Cassandra

Cassandra is a young woman who lives with her wealthy photographer father and fashion designer mother. She finds out accidentally about her father's affair with a fashion model, but this is a minor problem that's facing her. She is now having unsettling nightmare visions. These visions are somewhat connected to her past and strangely the present. Her parents seem terribly uncomfortable about her obsession of what she is seeing and her discovery about their family's secret.

Pure visionary is brought to the screen in director Colin (Long Weekend) Eggleston's very moody and seriously spooky minor budget Australian thriller "Cassandra". I hadn't seen it in ages, but its still visually arresting and stylishly done with its ominous punch and novel techniques. There's patient handling all round and that creeps up in its torpid pacing, which unquestionably has some flagging spots. But this subtleness makes way for some forebodingly suspenseful set pieces that provide quick and concise jolts with grisly intension, but without the real need of showing us. For some that factor might be a huge downer, but how they fuse the violence with the disquieting material and chilling atmosphere payed dividends in the set-up. This was helped a lot by Ian Mason's unworldly hum-dinger of a music score that was effectively placed to achieve unbearable tension with cunning unease. Gary Wapshott's kinetic photography gracefully glides and professionally frames some beautifully striking locations. There was a true addiction to POV shots here, though they were neatly staged. The complicatedly progressive (but unoriginal) story by Colin Eggleston, Christopher Flitchett and John Ruane works upon the little things by trying to surprise the viewer with outlandish twists and wayward developments. It's flawed, as it does chop and change a bit and lose sight of its intriguing mystery to fall in the final third. With common slasher traits (red herrings get a real work out) and a predictable revelation that limps into a sudden climax that's plain dumbfounding. A slasher film at heart it is, but it's trying to be much more and it does come off (well sort of) in parts. Most of the performances are nicely judged and credible. Debut actress Tessa Humphries works the role of Cassandra terrifically and invokes a compelling turn. Shane Briant and Briony Behets are substantially good in their parts as the parents.

Substance might be little, but this effort is a surprisingly decent exercise and has some imagination in its editing and visuals flashes to share. Well worth the look.

CASSANDRA is a solid, suspenseful film that all horror fans should see. It has some wonderful, suspenseful moments that are very effective. Its main problem is that it suffers from being boring and muddled at times. I understand that the director couldn't do nonstop action/horror scenes in all places throughout the film, but I just wish that at times I didn't feel like I was watching Daytime TV. I mean, the relationship between the mother and the daughter. And the husband was having an affair. But putting that aside, everything else about this film was very well done and very effective. I was actually introduced to Austrailian Horror by mistake, only because my friends are so big on the MAD MAX series. Anyway, CASSANDRA is not really cliche-ridden, and that is good. It has some effective moments that will make you look over the muddled ones. **1/2out of****Worth at least one or two looks.

A young girl named 'Cassandra' is rattled by recurring nightmares involving a fire and a murder at the hands of little child in this 1986 offbeat slasher.

The film starts with a dream of a woman shooting herself after being coaxed by her young son to "do it". Our lead character Cassandra (who was a little girl in the dream that witnessed everything) wakes up from it. We find out that she's been having these dreams for quite some time. Puzzled by these dreams, and getting no help from her parents when she asks questions, Cassandra decides to investigate it further. Her parents try to sway her from looking into it, and it's not hard to tell that they know more than they're letting on.

Cassandra's father Stephen meanwhile is cheating on his wife Helen with one of the models he works with and has gotten her pregnant. Late one night, the model is murdered by an unseen assailant brandishing a large butcher knife. The cops believe it was either Helen or Cassandra who did it for revenge because of the affair. Not long after that, we see the stalker attack Helen late at night in her art studio.

There is something very haunt and eerie about the way 'Cassandra' is filmed, including the unnerving musical score playing in the background at almost all times. Very nice work by director Colin Eggleston. I thought one of the murder scenes near the beginning of the film was well done too, very 80's slasher-like with a classic jump scare. All of the stalking scenes were effective throughout. Where 'Cassandra' suffered was in it's writing. As the film slowly trudged along, the story got muddled and the audience gets introduced to way too many twists and turns.

All in all, 'Cassandra' was a fine Australian slasher flick that's worth at least one watch. Actress Briony Behets who played the mother Helen was a standout in the cast which featured a few not so good performances.

5/10.

CASSANDRA, one of the last films by LONG WEEKEND helmer Colin Eggleston, is a supernatural slasher about a young woman (helpfully named Cassandra) who is being plagued by terrifying nightmares of a woman shooting herself and a scary little boy. Her parents are both being rather unhelpful about the problem, but when people in town start getting sliced and diced, it's revealed they've been keeping a lot from young Cassandra...

The film starts promising with a creepy, visually arresting dream sequence, and it's obvious that Mr. Eggleston knows what he's doing in the director's chair. When it wants to be, CASSANDRA is atmospheric and good-looking.

Unfortunately, it's relentlessly over-padded with snoozy scenes of photography shoots and marital drama, then spoiled by predictable plot happenings (I hesitate to even call them twists, due to how obvious they are). By the end, the film has become a ho-hum late-80s slasher, and not a fun one to watch either.

Not easy to recommend to anyone outside of Ozploitation and slasher completists. It's really not too bad, but you've seen it all before many a time and it's definitely not worth tracking down a VHS copy. Just watch LONG WEEKEND again instead.

Meet Cassandra. She's just an ordinary big-haired 80s Aussie gal living a ho-hum life until one day she stumbles upon her photographer father making out with his model. Unfortunately, discovering this affair (and her mum's lackadaisical reaction to it) is the least of her troubles. More concerning is her horrific nightmares about a familiar woman shooting herself in the face at the urging of some creepy kid! With some investigating she learns that her family may be harboring more than a few dark secrets.

Colin Eggleston, who helmed the minor Aussie classic "Long Weekend" (1978), directs this 80s slasher that's obviously influenced by many of the popular American horror films from the 80s. The film does suffer (or maybe it's enhanced, depending on how you like your 80s horror) from a dated feel during some of the scenes--a photo shoot where the model dances to bad music and strikes poses quickly comes to mind. The performances aren't particularly great. The girl who plays Cassandra gives a deadpan delivery and her character isn't nearly as interesting as the others, which is sort of a big pitfall if the film is named after her. Briony Behets plays Cass's mum and goes into weird territory with the role--all wild smiles and crazed eyes during the scenes where the character should be scared. I like Behets as the lead in Long Weekend, but I know she bugged a lot of other viewers of that film. If you didn't like her there, you'll probably hate her in this one.

So what makes this movie worthwhile? Cass's dream, which features a creepy kid growling creepy things in a creepy voice, is an excellent and horrifying opening sequence that immediately grabs you and makes you want to stay with the film. The editing is fast and flashy, but this works in its favor and enhances the fright factor (unlike in many recent films, where it just makes you wish you had a Dramamine.) Even though it starts to feel like a typical derivative slasher, it eventually goes into some unexpected and twisted territory with regards to the subject matter, which I can't get into without spoiling. It doesn't dwell on these themes--they are simply there, and there's something unsettling about that. There are also several situations in the film (for example, one character's reaction to their stalker when they're being chased with a knife) that set it apart from your typical 80s horror fare. I found myself rewinding the tape and watching some scenes a couple times.

By the time the story came full circle, I was left pretty surprised by what I had seen. Sure, there are some flaws and a lot of it feels dated or doesn't make any sense, but overall it's a darn frightening slasher with some unique plot elements. I totally dug it, but keep in mind that I'm a bit of an Aussie horror fanatic.

For trivia buffs: the poem "Who Killed Cock Robin?", recited in the movie by the creepy dream kid, was sampled by the band My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult in their song "Do You Fear for Your Child?"