La silla

When I went down to the video store to rent this movie I looked at the back of the film and read the short description of the movie. It looked kind of cool and had a somewhat interesting story so I decided to rent it.

In the introduction of the movie you see people cleaning out an old prison and in the background you hear this blues/soul music. This was the first hint that the movie was bad.

If I wanted blues I would have rented The Blues Brothers, but I wanted a horror movie so the tune felt all wrong.

To sum this up. The movie was bad and not really a horror movie. More of a drama/thriller. I have three carefully chosen words for this movie. Avoid, avoid and avoid.

This film is okay for a 1988 B-movie. Feature released on HBO and direct to video in the day.

I remember renting it at a Blockbuster because Stephen Geoffreys (Fright Night) starred. The other core cast, Trini Alvarado, James Coco, Paul Benedict hold their own. The direction is mediocre at best, but Interesting. With the prisoners inflected in some lame rehabilitation program that lacks luster and goes nowhere. The plot surrounds the gruesome murder of the prison's former warden. And strange things begin happening. Which is typical for a horror suspense thriller. It has its moments. One area seems to highlight a potential romance between the female intern and a streetwise inmate.

"The Chair" is another set in prison horror film,which reminds me "Prison"(1988).I loved "Prison",but this one is pretty bad.The performances are mostly awful,the special effects are cheesy beyond belief and there's absolutely no suspense.The gore is also absent,so horror fans will certainly be disappointed with "The Chair".However if you have some time to waste,check it out-you have been warned!!!The plot:Twenty years later there was a riot in prison.During it one of the wardens was electrocuted.Now he is back for revenge...

I don't quite know what to make out of this one. Basically it's a rip-off of "Prison" (1988). The latter, in my humble opinion, was a good movie, and "The Chair"... well, sometimes things look pretty bad here. From the moment you hear this extremely mellow jazzy song with female vocals over the opening credits, you just know this is going to be be a rather offbeat flick. An former prison facility re-opens as a psychiatric institute. Turns out that one guard and his friend were held captive during an inmate mutiny years ago. His friend died... but his ghost still haunts the facility and wants... well, something. Not quite sure it's revenge he's after, though. Weird thing was that, during the movie, there were several (often painful) attempts at comedy. And then, after about 20 minutes, this living eyeball with a worm-like body (brought to life by stop-motion) appears several times in a light bulb (!), and it feels like you've just entered a Frank Henenlotter movie. Pretty damn weird. Also add a lot of cheesy animated electricity effects, often for reasons I couldn't fully grasp either. One could argue that David Lynch often makes movies you can't make heads or tails of too, but that would be giving this movie too much credit. Way too much. One of the best scenes undoubtedly was the electrocution, with a cool close-up of an eye popping out of its socket. Those really are the few nifty moments you endure the rest of the movie for. And, yes, it was also fun seeing Mike Starr and Stephen Geoffreys in supporting roles. The other actors were only so-so and sadly, this movie doesn't lead to anything special, except for an ending that indicates that it's all going start again (that, or an ending like "this ain't over yet", was more or less obligatory for the 80's, and onward, so it's not like I'm spoiling anything here). I have a feeling that some day I'll be wanting to re-watch "The Chair", but for now... I'm just going to flunk it. At any rate, like I said, "Prison" is a better watch. And it stars Viggo Mortensen before he became..., well, Famous Viggo Mortensen. So go seek out that one.

I remember borrowing this movie when I couldn't find anything else I wanted.I've rented quite a few bad videos and The Chair was one of them.I didn't follow it too well and come to think of it I didn't even end up watching the whole thing.

So videos are like books,what you see on the cover isn't always what you get.