Review of Spellbinder (1988) by Ws W — 28 Oct 2009

I'm impressed. This one had me intrigued for the majority of its run time and entertained me wholly throughout. It had a good mystery and decent enough fear pieces to keep me alert (that window scene!).

The subject matter in this film always creeps me out and fascinates me at the same time, giving it a couple of bonus points for me there (do I need to get laid?). The acting here was also well done. Tim Daly did have his "off" moments but did a good job for most of it.

Kelly Preston WAS the movie for me as Miranda. Sexy, sympathetic and just a little bit freaky (marry me, please). Janet Greek did an ok job, but I can see why she did nothing but television after this.

Speaking of television movies, this one felt a little like one even more so with the gore and nudity to a minimal (there's only one REAL scene for each). The middle section did also lag for a little while, but the last third brought me right back in so it was forgiven.

There was also a couple of stupid character moves (such as the main character's which spawns the whole conflict in the movie to begin with!). On a whole though this is a grounded, somewhat layered and fascinating story for me.

Add to that fun some good looking set pieces (yes, even for today), an ending that was unoriginal (Wicker Man?) but still creepy, a ridiculously insane scene with Audra Lindley (Ms. Roper!) and Kelly Preston looking/acting good and you get a fun, daunting and chilling movie.

It's too bad that actress John Travolta won't allow any one to see this (Scientology is so lame) because it's a good movie. Hunt it down if you can.