Skip to main content

Audrey Rose

The 1970's were a wondrous time for horror. Populated mostly by serial killers and maniacs, there are also a fair amount of demons, devils, spirits, and other such malicious, supernatural entities. Tonight's movie falls into this latter category.

If The Exorcist and The Omen had a VERY boring baby, it would be Audrey Rose. There's something so soap-opera-ish about this movie's plot; the story just doesn't seem to go anywhere and when it does, it doesn't make any sense.

The gist? A family loses a child. The father seeks comfort in meditation and comes to believe his daughter has been reincarnated in another little girl. He approaches the girl's family, tells them this whacky theory, and all hell breaks loose. The man's story is so absurd that the family seeks the help of a lawyer - as though "crazy talk" is some sort of arrestable or prosecutable offense. The lawyer decides that he should invent some questions for the family to ask and that he'll hide in their house and "just listen" while they get the man's answers. He promises to be their witness. To what end? At this point, the story truly spirals into the toilet and completely loses ANY focus it may have had.

I imagine that, at the time it was made, director Robert Wise was the biggest possible draw for people to watch this wandering, pointless movie. Or perhaps it was appealing for another reason.

Do a little digging and you'll find some interesting stuff written in defense of Audrey Rose. I'm not the first critic to accuse it of being a pretty obvious rip off of The Exorcist. There is some argument to the contrary, that says during the 60's and 70's Americans had a cultural obsession with Eastern religions, thus bits and pieces of that mythology (reincarnation in particular) really began to find it's way into our movies. For the laymen among us, that means Audrey Rose and The Exorcist are actually two peas in a sub-genre pod.

Now, Anthony Hopkins is probably the only reason anyone will go back and watch this movie. Which is actually funny to me because, as much as there is a perception that he is an amazing actor, he's prone to this theatrical, over-dramatization that leaves him munching contentedly on scenery much of the time. If ever there were a case of him ridiculously overacting, aside from the Wolfman remake, it would be this movie.

Unbelievably, you can actually watch the trailer here
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Witch (2015)

You know the drill - there's ALWAYS spoilers. Don't want the movie ruined for you, come back after you've seen it. Also - I'm still without an editor - typos and bad grammar await you! I keep hoping that the cultural obsession with zombies will end; literally every other damn movie that comes 'round seems to feature some sort of shambling, undead being bent on devouring the weak flesh of regular humans. Once upon a time, zombies have have been used as a metaphor for the blind consumerism created by our capitalist society, or the perceived depletion of resources by immigrants, or even the ravages of time and disease on our frail bodies. Now it seems that the deeper social commentary has been lost as audiences mindlessly consume "zombie fiction" in an attempt to keep up with trends. ( How very meta - a film buddy of mine commented on this assessment! ) All of this is just a sideways rant, leading up to my actual point: it seems that zombie may actually...
1 comment
Read more

Mother!

Alright friends and readers–this one is probably doubly filled with typos and grammar errors because I wrote it while angry. Good luck and happy reading. There are unpopular opinions in every realm. As a film student, you can truly strike a nerve when you say things like, "I fucking hate the self-indulgence of independent films and the way people idolize them." Or, you know, "Low lighting and slow pacing does not a good movie make." Or whatever. You can of course, objectively, understand how this happens. When you are creating art–when you are outside the system  so to speak–you are free to explore things (subjects, techniques, etc.) that may need to be addressed and that freedom can become intoxicating and go to one's head. While it may seem only right  or only fair  to respect and accept each creative endeavor that every artist undertakes, it is unreasonable to believe that the world will remain forever patient with the self-obsession artists have. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Babadook

Spoilers and typos! Enjoy. We often look back nostalgically on childhood, envious of the joy we felt and the boundless imaginations we possessed. How conveniently we forget the other side of that coin: as children, we experience a depth of terror our adult selves continually try to recreate for cathartic entertainment. When we try to bring those childhood fears to life on the screen, we often end up with movies about "things that go bump in the night," which is a somewhat superficial approach. While it does provide an opportunity for a supernatural experience, it ignores the root of our fear: the unknown . As children, we lack life experience. We lack nuance. We lack understanding. Not knowing creates in us fear. Yes, we fear what lurks in the darkness but we also fear the adult world because we do not understand how it works. The Babadook works to exploit both  those fears. The short story: a widowed mother of a young boy experiences a mental breakdown and tries to...
Post a Comment
Read more