Cameron's Closet

My review was written in April 1989 after a Midtown Manhattan screening.

"Cameron's Closet" is an ambitious but very disappointing horror film. Pic arrived tardily in Manhattan theaters months after its poster went up in subway displays, just in time for its appearance in video stores.

Attempt at a minor league "Exorcist" on a puny budget is a mistake. Levitation and other effects are merely okay and the pic lacks the scope of a horror epic. Gary ("The Howling") Brandner merely has fashioned a convoluted tale of a monster in the closet of little boy Cameron (Scott Curtis).

The kid has been experimented upon (a la Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom") by his dad Tab Hunter, combining psychokinesis with demonology to unleash a monster (a demon worshipped by the Mayans, no less).

Hunter exits early, killed by the demon, and mains tory psychically (and unconvincingly) links Cameon with the police detective (Cotter smith) assigned coincidentally o the serial murder caused by the hellish critter. Smith's real-life mate, Mel Harris of tv's "thirtysomething", is cast as a psychiatrist treating both Curtis and Smith (!), latter suffering from blackouts caused by the demon.

Not helped by flat lighting of interiors and dullish Armand Mastroianni direction, pic plods to several confrontations with the monster, poorly executed by Carlo Rambaldi to look like Batman wearing his cowl. An extraneous near-incest scene is pointlessly thrown in near the end like an audience wakeup call.

Harris adds plenty of class to the proceedings, while Smith is bland and little Curti merely competent. Chuck McCann scores in a non-comedic role as a boozing ex-scientist.

Professor Owen Lansing is researching human psychic abilities hidden deep in the mind and he experiments on his young son Cameron. They're going quite well, until Cameron's unintentionally uses his powers to conjure up a demon. Lansing tries to put a end to the trouble, but his killed in a horrific 'accident'. So Cameron goes to live with his mother and her boyfriend, but the demon also follows and takes up residence in the boy's closest. Meanwhile, police detective Sam Talliaferro, who has been put onto the case after the unusual death of his mother's boyfriend. Is having bad dreams that seem to be linked somehow to Cameron. A psychiatrist Dr. Nora Haley is looking over Sam, but she also gets the case of Cameron. She discovers the boy's secret abilities. Nora and Sam go on to connect that everything is contributed to a demonic presence who has its eyes set on Cameron.

Oh, "Cameron's Closest" is quite an unremarkable low-budget horror film. Well, it's not completely worthless, even though it's nowhere near as flavoured and exciting like many of its counterparts within the same decade. This late 80s horror junk was mildly enjoyable in some silly patches and icky make-up effects, but ponderous pacing and muddled plotting makes for mostly a bland outing that keeps us in the dark to what's going on. There's potential in the interesting and novel premise of mixing the supernatural with science (which "The Howling" author Gary Barndner adapted his screenplay off his novel), but director Armand Mastroianni's unevenly fruitless and ham-fisted execution leaves a lot of its brimming concepts unfulfilled and sticks to the gimmicks. Lucky there are some nicely imaginative and downright bizarre deaths handed out by the evil dweller in the closet. The nasty make-up, especially from the zombies and death scenes are well conceived. Even some atmospheric visuals, in the shape of few brooding dream sequences promise something, to only bungle it with unintentional goofiness that destroys any unsettling mood that was there. Like that of special effects designer Carlo Rambaldi's (think of E.T.) plastically tacky monster creation. Sometimes the FX is questionably dire and overly sugar-coated, just stick around for the lacklustre climax between demon and child. It's pretty hasty when it wraps it up.

The material dreams a good concept, but its talky nature, convoluted angles (so many to choose) and senseless inconsistencies engulf the monotonously vague script, which could've done with occasional wit. The presentation is well-photographed and production values hold up, but the musical score was flat, lighting hazily dim and editing was terribly hack-eyed. The cast do a fine job, maybe better then the material actually deserved. Scott Curtis gives an appealing turn as Cameron. Cotter Smith is sturdily efficient as detective Sam Talliaferro and Mel Harris impress with a steadfast turn as Dr. Nora Haley. Tab Hunter plays the unfortunate father who cops it in the opening minutes. There's sound performances by the support cast Kim Lankford, Leigh McCloskey, Chuck McCann and Gary Hudson as the jerk boyfriend.

It's saved by over-the-top deaths, some laughably shoddy developments and capable performances. Just like Mastroianni's other genre efforts; "The Supernaturals" and "He Knows You're Alone", it's watchable.

"Cameron's Closet" is a bit of a relic and time capsule for a much simpler time in my eyes. It was a staple of many a late-night horror- movie marathon and subject of numerous Friday-night rentals at the local Video King when I was growing up in the early 90's. And of the handful of people who I know that have seen the film... that seems to be the common trend.

It's one of those late-80's horror features that frankly fell off the map when Video Stores fell out of vogue and streaming took over during the past ten years. Its entire life seemingly spent as one of those lost, faded video-cassettes that you only discover after an hour of picking through video-shelves at your rental store of choice.

So it was a bit of a surprise finding it uploaded online not too long ago. Excited to relive a childhood "classic" that I had "discovered" in the video-store and rented over and over again, I clicked the play button, sat back...

...and was pretty underwhelmed.

While it does indeed have a fair share of thrills and chills, director Armand Mastroianni and writer Gary Brandner (creator of the "Howling" franchise) are never able to build the film up beyond the level of mediocrity, rendering it a generally ineffective tale. And while it may be a fun treat to revisit for the sake of nostalgia for 80's and 90's kids who are now all grown up, it's definitely best to understand that this is most certainly a "nostalgia goggles" affair. There's nothing here that hasn't been done far better in other far better films before.

The film is based on 10-year-old Cameron Lansing (Scott Curtis), a boy with latent telekinetic and pyschic abilities. After his research scientist father is killed in a grisly "accident", he is sent to live with his mother and her boyfriend. However, a series of twisted and gruesome deaths begin to surround the child, and it quickly becomes apparent that demonic forces are at play, who wish to get their hands on the boy for their own devious purposes...

When it's at its best, the film does competently deliver some satisfyingly chilling thrills and jumps. One particular stand-out scene involving a ghostly re-animated man with an inhumanly large smile still sends shivers down my bones. And there is a lot of fun to be had with the good, old-fashioned 80's practical creature and gore effects on display. Especially as they came courtesy the same genius that also created the animatronics in films like Spielberg's "E.T." and the titular "Alien" in the Ridley Scott classic. But it's at the service of a relatively cliché and standard (even at times sub-standard) storyline with forgettable characters and ho-hum development.

Perhaps the harshest thing I could say is that outside of the title, I didn't remember much about the film from my childhood. And in trying to write this review not that long after having re-watched it... I'm straining to think of much to say in regards to it. Either good or bad. It's a wholly mediocre film that's just watchable enough to kill some time on a rainy afternoon, but you'll also forget it within a week.

And so, I'm giving it a slightly under-average 4 out of 10. Mainly for the few effective moments and some creative scenes that take advantage of the promising premise. This is one of the few horror films that I honestly wouldn't see being remade... It's got a good idea behind it. But the film as-is just isn't particularly special.

A boy with telekinetic powers, and perhaps other psychic abilities as well as bowl-cut hair lives with his divorced father, a psychic researcher or something. The boy plays in his closet with a He-Man-like action figure, and a odd statuette he calls "Deceptor." His father hears a strange moan, makes an odd phone call to his research partner, and goes upstairs to the boy's room with a machete. He goes into the closet, vandalizes some things, and is in search of something. The machete moves by itself, and the father falls on it, decapitating himself.

The boy goes to live with his mother and her boyfriend. Meanwhile, a police detective who has sleeping problems has a reoccurring nightmare that is bothering him on the job, and is forced to see a shrink. More closet-related bizarre deaths occur. The detective befriends the boy, and the shrink helps him on the case.

The special effects are pretty uneven. The death scenes are fairly good. A pale grinning figure in the closet is pretty spooky. Dead people who reappear as zombies or as a demon appearing like them are pretty well done. The demon exerts its power by psychically dragging someone up a wall, and across a ceiling towards an out-of-control ceiling fan. The demon itself is pretty darn lame, however.

A young boy with telekinetic powers unleashes a force set on destroying anything in its path.

We meet Cameron, a child who has the ability to move things with his mind. He likes to play in his closet a lot of the time with his action figures. His father appears terrified of his powers and what something so simple as playing in his room can do thanks to his special abilities. Late one night, the man investigates the closet and is killed by a machete, it's made to look like an accident. The question to the audience is did Cameron control that killing or was it something more sinister?

After the traumatic event, Cameron moves to LA to live with his mother Dory and his rude stepfather Bob. We then meet Sgt. Sam Taliaferro who has been having a recurring daydream, with parts of it very similar to what Cameron has imagined. Meanwhile, Cameron starts hearing growling voices from his new closet which kill his stepfather late one night. With Sgt. Taliaferro on the case, and a psychiatrist who notices Cameron's abilities, can this evil lurking around Cameron be stopped?

There were a lot of mysteries to solve in this one. What was the connection between Taliaferro and Cameron, was Cameron's inner rage responsible for the murders, and who or what is the demonic presence lurking in the closet. The acting ws your average run of mill for a mid 80's horror film. I did think there was great chemistry between Talliaferro/Dr. Haley/Cameron throughout. Mel Harris was a standout.

Cameron's Closet definitely used ideas from other films, in particular Pulse (1988) and A Nightmare on Elm Street. There was a scene in this one very similar to Tina's death in NOES for example. Great special effects with all of the demon scenes, lots of well done gore as well.

Overall, Cameron's Closet is a very average horror film that uses elements from other films out at that time. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel or create suspense with twists and turns. It follows along the same cookie cutter path it's on from the beginning of the movie. The ending and final showdown may have been the most disappointing part of the entire movie. It felt rushed and all too expected for a horror fan like myself.

5/10.