Haunting Fear

The auteur Olen Ray put his heart into this telling tale. It stars All-Century Eye Candy Hall of Fame member Brinke Stevens who can uncork our cask of Amontillado anytime. Ms. Stevens plays a woman with a haunting fear of premature burial. Her evil husband is hoping to usher her fall to gain possession of her house. Pitted against this man, will Ms. Stevens conquer her terrors against her worm of a husband or will the pendulum swing against her, driving her 'raven' mad? We apologize for this descent into the maelstrom and pledge to repeat it nevermore. All that stated, the film is enjoyable even though we can not understand why anyone married to Ms. Stevens would want to be cruel to her. Also, Ms. Stevens takes a bath in the film confirming the old adage that cleanliness is next to goddess-liness.

Woman is haunted by nightmares. Her husband doesn't care much as he's having an affair wirh his secretary. Dumb husband needs money. They plot to kill his wife. She has something Freaky buried deep inside her. Don't wake it though.

Production values are low and match a home video quality. Dialogue is basic, acting subadequate. Storyline is basic ABC with a few moments that drew illogical questions to me. (We see two dreams, but neither are of the fear the character describes. Motivation is low for characters. Outcome feels forced with a twist just because why not?

Overall, slow moving, simple plotting, amateur acting, middle storyline, and an ending that lacks clarity make this movie boring.

Victoria Munroe (Brinke Stevens) is having nightmares that seem to be driving her husband Terry (Jay Richardson) nuts. Not because he fears for her well being, but because he wants her to die from her weak heart so that he can inherit her wealth and live high on the hog with his secretary Lisa (Delia Sheppard). Oh, and maybe pay off his gambling debt he owes to Italian mobster Visconti (the decidedly un-Italian Robert Quarry). Looking to speed up the process, Terry and Lisa decide to bury Victoria alive in order to scare her to death. Loosely based on Poe's "The Premature Burial" (hey, it has a premature burial), this Fred Olen Ray shocker is from his serviceable period with some decent FX, that same house he used in every other film (the brown one, not the white one) and nice photography by Gary Graver. This is probably the biggest role Stevens has ever had and she is fine as the stressed out wife. Her acting takes a slight turn for the worse when she is supposed to play psycho at the end. Jan-Michael Vincent, Karen Black, Hoke Howell, and Michael Berryman all got in one day of work in small roles. Vincent's role in the first half relies on him sitting in a parked car and staring at things. Ray obviously knew him well.

Well, I was prepared for a total trash fest, but ended up being quite engaged in this strange, Edgar Allan Poe-inspired, somewhat soft-core porn movie. Brinke Stevens plays a woman who has a horror of being buried alive. She has nightmares constantly, and she's terrified of going to the doctor. Her husband and his secretary (the wildly gorgeous Delia Shephard) eventually plot to use her fears against her to make her truly go mad. Jan Michael Vincent, (of who I am a big fan!), makes a very brief appearance in this movie as Detective Trent. He's actually there to spy on Brinke's husband, but ends up seeing Brinke and all her craziness. He meets her briefly, just to see that she is OK. (They unfortunately don't get any love scenes!) Anyway, there are some really fun horror moments in this - one dream where Brinke appears dead, but she's alive and is taken to the morgue. There is the obligatory Delia Shephard sex scene, but overall this is a worthwhile horror flick, especially if you are a Poe fan or a Jan Michael Vincent fan!

I really enjoyed this movie, probably because I didn't expect much at all from it. It's got good atmosphere, suspense and scary moments. And Delia Sheppard...well she's just too good! Great ending as well, really creepy. I suggest you to watch it if you can.