The Chair

One thing there wasn't a shortage of during the late 80s were horror movies set in prisons and featuring electric chairs. "The Chair" is already the fourth I've seen, after the superior "Prison", the enjoyable "The Horror Show", and the lousy "Shocker".

Of those, "The Chair" is most reminiscent to Renny Harlin's "Prison" in terms of plot and storyline, but certainly not in terms of quality level and entertainment value. In fact, this might even be one of the weakest and dullest horror movies of the 1980s, and that is saying a lot. You know you're in trouble when an allegedly blood-soaked and grisly horror film opens with the mushiest tearjerker blues-song you ever heard. Those boring opening credits seemingly go on forever, by the way.

The set-up is decent, the locations and set pieces are more than adequate, and the cast is excellent. So where did the unknown and inexperienced director Waldemar Korzeniowsky mess up? Well, maybe partially because he's inexperienced, his film is woefully incoherent and uneven. It's harrowing drama mixed with (unintentional?) comedy and cheesy horror. For example, there are dead-serious psychiatric therapy sessions as well as goofy stop-motion eyeball in a light bulb. One scene luckily compensates for a lot namely, the electrocution footage in which we witness - in extreme closeup - eyes popping out of their sockets and exploding. Yay. Rewind this particular scene a few times, because the rest of the film is dreadfully boring.

This film is okay for a 1988 B-movie. Feature released on HBO and direct to video in the day.

I remember renting it at a Blockbuster because Stephen Geoffreys (Fright Night) starred. The other core cast, Trini Alvarado, James Coco, Paul Benedict hold their own. The direction is mediocre at best, but Interesting. With the prisoners inflected in some lame rehabilitation program that lacks luster and goes nowhere. The plot surrounds the gruesome murder of the prison's former warden. And strange things begin happening. Which is typical for a horror suspense thriller. It has its moments. One area seems to highlight a potential romance between the female intern and a streetwise inmate.

An idealistic psychologist Dr. Harold Woodhouse Langer re-opens an abandon prison to hopefully change the mindset of some hardened criminals. Warden Edward Dwyer thinks very little of the program, but begins to be haunted by the prison's horrific past which he personally knows about. Soon the prisoners break into fear with the strange things going on, but Dr. Langer doesn't believe them.

Soon after the Renny Harlin's 1988 horror flick film 'Prison', came this very cheap, uneven and non-effective prison supernatural horror yarn. It never breaks away from the overall silliness, to storm up anything that resembles thrills. The problem was I don't know if it was trying to be humorous or not, because of how quirky the story and performances came across. Too bad it wasn't funny either. What was the deal of that over-extended opening sequence with that weepy blues song? I had to check the video again to make sure I was watching the right film, because it felt totally out-of-place. This can be said the same for Eddie Reyes' makeshift (carnival sounding) music score, which would go out of its way to butcher some scenes. What drag it out was that it had a slim, ponderous plot that takes ages to get going, and when it does its rather anticlimactic. The talky script might want to be character-based, but it couldn't have been anymore redundant and vapid in detailing the characters and their plights. Batty acting amuses, with the likes of Paul Benedict, Mike Starr and Stephen Geoffreys. Holding her own is Trini Alvarado. Director Waldemar Korzeniowsky clumsily stages it with nothing but routine tools and techniques. The special effects are sparse, but the execution is goofy. I could've gone without it. Very weak.

The late 80s saw a spate of prison/electric chair themed horror movies: Prison (1987), Shocker (1989), House III (1989), and The Chair (1988), the latter easily being the worst of the bunch. The Chair is clumsily directed, poorly written, badly acted trash, with just a few seconds of reasonable make-up effects preventing the film from being a total waste of time.

Andie MacDowell lookalike Trini Alvarado (The Frighteners) plays Lisa Titus, who takes a job at the High Street Correctional Facility, run by Dr. Harold Woodhouse Langer (James Coco), who hopes to rehabilitate a group of prisoners (including Fright Night's Stephen Geoffreys) through his emotional guidance and growth project. What they don't realise is that the building is haunted by the angry spirit of a warden who was fried in the electric chair by his prisoners during a riot.

The one and only film to be directed by Waldemar Korzeniowsky, this film is ineptly made drivel from the outset, the action moving clumsily from one terrible scene to the next with zero regard for narrative cohesion. The whole film has a bizarre, offbeat vibe that is reflected in the quirky performances, all of which feel completely out of place in a horror film -- the whole thing is just too damn strange to be scary.

2/10.

I don't quite know what to make out of this one. Basically it's a rip-off of "Prison" (1988). The latter, in my humble opinion, was a good movie, and "The Chair"... well, sometimes things look pretty bad here. From the moment you hear this extremely mellow jazzy song with female vocals over the opening credits, you just know this is going to be be a rather offbeat flick. An former prison facility re-opens as a psychiatric institute. Turns out that one guard and his friend were held captive during an inmate mutiny years ago. His friend died... but his ghost still haunts the facility and wants... well, something. Not quite sure it's revenge he's after, though. Weird thing was that, during the movie, there were several (often painful) attempts at comedy. And then, after about 20 minutes, this living eyeball with a worm-like body (brought to life by stop-motion) appears several times in a light bulb (!), and it feels like you've just entered a Frank Henenlotter movie. Pretty damn weird. Also add a lot of cheesy animated electricity effects, often for reasons I couldn't fully grasp either. One could argue that David Lynch often makes movies you can't make heads or tails of too, but that would be giving this movie too much credit. Way too much. One of the best scenes undoubtedly was the electrocution, with a cool close-up of an eye popping out of its socket. Those really are the few nifty moments you endure the rest of the movie for. And, yes, it was also fun seeing Mike Starr and Stephen Geoffreys in supporting roles. The other actors were only so-so and sadly, this movie doesn't lead to anything special, except for an ending that indicates that it's all going start again (that, or an ending like "this ain't over yet", was more or less obligatory for the 80's, and onward, so it's not like I'm spoiling anything here). I have a feeling that some day I'll be wanting to re-watch "The Chair", but for now... I'm just going to flunk it. At any rate, like I said, "Prison" is a better watch. And it stars Viggo Mortensen before he became..., well, Famous Viggo Mortensen. So go seek out that one.