samiyam

I saw this because I like Kirk Douglas and have been looking for his most obscure titles to flesh out my catalog of viewing... This qualified as obscure so I rented it at the "we have everything" videostore. YUCH! This movie deserves to be obscure! The production was trite, the story stupid, most of the characters seem to have phoned this one in and Kirk looks silly trying to do his normal workmanlike job against this panoply of mediocrity. This one should have been burned. What can I say? Jaquiline Susan was an aberration of the seventies which we all look back upon with horror just as we look upon bell-bottom jeans and afro wigs as abortions of bad taste blocking up the world. This movie is unintentionally bad.

Arie Verveen seems so filthy and stupid when the film begins and the sets and settings of the movie show such filth and unpleasant sights that the viewers begin to be disgusted. Watching the movie, I felt as if I was afraid to touch any surface and I felt that I needed a scrub-brush or a hose. These feelings, however, shouldn't allow the viewer to see that the movie is a fantastic psychological thriller under the surface. Arie Verveen, evoking the ghost of Brando, delves deeply into the character of his part to show how you never know what's what or who someone truly is until you get beyond the skin. Strong performances by Dominique Swain as the childlike bride, Henry Thomas as the brutal husband Edgar and Karen Allen as the modern-day witchwoman down the lane add depth to an already deep pond. An interesting viewing, I'm looking forward to more from Deborah Pryor, who provided a very well-made story.