Alison's Birthday

This movie about a girl STRONGLY/RIGHTFULLY warned to avoid her 19th birthday party started good, got increasingly MST3k-bad and ended exactly how you thought it would and yet.... I LOVED the ending. That saved this entire movie and believe me...it needed it. I was laughing out loud SOOO many times in the second act, I almost turned it off several times. But, I didn't and I even knew how it'd end. It was the ending I'd crave in these creepy movies made in the late 70s. If you like creepy 70s occult films, check this out on Shudder.

This movie was part of a Down Under horror mini-boom that took place for some reason in late 1970's and early 1980's and included some pretty decent if low-watt films like "The Survivor", "Thirst", and "Razorback". It was kind of a little late therefore in getting into the whole satanic cult craze that started with "Rosemary's Baby" in the late 1960's. The cult in this movie though is not technically a satanic cult, but a Druid cult relocated from the British Isles, and they aren't trying to pass the devil's seed into an oblivious virgin, but some kind of ancient centuries-old spirit.

The movie starts with a Ouija board session, involving "Alison" the teenage protagonist, that goes horribly awry. One of Alison's friends starts speaking in her dead father's voice. She/he warns "Alison" not to "go with them" on her nineteenth birthday. Then a bookcase falls on the possessed friend, killing her. You would think she would heed this very compelling warning several years later on her nineteenth birthday when her creepy "uncle and aunt" invite her out to their country estate for a party, but then we wouldn't have much of a movie, would we? Once there "Alison", who is not the sharpest tool in the garage, is remarkably unperturbed to see that her relatives have a miniature of Stonehenge on their property. And what's up with her dessicated 104-year-old great grandmother?

Her slightly smarter friends eventually find the truth and ride to her rescue, and they turn out to be every bit as effective as Scatman Crothers in "The Shining". The ending is great and ALMOST redeems the occasional absurdities and periodic lulls of the earlier parts of the movie. Still, all in all, this isn't a bad little horror flick from the land of Oz.

In the old days before CGI when special effects weren't very special there was a strange concept called imagination which incredibly, enhanced movies, which helps a lot with this one. The acting is amateurish as is the script and direction, but the ideas used are great, the kind you would expect to find in an episode of Tales of the Unexpected or The Twilight Zone. I enjoyed it.

In case you are - like I was - somewhat reluctant to watch "Alison's Birthday", then hopefully this review can help persuade you to give it a fair chance! Admittedly, it looks and sounds rather boring at first sight, but it's a surprisingly good and intense piece of occult horror from the land of Oz. The Aussies were perhaps a little late with their cashing in on the success of "Rosemary's Baby", but at least their contribution is far better and more memorable than the vast majority of cheap & trashy rip-offs that were released throughout the 70s.

"Alison's Birthday" has a really powerful opening sequence and a staggeringly bleak climax. That's already more than other movies have to show for, and everything in between isn't too bad, neither, albeit a bit slow, derivative and predictable. The intro is fabulous! I usually don't like séance sequences or Ouija-board horror, but this particular scene knows quite a grisly and effectively shocking twist.

A few days prior to her 19th birthday, Alison is begged to come home to the aunt and uncle who brought her up since she became an orphan. The girl has doubts, because a nightmarish séance on her 16th birthday (the one from to the intro) forewarned her to stay away from there at all costs. Boyfriend Peter accompanies Alison, but he's unsubtly shut out by the overbearing aunt and uncle. With Alison further and further out of reach, Peter discovers strange and mystic occurrences, involving a demonic cult, Stonehenge rituals, modern Druids and a 103-year-old granny wandering about! "Alison's Birthday" is far from perfect, but it's one of those rare horror movies that manages to be atmospheric and genuinely unsettling without featuring a single drop of blood. And that final shot, oh man, ... magnificent!

I first saw this in the late 80s and found the cemetery scene pretty tension filled n scary. Surrounded by satanic cultists in broad daylight in a desolated cemetery n most of em in black ties n one fella with a scythe.

Revisited it recently n found it a bit slow.

The movie doesn't have any gore, nudity or kill scene.

At least they shud have shown the Celtic goddess nude.

Felt sad for Peter.