With credits that completely rips off every popular nighttime soap opera of the 1980's, it's obvious that this was the testing ground for a possible series, but as evil as J. R. or Abby or Alexis or Angela could be, you always knew where they drew the line. Here we have the Academy Award winning Jose Ferrer as a former Hitler advisor, the patriarch of a wealthy San Francisco family who is heavily into the occult and attempting to manipulate the next power holder of the family, the innocent Whitney Kershaw whose mother (Michelle Phillips) is desperately trying to protect her from the family. We see the mob like hit on Bradford Dillman, Ferrer's son, at the San Francisco airport, and the assassin isn't even prevented from getting out. But they also have the ability to turn a man's hands into flaming torches, so perhaps that explains why.
I found this TV movie completely cumbersome and pointless, nearly as good or as campy as the 70's output of occult TV movies, and the few shocking moments that are occur are few and far between. Jane Badler is deliciously calculating, and such well known actors as Judy Parfitt and Charles Frank do their best to this rise above mediocrity, but there are so many absurd elements about this that it was nearly impossible to get into.
In a sense, it was already dated when it came out, featuring tripes of supernatural horror movies we've seen a million times. It actually reminded me of an old episode of "The Night Stalker" which was fresh in its time but rather ordinary in the concept of what the 80's was given supernatural film lovers.
I found this TV movie completely cumbersome and pointless, nearly as good or as campy as the 70's output of occult TV movies, and the few shocking moments that are occur are few and far between. Jane Badler is deliciously calculating, and such well known actors as Judy Parfitt and Charles Frank do their best to this rise above mediocrity, but there are so many absurd elements about this that it was nearly impossible to get into.
In a sense, it was already dated when it came out, featuring tripes of supernatural horror movies we've seen a million times. It actually reminded me of an old episode of "The Night Stalker" which was fresh in its time but rather ordinary in the concept of what the 80's was given supernatural film lovers.