Remote Control

My review was written in August 1988 after watching the movie on International Video Entertainment video cassette.

"Remote Control" is an unsuccessful attempt to use the home video phenomenon as a plot peg for science fiction. Given the subject matter, pic appropriately has been released direct to video stores, bypassing the originally intended theatrical release step.

Kevin Dillon, Matt's bro (starring here before he topline "The Rescue" and "The Blob"), energetically portrays a clerk at a video store who unwittingly becomes the chief suspect, along with his boss Christopher Wynne, , in a murder case when a neighbor spots them at the crime scene.

Farfetched premise has aliens from Outer Space fabricating a film on video, a black & white feature purporting to be a sci-fi made in the '50s, which causes the viewer to see himself acting within the film and turns him into a homicidal maniac. Dillon's mission, on the lam with Wynne and his dream girl Deborah Goodrich, is to destroy all copies of the video and its manufacturing plant, run by Bert Remsen.

Helmer Jeff Lieberman, whose horror pic "Squirm" was an effective 1970s B title, does well with the b&w film-within-a-film footage (also titled "Remote Control"), but claustrophobic approach fails to elaborate on the basic storyline. Though opening title sets the action on "Earth 1987", Daniel Paredes' fanciful costumes create something of a parallel-world atmosphere. Various details ring false, particularly Dillon's memorizing the English-dubbed dialog from a video of Francois Truffaut's "Stolen Kisses" in order to impress (which he suceds in doing) Goodrich, a fan of that Antoine Doinel feature.

Cast, particularly Jennifer Tilly in a supporting role (with kookie hairdo and voice) as Dillon's new wave girlfriend, is peppy. Remsen previously was featured in a dissimilar sci-fi film about aliens invadiing via tv, "Terrorvision".

I'd never heard of Remote Control, weirdly enough it got added to my watchlist out of curiosity when it was mentioned during the independent horror film The Bible Belt Slasher (2010)

Starring Matt Dillon it tells the story of a video tape doing the rounds at all the video stores that is making people lose control and kill those around them. Basically The Ring (2002) but really terrible, cheesy and not even remotely scary.

Remote Control is also the most 80's film I've ever seen, like they were intentionally going overboard with the decades style but not exactly explaining why.

The movie starts competently enough and even had a small role for the excellent Jennifer Tilly, but by the half way mark it's lost it's way.

Remote Control wasn't a very good concept to begin with, so combine that with some poor writing and you've got a mediocre film at best.

The Good:

Jennifer Tilly

The Bad:

Trails off really quite badly

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Part of me really badly misses video stores

80's BDSM gear was awesome

Gunfire in the middle of a mall will get no reaction from shoppers

Guns are invisible to all those who aren't involved in the confrontation

Firemen will happily allow civilians to walk into a building they're currently working on

I watched this film because I love Jennifer Tilly but how could I have done such a mistake!It's even unthinkable that this movie is from '87.The script could have been set down better but it could be overseen if we aren't too pretentious.But what I can't forgive is the incredible bad acting performance what could have been a bit better(in my opinion)if the directing qualities were more professional.Anyway this was not the spot I suppose.They just wanted to give a popular sci-fi teen movie that fitted fine in that years.IF you want watch it if you're curious, eventually I did the same but if you avoid it it's better.

A cheesy yet very fun horror/sci-fi flick with a great deal of nostalgia permeating every frame. The movie itself is an 80's look back on a warped sci-fi version of the 50's, which sounds strange but works well. It must be remembered that around the time this movie was made, there was a fad for all things 50's and retro, and "Remote Control" makes nostalgic fun of that trend, while also being part of it. Video stores were still mostly independently owned in those days and were sweeping the country, so the writers here took the old "aliens invade earth" scenario and use the VCR growth as a means in which the aliens can infiltrate and infect the human population. How so? Well, whoever watches the video will become hypnotized/entranced/controlled by the secret message, and will turn into a crazed murderous freak! You all of the sudden have this sudden urge to kill anyone around you! Still, it's not as gruesome or bad as it sounds, and is instead a great deal of fun. Kevin Dillon (who starred later in the '88 version of "The Blob") isn't the best actor, and neither is anyone else in this flick, but that strangely adds to the charm. It's cheesy, it's meant to be cheesy, and all these years later it's even better - because now it's nostalgic 80's cheese. Love it!

I like this film alot. It is quite like Videodrome in that the whole movie is obsessed with itself and also obsessed with video formats and makes references to the video revolution of the 1980's.