My review of Haunts of the Very Rich (1972)
The opening scene introduces seven people on a plane on their way to a super secret and expensive resort: the Portals of Eden. The guests are: a focused businessman (Ed Asner); a sex crazed politician (Lloyd Bridges); an attractive older woman (Cloris Leachman); newlyweds (Donna Mills and Tony Bill); a priest interested in researching savages (Robert Reed); and an over anxious housewife (Anne Francis). When the plane lands they are greeted by their host Mr. Seacrist (a black man dressed in an all white suit). This movie predates Fantasy Island, but it sure seems similar to it.
Things seem great on the resort at first, but after a vicious storm the hired help abandons the guests, dead fish are washed up on the shore and their food supply and fresh water run dangerously low. As the likelihood of rescue begins to become unlikely, some in the the group question whether they're all dead and whether the resort is actually a form of the afterlife. The trope of "they are actually the ghosts" is now familiar to audiences after modern movies like The Sixth Sense and The Others, but was likely a shocking plot twist in 1972.
This theme would be explored more thoroughly in the later hit series Lost, but for a short hour and fifteen minute television-movie, Haunts of the Very Rich does not disappoint. I liked the slow building tension and unease that this movie develops. I liked the religious themes and concept that we create our own unique hell. Robert Reed was a better actor than his signature role as Mr. Brady allowed him to display. Reed's despair and silent resignation helped drive home the point that these people were in for a specific hell designed for each of them individually. Ed Asner's performance ramped up the feeling of anxiety as it becomes more and more apparent that these people can't escape and can't communicate with the rest of the world.
The opening scene introduces seven people on a plane on their way to a super secret and expensive resort: the Portals of Eden. The guests are: a focused businessman (Ed Asner); a sex crazed politician (Lloyd Bridges); an attractive older woman (Cloris Leachman); newlyweds (Donna Mills and Tony Bill); a priest interested in researching savages (Robert Reed); and an over anxious housewife (Anne Francis). When the plane lands they are greeted by their host Mr. Seacrist (a black man dressed in an all white suit). This movie predates Fantasy Island, but it sure seems similar to it.
Things seem great on the resort at first, but after a vicious storm the hired help abandons the guests, dead fish are washed up on the shore and their food supply and fresh water run dangerously low. As the likelihood of rescue begins to become unlikely, some in the the group question whether they're all dead and whether the resort is actually a form of the afterlife. The trope of "they are actually the ghosts" is now familiar to audiences after modern movies like The Sixth Sense and The Others, but was likely a shocking plot twist in 1972.
This theme would be explored more thoroughly in the later hit series Lost, but for a short hour and fifteen minute television-movie, Haunts of the Very Rich does not disappoint. I liked the slow building tension and unease that this movie develops. I liked the religious themes and concept that we create our own unique hell. Robert Reed was a better actor than his signature role as Mr. Brady allowed him to display. Reed's despair and silent resignation helped drive home the point that these people were in for a specific hell designed for each of them individually. Ed Asner's performance ramped up the feeling of anxiety as it becomes more and more apparent that these people can't escape and can't communicate with the rest of the world.