Film #14: SpellBinder
( 1980's panic about satanism comes to the big screen)
Reviewed on January 21, 2012
Today film fans we will be reviewing the movie, Spellbinder. It stars Tim Daly, Kelly Preston, and 1980′s go to chiseled chin actor, Rick Rossovich. It was directed by frequent 80′s television director Janet Greek (Babylon 5, St Elsewhere) and written by frequent TV sci-fi writer, Tracy Torme (Star Trek: TNG, Sliders, SNL)
The Plot
Ok…follow me closely as I try not to spoil anything. Released on Jan 1, 1988 The story is essentially about a big LA lawyer, Jeff Mills (Daly) who stops a woman named Miranda (Preston) from getting beat up by her boyfriend on a dark LA night. He takes her home and one thing leads to another…by that I mean she reads his palm and performs a magic healing spell to fix the tension in his back(which evidently must be performed topless and in small underwear). He falls for her deeply and holds a party in her honor so that she can meet his friends and his secretary (his right hand woman). She charms everyone who meets her, except for his secretary(maybe because she takes a hot turkey out of the oven with her bare hands).Meanwhile, a group of apparating (hooray for Harry Potter slang) men and women in dark trenchcoats are popping up around LA to catch people who they tell “you can never leave us”. It becomes clear that Miranda is also on the run from this group when a woman named Mrs White (Audra Lindley…MRS ROPER as a satan worshipper!!!! In a role as shocking as when Ruth Gordon was revealed to be a satan worshipper in Rosemary’s Baby ) comes to Jeff’s office and threatens him to return Miranda. She will later return and give a tour de force performance trashing Jeff’s office and pretending he beat up an old lady….classic stuff. Miranda vanishes and Jeff involves the police, where we learn that she wears the symbol of a satanic gang that has been vandalizing and murdering all over the city. Jeff is then pursued by satanic whispers and giggling everywhere he goes until Miranda calls him for help. She tells him the story of her escape and her involvement in the cult, begging Jeff to protect her from the group’s plan to sacrifice a human on the solstice. The rest of the film involves Jeff and Miranda’s fight and flight from the coven, including an amazing sequence at his house with the entire cult bending his house in on them in order to get in. I learned that satanic worship involves a keen sense of decoration. Jeff is determined to beat the odds to keep Miranda safe and involves his “cool action film dialog spouting” law partner Derek (Rossovich) and crazy “survivalist” client Brock (played with the over the top awesomeness you have come to expect from “that guy who plays hippies and cons in almost everything” MC Gainey ). What will happen to Jeff and Miranda? Watch it and find out.
The review:Ahhhh…so much to work with here. I am a mixed bag of critique on this film. Perhaps, it is because I have grown up in a world that has been littered with M Night Shyamalan’s/ Scream/fill in blank “surprise ending” films, but I saw this one coming a mile away. (won’t spoil it…but you who have also been desensitized on these types of films will get it pretty quick). That is not to say this is not an enjoyable ride until you get to the moment you know is coming. The acting is well done and I have always been a fan of Daly, Preston, and Rossovich. Although, I always feel like Preston spent too many of her early roles as the “take your top off girl” believing that she wouldn’t have been cast if she didn’t. Maybe I am wrong, but Preston has always seemed to have such a natural quality to her acting. Even in “children’s” fare like Jack Frost and the Cat in the Hat, Preston is terrifically composed. She never overplays emotion and she carries herself strongly through any scene. Look at Space Camp, Citizen Ruth, Jerry Maguire…etc. Maybe it is her choice to do nude scenes,maybe it the producers…I don’t know..but Ms Preston, if you are reading this, you have an ability to be as confident and effortless in your films as the greatest of the classic actresses (Olivia DeHavilland, Lauren Bacall) that transcends the staged nudity. Here, she is tough and vulnerable. By the way, Mr Rossovich…where are you? My only complaint with the acting is that they didn’t use Gainey enough. He livens up all scenes with his toothy (less) grin.As far as suspense goes, I thought this did pretty well. It keeps you focused and does have some chilling moments(the mansion of the cult). The special effects are pretty good for 1988 and the scenery is grand. (A “Willow” billboard in the background!!! woo hoo!!” I can understand why it may have been more terrifying in 1988 as it was the peak of the conservative Reagan era America’s “satanic red scare”. As I watched this film, I began to remember well the stories and urban legends of the time about roving gangs of satan worshippers killing children and holding ceremonies in dark alleys. In fact, in Cheyenne, the legend was that a group of teenage satanic cultists were holding nightly rituals up by the water tower behind the mall. If I think real hard I can remember the names of kids we all “knew” were involved in the coven. They wore death metal tee shirts, skinny jeans, had long greasy hair, and smoked cigarettes behind the junior high.(Later we would call this grunge). When something unfortunate happened to one of these kids, adults would shudder and talk in hushed tones about atheism and satanic games. One of these boys on my street killed himself in a failed asphyxiation game and there were whispers of sacrifice and dark magic. It was a time when the religious right and the conservative coalition were shouting about the Satanic boogie man in our films, in our music, on our TVs. According to the evangelical preachers and 1980′s moral majority advocates, our children were losing their souls to hidden satanic gangs. At its most comical, we would see these fears manifested in films like “Dragnet” (Christopher Plummer as the head of a cult named P.A.G.A.N..giggle) and Dana Carvey as the church lady. At its worst and most terrifying we would see the accusations in the McMartin daycare case and the West Memphis 3 in the 1993 Robin Hood Lane murders. The panic inspired Congressional hearings, Geraldo and talk show (this was the era of sensational daytime talk) specials, special law enforcement task forces, military/FBI investigations, and urban legends of grave defacement and Satanic Ritual abuse (SRA). This film was playing into that ripe market and stoking fears. It would be an interesting film to show in class to discuss a particular time in American psychosis (if it wasn’t for the nudity). The more I watched of it, the more I could see much of its outline and shell in later films about witchcraft such as Bette Davis’ last film “The Wicked Stepmother”. Am I wrong? I think this is the movie “Manos; the hands of fate” tried to be.
7 out of 10 stars
Rated R
You can watch this film right now on imdb.com with their free sign up
Favorite roles:
Tim Daly: Toss up between the work he did on “Wings” and the work he did on “The Sopranos”
Rick Rossovich: Roxanne
Kelly Preston: The Experts, Space Camp
The Plot
Ok…follow me closely as I try not to spoil anything. Released on Jan 1, 1988 The story is essentially about a big LA lawyer, Jeff Mills (Daly) who stops a woman named Miranda (Preston) from getting beat up by her boyfriend on a dark LA night. He takes her home and one thing leads to another…by that I mean she reads his palm and performs a magic healing spell to fix the tension in his back(which evidently must be performed topless and in small underwear). He falls for her deeply and holds a party in her honor so that she can meet his friends and his secretary (his right hand woman). She charms everyone who meets her, except for his secretary(maybe because she takes a hot turkey out of the oven with her bare hands).Meanwhile, a group of apparating (hooray for Harry Potter slang) men and women in dark trenchcoats are popping up around LA to catch people who they tell “you can never leave us”. It becomes clear that Miranda is also on the run from this group when a woman named Mrs White (Audra Lindley…MRS ROPER as a satan worshipper!!!! In a role as shocking as when Ruth Gordon was revealed to be a satan worshipper in Rosemary’s Baby ) comes to Jeff’s office and threatens him to return Miranda. She will later return and give a tour de force performance trashing Jeff’s office and pretending he beat up an old lady….classic stuff. Miranda vanishes and Jeff involves the police, where we learn that she wears the symbol of a satanic gang that has been vandalizing and murdering all over the city. Jeff is then pursued by satanic whispers and giggling everywhere he goes until Miranda calls him for help. She tells him the story of her escape and her involvement in the cult, begging Jeff to protect her from the group’s plan to sacrifice a human on the solstice. The rest of the film involves Jeff and Miranda’s fight and flight from the coven, including an amazing sequence at his house with the entire cult bending his house in on them in order to get in. I learned that satanic worship involves a keen sense of decoration. Jeff is determined to beat the odds to keep Miranda safe and involves his “cool action film dialog spouting” law partner Derek (Rossovich) and crazy “survivalist” client Brock (played with the over the top awesomeness you have come to expect from “that guy who plays hippies and cons in almost everything” MC Gainey ). What will happen to Jeff and Miranda? Watch it and find out.
The review:Ahhhh…so much to work with here. I am a mixed bag of critique on this film. Perhaps, it is because I have grown up in a world that has been littered with M Night Shyamalan’s/ Scream/fill in blank “surprise ending” films, but I saw this one coming a mile away. (won’t spoil it…but you who have also been desensitized on these types of films will get it pretty quick). That is not to say this is not an enjoyable ride until you get to the moment you know is coming. The acting is well done and I have always been a fan of Daly, Preston, and Rossovich. Although, I always feel like Preston spent too many of her early roles as the “take your top off girl” believing that she wouldn’t have been cast if she didn’t. Maybe I am wrong, but Preston has always seemed to have such a natural quality to her acting. Even in “children’s” fare like Jack Frost and the Cat in the Hat, Preston is terrifically composed. She never overplays emotion and she carries herself strongly through any scene. Look at Space Camp, Citizen Ruth, Jerry Maguire…etc. Maybe it is her choice to do nude scenes,maybe it the producers…I don’t know..but Ms Preston, if you are reading this, you have an ability to be as confident and effortless in your films as the greatest of the classic actresses (Olivia DeHavilland, Lauren Bacall) that transcends the staged nudity. Here, she is tough and vulnerable. By the way, Mr Rossovich…where are you? My only complaint with the acting is that they didn’t use Gainey enough. He livens up all scenes with his toothy (less) grin.As far as suspense goes, I thought this did pretty well. It keeps you focused and does have some chilling moments(the mansion of the cult). The special effects are pretty good for 1988 and the scenery is grand. (A “Willow” billboard in the background!!! woo hoo!!” I can understand why it may have been more terrifying in 1988 as it was the peak of the conservative Reagan era America’s “satanic red scare”. As I watched this film, I began to remember well the stories and urban legends of the time about roving gangs of satan worshippers killing children and holding ceremonies in dark alleys. In fact, in Cheyenne, the legend was that a group of teenage satanic cultists were holding nightly rituals up by the water tower behind the mall. If I think real hard I can remember the names of kids we all “knew” were involved in the coven. They wore death metal tee shirts, skinny jeans, had long greasy hair, and smoked cigarettes behind the junior high.(Later we would call this grunge). When something unfortunate happened to one of these kids, adults would shudder and talk in hushed tones about atheism and satanic games. One of these boys on my street killed himself in a failed asphyxiation game and there were whispers of sacrifice and dark magic. It was a time when the religious right and the conservative coalition were shouting about the Satanic boogie man in our films, in our music, on our TVs. According to the evangelical preachers and 1980′s moral majority advocates, our children were losing their souls to hidden satanic gangs. At its most comical, we would see these fears manifested in films like “Dragnet” (Christopher Plummer as the head of a cult named P.A.G.A.N..giggle) and Dana Carvey as the church lady. At its worst and most terrifying we would see the accusations in the McMartin daycare case and the West Memphis 3 in the 1993 Robin Hood Lane murders. The panic inspired Congressional hearings, Geraldo and talk show (this was the era of sensational daytime talk) specials, special law enforcement task forces, military/FBI investigations, and urban legends of grave defacement and Satanic Ritual abuse (SRA). This film was playing into that ripe market and stoking fears. It would be an interesting film to show in class to discuss a particular time in American psychosis (if it wasn’t for the nudity). The more I watched of it, the more I could see much of its outline and shell in later films about witchcraft such as Bette Davis’ last film “The Wicked Stepmother”. Am I wrong? I think this is the movie “Manos; the hands of fate” tried to be.
7 out of 10 stars
Rated R
You can watch this film right now on imdb.com with their free sign up
Favorite roles:
Tim Daly: Toss up between the work he did on “Wings” and the work he did on “The Sopranos”
Rick Rossovich: Roxanne
Kelly Preston: The Experts, Space Camp