Netherworld

NETHERWORLD (1992)

BASIC PLOT: A man, Corey Thornton (Michael Bendetti), returns home to Louisiana, after his father, Noah (Robert Sampson), dies, to claim his estate. It's an old world plantation, with many strange happenings, and people. Corey, who never knew his father, becomes preoccupied with him, by reading his father's diaries. He begins dreaming of his father's mistress, Delores (Denise Gentile). He is warned by Diane Palmer (Holly Floria), the daughter of the woman who runs the plantation, against going to the backwoods brothel where Delores works. But his dreams keep intensifying, and the pull is strong. There are many powerful Voodoo Queens about, but which one can he trust? Is there a way to discover his father's true intentions, before his passions consume him?

WHAT WORKS: *This is an atmospheric, plain and simple. The only problem here, is they forgot to layout the plot and characters, so what you are left with, falls short. It does have beautiful locations, and beautiful people.

*Louisiana Voodoo is it's own religion, separate from Haitian Voodoo, Cuban Sanitaria, or Hoodoo. It is heavily dominated by women, Voodoo priestesses, which this movie accurately portrays. The women have the real power in the movie, and in the spiritual arts of Louisiana.

*Imprisoning souls in birds, is a cool take on an old Haitian Voodoo practice, but doesn't have much to do with reality. I can forgive this, it is fiction after all, but one cool plot device, can't carry the whole movie.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *There's no plot, not really. I'm a huge fan of Full Moon Productions, and this is not terrible, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

*There's no character development AT ALL! Not one character had a backstory, it's all surface. He's an accountant, a henchman, a prostitute, does that tell you anything? NO!

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *If you are a fan of Full Moon movies, you might want to see this. If you like movies that contain Voodoo, or Louisiana locations, you might like this. Otherwise, I'd probably give this a pass. It had real potential, they just never utilized any of it.

CLOSING NOTES: *I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews. Hope I helped you out.

I actually thought I was in for something interesting during the first few minutes of this film, the section I'll call "the prologue". It was atmospheric and strange enough to hold some promise. Unfortunately, I kept waiting for something to happen for the rest of the movie, and very little does, except for the last 10 minutes when I finally learned what the title really means, and that I had been had, big time. This isn't scary, suspenseful or even erotic as the trailer suggested, the only positive thing I can say about it is that it's well photographed. I certainly expected more from the director of Tourist Trap and the original Puppet Master. Netherworld is an infuriating disappointment.

NETHERWORLD, a Full Moon picture set in the Louisiana swamps, successfully delivers a Gothic atmosphere filled with lush vegetation, isolated manor homes, and brothels operated by voodoo sorceresses. However, thanks to a hopelessly cheesy script, the film never transcends its early-90s low-budget roots.

The plot concerns a Corey Thornton, a dashing young man who has just inherited a vast estate from the father he never knew in life. While combing through the deceased's papers, he discovers that his father's last wish was to be brought back from the dead. Corey becomes obsessed with this task and seeks help from those around him: Bijou (the slobbering neighborhood idiot-savant), Diane (Southern-fried "jailbait" who actually looks to be about 25 years old), his father's lawyer (who has mysteriously deformed hands), and of course Delores (a prostitute with big hair and mystical powers).

The action alternates between Corey's manor house and Tonk's, the brothel-next-door, where all the girls are named after dead celebrities...or have Marilyn Monroe and Mary Magdalene really been resurrected?! The band plays smooth jazz as passions rise and Delores casts sultry glances at everyone. Then things get weird. A hand flies out of the wall and starts killing people, whose souls become trapped inside the bodies of birds. A bird which is clearly a hand puppet screams "NEVERRRRRR!" We finally descend to the Netherworld, where the forces of evil fight for control of Corey's mind in a scene that will leave you wondering, "Oh...that was the climax?" All in all, Netherworld is a good bit of entertainment which never gets boring; however, one can't shake the feeling that if slightly more money and effort had been put into it, it could have been good instead of just adequate.

Hunky Michael Bendetti plays Corey Thornton, a young man who receives an inheritance from his late father Noah (Robert Sampson, a.k.a. Dean Halsey in "Re-Animator"). He travels to the family estate in Louisiana, where he gets caught up in local mumbo jumbo involving plans to resurrect the dead and a connection between humans and birds.

It's commendable that writer / director David Schmoeller would go to so much trouble to create something different than the usual run of Full Moon product. This is by turns erotic and romantic, with an appealing soft jazz soundtrack by Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan (and on screen appearances by Bryan and Edgar Winter). He injects this with as much flavourful New Orleans atmosphere as he can, and that helps, but the movie is still fairly dull.

There's just not that much here to engage the viewer. It moves along at a snails' pace, and none of the characters are all that interesting. The ladies are quite lovely; the plotting involves a nearby brothel named Tonks' where the ladies either look like deceased celebrities, or just might *be* deceased celebrities. There's one that resembles Marilyn Monroe (Holly Butler), and another who claims to be Mary Magdalene (Alex Datcher, 'John Carpenters' Body Bags').

Bendetti is somewhat blank in the lead, but the supporting cast - including veterans Sampson, Anjanette Comer ("The Baby"), and Robert Burr ("Ghost Story"), the likable Holly Floria, and the extremely enticing Denise Gentile - comes off reasonably well.

Director Schmoeller cameos as the bartender, making use of his talent for spinning a bottle on his finger.

Five out of 10.

Other reviewers were right on the mark - it had promise and atmosphere, but really went nowhere. I recall one genre reviewer dismissing one Full Moon release as "another talkfest" and I have to agree - their scripts and sometimes the direction just weren't well paced and seem padded out. However, you have to at least watch the end credits for an in-joke that you'll get if you didn't fall asleep. It was the best laugh I had that day.