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Quote:

Zombies are the middle children of the otherworldly family. Vampires are the oldest brother who gets to have a room in the attic, all tripped out with a disco ball and shag carpet. Werewolves are the youngest, the babies, always getting pinched and told they're cute. With all that attention stolen away from the middle child zombie, no wonder she shuffles off grumbling, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha."

- Kevin James Breaux

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Film Review: WHISPERS (1990)



The novels of Dean R. Koontz are second to Stephen King in popularity as both authors continuously crank out new novels faster than any other horror author while still remaining on the New York Times best sellers list time and time again.  Unlike King though, the films based on Koontz’ novels have not endured or become as popular as King’s remaining minor cult classics like Phantoms (1998) or Watchers (1988) or completely forgotten like Servants of Twilight (1991) or Mr. Murder (1998).  The film Whispers (1990) is in the latter category. 

Hilary (Victoria Tennant) is being hounded by a stalker Bruno (Jean LeClerc) someone she interviewed for an article long ago.  The only problem is that when he shows up unexpectedly inside her apartment calling her from a different name then her own she panics and almost kills him.  Bruno flees and she calls the cops.  When the cops arrive it is only Tony (Chris Sarandon) that believes her as it appears that Bruno has an alibi so he couldn’t have been at Hilary’s house.  This puts Hilary in a strange mystery where she is unable to decide whether or not she was correct in that her stalker was indeed Bruno or not.  When Bruno appears again she doesn’t take any chances and he is killed when he tries to kill her.  Now with Bruno’s body to prove that she is correct the mystery seems to have been solved.  Then Bruno’s body disappears from the morgue and Hilary with the help of Tony decide to discover what is truly going on in this strange thriller.

Written by Anita Doohan and directed by Douglas Jackson Whispers makes for a descent thriller but doesn’t really offer anything new that you haven’t seen before.  Unfortunately, time has not been kind to this film and it comes off as being very dated but fans of Sarandon will be forgiven if they believe he is playing an extension of his Mike Norris character from Child’s Play (1988).  There’s not much special about the film and there isn’t much suspense or gore but if you’re squeamish about bugs then the end will truly put you on edge.

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