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Directed
by:
Joseph Sargeant
Written
by:
Jeffrey Bloom &
Christopher Crowe
Starring:
Cristina Raines .... Lisa
the Wife
Joe Lambie
.... Phil the Husband
Emilio Estevez .... J.J.
Cooney
Billy Jacoby .... Zock
Maxwell
Moon Unit Zappa ....
Pamela
Louis Giambalvo ....
Jerry Cooney
Mariclare Costello ....
Adelle Cooney
Lance Henriksen ....
MacLeod
Tony Plana .... Father
Luis Del Amo
Richard Masur .... Steven
Houston
Veronica Cartwright ....
Claire Houston
Bridgette Anderson ....
Brooke Houston
Release
Date:
Theatrical: September 9,
1983
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A four
chapter horror anthology which
opens up with the first chapter
titled Terror
in Topagna of a
woman named Lisa (Cristina
Raines) who leaves her house late
at night to drive to the store in
order to buy cigarettes which her
husband Phil (Joe Lambie) is
nagging her to quit Meanwhile a
killer is loose and she finds out
from her neighbor while walking
his dog when she pulls out of the
driveway, wherever she goes, she
encounters strange people along
the way which makes her feel
unsafe including local employees
at a corner store and gas
station.
The
second chapter is called Bishop
of Battle
of an arcade
whiz kid named J.J. Cooney
(Emilio Estevez) of his obsession
with a game in the mall that no
one can beat and the only way to
win is to pass level.
No one believes that level exists
until J.J. tries to beat the
game. But his parents ground him
for missing out on his homework
as well as stealing quarters from
them to continue playing the
game.
He sneaks out at night and breaks
into the mall to continue playing
it until he makes it to level 13
but then deadly consequences
occur as the characters in the
game come to life.
In the
third chapter The
Benediction
a small town
priest named MacLeod (Lance
Henriksen) who also runs a
funeral home loses his faith and
decides to leave town but while
he's in the desert he is stalked
by a mysterious black pick-up
truck that tires to kill him.
Could the truck be driven by
Lucifer himself?
The
fourth and final chapter is
called Night
of the Rat a
family's problem with a rat is
larger than they think as it's a
rat from hell. First it kills the
family's cat, then it sabotages a
little girls room except for her
stuffed toy mouse and then starts
tearing at the walls of the house
as it wants something that they
have.
The first
two chapters were great it seemed
like the best one of them all.
Terror
in Topaganda was very
original, dark and spooky as you
wonder what can happen driving
alone at night just to buy some
cigarettes at a corner store when
a killer is on the loose as you
know it's too silent and strange
that the terror will happen
eventually.
The
Bishop of Battle was my
favourite chapter of all time
bringing back the memories of the
video game craze in shopping
malls. This one seemed to borrow
heavily from Stephen King's
novel of Christine
with a boy's obsession on
something and nothing will stop
him.
However,
now the chapters start to weaken
when I tell you the lowdown on
the other two.
The
Benediction seemed to go
nowhere and was almost like a
ripoff to the Exorcist
as well. All it was about was a
priest being terrorised by a
truck from hell in a deserted
area.
Night
of the Rat was dark and
effective with lots of chills but
it was too disturbing when a cat
gets killed since I'm a cat lover
but of course it was the films
drawing card once you watch the
whole chapter to it and the cat
was never harmed in any way in
reality too so you gotta look at
it that way.
The
acting in the film is well
performed in all the chapters.
However, the first chapter Terror
in Topaganda was a wee
bit rough but still enjoyable by
lead actress Cristina Raines
as she did well at being tense as
well as playing a good person
feeding her addiction to smoking.
Joe Lambie however who
played her husband could've been
better but he wasn't lousy.
In
The Bishop of Battle we
spot quite a young teenaged
Emilio Estevez who does
wonderful as an typical teenaged
kid obsessed by a video game as
he really brings it out with his
role. He's a multi-talented actor
regardless.
Billy Jacoby is also
good as his insecure friend and
plays his role off well.
Moon Unit Zappa looked
stunning in her role as a typical
teen hanging out at the arcade
mall.
Louis Giambalvo was
believable as a stubborn and
strict parent. Two thumbs up for
him.
In
The Benediction Lance
Henricksen played a perfect
and tense priest in the film but
his acting skills were always up
there with every film he did.
Night
of the Rat had a nice
cast of characters in the film.
Veronica Cartwright
portrayed a great and troubled
mother and has high energy all
the way.
Richard Masur who played
her husband shows nice aggression
to his role as someone being
typically arrogant.
Child actress Bridgette
Anderson brings alot of
charm to her role as the little
girl in the family.
There are
bloodystabbings and shootings
during Terror in Topagna
chapter
There is a corpse of a cat in Night
of the Rat but it looks
dark so not very gruesome.
Joseph
Sargeant seemed to direct
this puppy well as he makes it
look like a perfect bedtime tales
with each chapter.
During
the first chapter Terror
in Topaganda he makes it
look like a perfect drive in type
of flick as well as having some
good old fashioned dialogue
sequences.
The first killing looked quite
phony but the story does pick up
with his direction as he knows
how to make it still, mysterious
and creepy with the going on's
involving Cristina Raines when
she drives her car at night to a
corner store.
There is a nice intimidating
reaction involving small actor
Anthony James as a store
clerk towards Raines' character
when he shows her a gun to
protect himself from danger and Raines
shows a nice frightened
look.
There's something really
terrifying during a scene at a
gas station but that would be a
spoiler.
The
Bishop of Battle was
also nicely directed giving a
sci-fi feel to it too.
He coached Emilio Estevez very
well having a typical teenage
attitude with video games and we
have great camera shots on him
seriously concentrating at
winning the video game.
The dialogue between Estevez
and Louis Giambalvo with
their dispute between father and
son looked excellent and
believeable.
We see a great performance with Estevez
battling the video game
characters coming to life.
There's great reactions on all Billy
Jacoby, Mariclare
Costello and Giambalvo during
the ending of what happened in
the video game room.
The
Benediction was boring
but he did direct Lance
Henricksen well with his
frightened emotions ans well as
his preaching at the funeral
parlours.
There's a great scene with the
demon truck jumping out of the
ground.
Although
I didn't like Night of
the Rat, this was
probably his best work.
We see a suspenseful scene that
involves Veronica Cartwright being
terrorised after she sees her
kitchen cupboards bursting open
Cartwright and Richard
Masur play off well as wife
and husband having arguments.
We see a disturbed look on Cartwright
and child actress Bridgette
Anderson after seeing a torn
up room
Masur shows terrific
angered expressions with his
scene between Albert Hague as
a rat exterminator when he first
encounters him.
Masur also shows a nice menacing
performance trying to shoot the
rat down.
Masur, Cartwright and
Anderson all did great
with their tense and crying
emotions too.
Craig Safan has
great dark and spooky screeching
sounds during the scene's
involving the first chapter
He also composes some great sharp
violin music for other chapters
in this film too which sounded
great.
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