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Powerful

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A mysterious, morbid professor (Michael York) who has suffered a number of horrid events in his life tries to help a young troubled man (Andrew Bowen), whose girl friend was killed during an illegal abortion.I had some issues with this, particularly that the age looks all wrong, despite the costumes and mustaches. The time period is unclear, but it strikes me as 1990s people dressed up as people fro ma century ago. An that just takes the magic out of it, makes it more like a theater production. That would not be bad in itself, but I am sure this was not the intent.The film was directed by Mitch Marcus and based on "The Ghostly Rental" by Henry James. I have not read the James story (unfortunately -- I should) and this was Marcus' first time out as director, so he can be excused. Just such a shame that producer Roger Corman had Michael York to work with (who does excellently) and pairs him with a cast and crew that is not on his level.

Michael York is good as the mysterious professor and Andrew Bowen gives a nice performance in the lead. In the end, you are left wondering if the ghosts were real or simply manifestations of extremely guilty, troubled minds. There is artistic justice in the film - as a handsome college student dies alone in a jail cell, after leaving his girlfriend to die alone in a seedy guesthouse, following a botched abortion. Aideen O'Donnell is incredibly beautiful as the girlfriend and the ghost - why have we not seen more from this actress? Not a slasher or shocker, just a slow-burning drama about guilt and how it haunts us. I enjoyed this movie and recommend it to those who enjoy psychological dramas.

Roger Corman produced, but not really typical of Corman, yet there's a bit of the style of the old Corman/Poe/Vincent Price series from the 60s here. I'd say that the title would be about the only thing "Cormanesque" about this in regards to making it interesting commercially, to kind of cash in on the same-time remakes of "Haunting" and "House on Haunted Hill". Other than that, it's a nice, yet small, psychological thriller, with some plot elements influenced by The Tell-Tale Heart. York gives a nice and slightly hammy performance as the tortured old professor, and the others are more than adequate. It will keep the interest of those who don't mind a gradual build and don't care for the lack of real terror and/or gruesome displays of killing. There's some violence and slight gore, but nothing gratuitous. Nothing here ever gets beyond being just a grade more than mediocre, say about B-, EXCEPT the really nice use of the Irish countryside as a substitute for old New England, which is an A grade. Nothing grand, but better than average.

I expected more from a story by the author of "Turn of the Screw," but didn't get it here. Unrelieved by any humor whatever the narrative unrolls at a lugubrious pace with interspersed quick cuts of blood dripping from tables, walls, portraits, wherever -- and even more blood rolling in rippling overly crimson waves down a hallway (thank you, Stanley Kubrick). Peter York is okay, given his character, a tormented professor who does everything but shriek, "True, I am very very nervous, but why WILL you call me mad!" The other actors do what they can. The most depressing aspect of the film is in many ways its overall eidos -- the material artifacts and the natural backdrop against which the action takes place. Few movies have so many bare blackish twisted tree limbs dripping with cold rain, so many pale bodies wrapped uncomfortably in wet woolen capes and unbecoming gowns that seem to have been built around internal struts made of wire coat hangers. The interiors are just about as dreary, dim candles and fireplaces that seem to throw little heat or light. Given all of this, I still didn't find the movie so bad as to be unwatchable. It's just that it left me so gloomy, like watching the evening news on a particularly bad day.