia, A Taste of Sin, Prozzie and Double Jeopardy, this has as many twists and turns as it does titles. Eccentric ex art house director Ulli Lommel, writes, directs and even looks after camerawork here in a very strange film. Seemingly considered by the makers as 'Hitchcockian' there is only one decent scene of suspense and lots more that appear to have crept in from many and varied a genre. As so often with low budget fare the bonus is that you never quite know where things might go, but who expects the evil child, slasher, sexploitation movie to tell the story of the moving of London Bridge to Arizona?! Likeable, varied, ludicrous but involving with Suzanna Love helping enormously in a most convincing central role. Crazy, but cool.

I saw this for the first time recently n I still cannot fathom why I got pulled into seeing this. It's not a bad film but erotic dramas n thrillers ain't my cup of tea. Nevertheless, the lead actress' beautiful face kept me going. Suzanna Love was truly attractive n her brief nudity was an icing on the cake. Plot wise it is a bit far fetched but some scenes r pretty atmospheric. I really wanted to know how the husband survived n how he tracked her down. Also did she purposely migrate to Arizona so that she can bump into her lover.