Directed by:
Fred Olen Ray
I saw this one a very long time ago and thought it was awful. Upon this re-visit, I enjoyed it a bit more; probably because I knew just what I was getting myself into.
Very loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's story "Premature Burial,"
this has Poe's name plastered all over the VHS box, begins with a Poe
quote, throws Poe's name over the title and then makes sure that we know
that "Sherman Scott's" (Ray's) screenplay is based on Poe. So Poe or no
Poe? Well, there is a premature burial of sorts but the
similarities pretty much end right there. With this one you'll be getting
lots of R-rated sex and nudity plus three different story paths
that hope to blend together at the very end. The first aspect of the story
is an utterly unoriginal kill-or-drive-the-wife-insane-for-her-money
angle. The second, and the most interesting aspect, is a blurring or dream
and reality. We're not always entirely surely (at least in the beginning)
if what's happening is really happening or just in the mind of its
troubled heroine. The third is the possible presence of the supernatural,
which itself is divided into three separate possibilities: ghosts, possession
and
reincarnation. Or perhaps a blending of all three could be at play. Hey, I never
said this thing wasn't muddled as fuck, did I?
Neurotic, wealthy housewife Victoria Munroe (Brinke Stevens) is
suffering from horrible nightmares that won't let her sleep. Some of these
involve her father (Hoke Howell), who she believes may have been
buried alive, which instills the fear in her that she too may be
prematurely entombed. Vicky blames family physician Dr. Richard Carlton (Robert
Clarke) for her dad's death because in a last ditch effort to save him
during a heart attack, Carlton gave him an injection of adrenaline.
Nevertheless, a girl's gotta sleep, so she's prescribed some powerful
sleeping pills. Meanwhile, Victoria's businessman hubby Terry (Jay
Richardson) is having an affair with his kinky secretary / mistress Lisa (Delia
Sheppard) and owes 80 thousand dollars of gambling debt to sleazy mob boss Mr. Visconti (Robert
Quarry), who demands payment soon... or else. The adulterous hubby and
his Girl Friday hope
that Victoria's weak heart will give out just like it did her old man's, but
they're not above trying to speed along the process to get their greedy
hands on Victoria's estate. Watching all of the action from a car parked
outside the Munroe home is James Trent (Jan-Michael Vincent); who
claims to be a detective following up on neighbor complaints of
screaming, but may be up something else entirely.
Victoria's nightmares continue to drive her increasingly closer to
the breaking point.
She imagines her father comes to life in his casket and grabs her, that
she's in a bathtub slowly filling with blood and that she finds a skull
which oozes yellow gunk and maggots while she's outside gardening. The
best nightmare is when she dreams she dies of heart failure but remains
conscious inside her own body and is hauled off to a mortuary where she
awakens mid-autopsy just as Michael Berryman (in a fun cameo)
starts to cut her open. Dr. Carlton eventually seeks the aid of hypnotist
and paranormal researcher Dr. Julia Harcourt (Karen Black) in
getting to the bottom of the troubled Victoria's irrational fears. After
putting Victoria under, Dr. Harcourt is able to communicate with a dormant spirit
inside Victoria; her former self. Apparently, in her past life Victoria was raped by her
brother-in-law on her wedding night. The husband got revenge by burying
both of them alive. Once this is uncovered, Victoria is finally freed of
her fears, only to awaken and find her worst nightmare coming true...
I still don't know what in the hell happened at the end. Did Victoria
simply go crazy? Did she die of a heart attack and then reemerge from her
coffin possessed? If so, by whom? Her dead father? The ghost of her past
self? I wish I could provide an answer but sadly I couldn't quite figure
it out. I also couldn't quite figure out if it was intentionally left this
way so we could make up our own minds about it or not. All I really know
is that the last shot rips off the end of the killer doll segment of
Trilogy of Terror (1975) by having a bloody, hunched-over Vicky slowly tapping her
knife on the kitchen floor.
Haunting Fear is pretty talky and depends a lot on its
stars;
many of whom had a good deal of dialogue to spit out during the 6-day
shoot. Thankfully, there are some decent actors in this one and they make
the frequent character interactions at least somewhat entertaining.
Stevens looks lovely, has three nude scenes in the first half-hour and
attempts (with varying degrees of success) to make her character a sympathetic focal point. Vincent
looks - gasp! - clean-cut and sober, which is about the best you could
hope
for from him by this point in his career. Black (dolled out in a short
blonde wig) seems like she'd rather be somewhere else and appears annoyed
by something in both of her scenes. Perhaps she read the script just a few
minutes before filming? Still, always nice
seeing her, as well as veteran horror stars Clarke (The Hideous Sun
Demon), Quarry (Count Yorga, Vampire) and Berryman (The
Hills Have Eyes). Strangely enough though, it is Sheppard (a former
Penthouse Pet from Denmark) who walks away with this one... and not
just because she looks great naked and has two lengthy sex scenes. She's
simply fun to watch as the evil bitch secretary who likes to burn
her breasts with lit cigarettes, smack her lover around in bed and call
our demure and sweet little heroine things like "sniveling little
whore."
Things get off to an extremely slow start and the action doesn't
really pick up until the last 20 minutes, which features some truly laughable gore fx (including a terrible dummy head).
Shot in 1989 on a budget of 115,000 dollars, it at least looks and sounds like a
proper movie thanks to Gary Graver's professional photography and
Chuck Cirino's elegant music score. Rhino and Troma were the VHS distributors
but I'm not aware of an American DVD release.
★★
