Kevin Tenney directed two respectable horror films (WITCHBOARD and NIGHT OF THE DEMONS) prior to this, which confuses me. Neither of the two prior flicks were masterpieces, but they were competently made with fairly good actors and a veneer of professionalism, which makes this cinematic millstone a giant question mark. One would think that Tenney had a handle on how to do things like create atmosphere, rising action and suspense, elicit good performances out of his actors, etc. Nuh-uh. With this movie, Tenney seems to have had a cinematic aneurysm, losing any sense of how to make a professional, polished product.
While the movie doesn't suffer from technical ineptness, there's an amateur quality to the whole thing that makes it feel almost like a 1970s drive-in movie. Oddball camera angles (the opening scene could make you seasick--watch it and you'll know what I mean), stiff or non-professional acting, lengthy exposition dumps, and dialogue that is in turns wooden or ingratiatingly cute, and little action until the third act all make for an annoying viewing experience. Still, it can be charming if you're in the right mood. Linnea Quigley is the only name actor I could spot, and her nude scene was a blessing in the midst of all this mediocrity. The actresses playing the psychic investigator and physical medium both came off to me as non-professional or poorly trained (the investigator in particular desperately needed some vocal or dialect training--her accent was annoying). The actors playing the two cops-for-hire were ok, but the constant one-liners they delivered got irritating pretty quick. The movie picked up steam near the end with some better than average special effects (which is probably where most of the budget went), which was a welcome relief from all the tedious exposition. Lovers of bad movies might want to try this one, but all others would do well to select something else to watch on Tubi.
