Sunday, September 30, 2012

It Came From Netflix:The Sender (1982)



By Eric Polk-
I recall a passage from Stephen King's Danse Macabre in which he explained why he loves watching bad and/or lesser-known horror films. It was mainly because once in awhile you find a piece of gold in the celluloid dreck. My sentiments exactly, Mr. King!

The past week or so, I have swam my way through crap films involving killers in aerobics classes, haunted houses where nothing happens, and, of course, Glee! Having survived that, I'm happy to have watched a movie that undeservedly got little run when it was first released way back in '82.

The Sender is a slow potboiler that relies more on psychological scares than visceral ones(yea!).
A young man has just been admitted to a mental hospital after attempting suicide at a public beach. Unable to remember even his own name, the doctors call him John Doe #83(because John Doe from the band X would have been pissed about any copyright infringement I'm sure). Soon after his arrival, the doctor assigned to him begins seeing and hearing things around her that have no explanation. Soon she begins to make the terrifying connection between the things she is seeing and her new patient.

And boy the dreams shes sees of his are chilling. Yet another young man haunted by his mother(What is up with that, btw? If Freud were still alive and off the blow, he'd probably be the richest man in the world.)

Though slow at times, the suspense is quite good, and when the blood does flow, it's not gratuitous in the way you'd expect from a 1982 Paramount release. The movie is sooooo good even our DBHR's Brandon Sites loved it which is strange because we hardly agree on anything.

 


3 comments:

theboy2017 said...

i like the poster/cover

Shawn said...

I can't find it on Netflix. But thanks for the write up on it. I'll be sure to look for it elsewhere.

Eric Polk said...

Shawn...It's on dvd only.