Spectre

Spectre is one of Gene Roddenberry's busted pilots.All during the 1970's he tried to repeat the success of Sta Trek only to churn out pilot after pilot and failure after failure. Most were cliché ridden variations on a sci-fi theme and probably wouldn't have gone anywhere. Spectre is the exception to that cycle.

Telling the story of a supernatural Holmes and his Watson this is a very good thriller that might have been the lead into bigger things had it been picked up. More akin to Hammer's The Devil Rides Out than any standard satanist film of the period this film has our heroes investigating a rich English Lord and his family. While not particularly scary, it is extremely entertaining as Robert Culp shows himself to be much more clever than anyone around him.

If you can see this film. Its worth your time.

8 out of 10

I saw this on TV when I was a kid and thought it was very cool. Recently, I tracked down a copy online (very hard to find), and watched it. Guess what? I still liked it. Although it's a 70s show, it still maintained a good story line, and great acting to keep it alive. It had everything....monsters, demons, boobs, booze, twisting plots, and women in S&M outfits. I ask you, does it get better? Well...I guess it could, but this film was wayyyy ahead of it's time, and reminded me of a Lovecraftian forerunner to the Xfiles.

I can't wait until this gets put onto DVD, so I can add it to my collection.

Great job Gene Roddenberry! You should remake it, bringing it up to date. I believe it was intended to be a series, but never made it past the pilot episode. Too bad.

Interesting buddy-teaming of Robert Culp as a criminologist in England who specializes in paranormal matters and Gig Young as a disbelieving physician never quite catches fire. The two are on the spooky trail of someone or some THING who scares his victims to death and rips apart their bodies. A trip to the shady mansion of a haughty financier--and possible devil-worshiper--takes up too much time on the clock (the would-be sins and titillation therein fail to come off in a movie made for television). Culp and Young trade dry, beleaguered quips in a riff on Holmes and Watson while the wind whips up a tempest and a wolf howls in the background. Gene Roddenberry penned the teleplay from his original story, making the film a curiosity for "Star Trek" fans, however the scenario offers nothing particularly special. Wait for a showing of "Curse of the Demon" instead!

Concerning the question of why "Spectre" did not become a series , i would like to give my 2 cents. the 1970's saw a lot of supernatural/sci-fi themed TV movies which were obviously intended as series pilots . NBC had this film , and also "The Norliss Tapes" with Roy Thinnes. "The Questor Tapes" was a Gene Roddenberry concept. CBS had another of Gene's creations,"Genesis II". This was later redone as "Planet Earth" on ABC , which also aired "Baffled!" with Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy as a clairvoyant race car driver(!). Not a one made it to series. I believe it was a concern about not having enough plots to sustain a weekly series , expensive location shooting and f/x , and a continuing lack of support for the genre led to their demise. The failure of ABC's "Night Stalker" and "The Sixth Sense" also didn't help. In addition , "Star Trek" itself was still at that time considered a relative failure despite the beginnings of its resurgence. I think a possible answer may have been to include a series like "Spectre" as part of a rotating "Mystery Movie" type of show along with some more standard detective /thriller series. with a star like Robert Culp , older viewers may have given it a chance , along with younger viewers who were the main fans of the genre.

Spectre definitely isn't the type of film that'll be featured on Svengoolie. They often show horror movies that are quite lame by today's standards. It's ideal for people who like to go down memory lane and revisit the silly creature features they watched in the theater for the first time as a teen, or just to laugh at, but not if they want something that's actually frightening. I'm not big on paranormal stuff, but I thought Robert Culp was brilliant in Columbo, and that made me curious enough to check this out, despite it's spooky storyline.

He plays occult criminologist William Sebastian, who develops a heart condition after a supernatural experiment. He wants his friend, Dr. "Ham" Hamilton (Gig Young), to help him with a case that involves traveling to London and investigating a wealthy businessman, Geoffrey Cyon (Majel Barrett), partaking in the dark arts. It's funny to watch them together. I don't know about anyone else, but I got the impression they don't like each other because they both have an elevated IQ. It was humorous how in the midst of the plane having mechanical problems on their way to London, William is having a discussion on philosophical and psychological reasoning, while Ham is looking worried and nauseous. Once they arrive, they stay in Cyon's house, which is also occupied by his other family members. William and Ham encounter a demon, along with other terrifying occurrences.

Honestly, I haven't finished the movie. I managed to get about 10 to 15 minutes to the end, so I've watched enough of it to have an opinion. I wasn't scared, but I found aspects of the content to be unsettling. Demons, monsters, BDSM, possessions. It just seemed wrong to be watching as a Christian. I know people say it's only entertainment, but it's more than that to me. Anything you take in through your eyes and ears can have a powerful influence on you. It had become quite disturbing, so I'm hesitant to see what the ending is like. I think it had a negative affect on my brain, honestly. I watched it on a Tuesday night, and woke up the next day thinking it was Saturday. That probably came from me being tired, because my job is hectic - the constant business always has me feeling exhausted - but I doubt this helped. It's a weird movie. Not appropriate for family night, so if you have kids, I'd stick with Svengoolie. Unless you don't mind taking a chance on having unsettling dreams, then by all means, check this out, but otherwise, I would skip it and go with something that doesn't have so much creepiness.