Dark Tower

.. But isn't!

What a confused and boring mess! Firstly, there seems no reason whatsoever for it to be set in Barcelona given the actors are all American or English!

The standard of acting on offer is quite dreadful, even Jenny Agutter sucks, big time!

Hard to believe that Freddie Francis directed this, what was he thinking?

The whole thing has a made for TV feel about it, feels really cheap.

The actual premise is good, and had it been dealt with more professionally, perhaps this would have been a decent film, but as it stands, it's not one I'd recommend at all. Doesn't even fall into the so bad it's good category.

It's a bit of a shame that the IMDb hasn't got a cover image of "Dark Tower" published yet. As usual, the VHS cover is much cooler than the movie actually is and it shows a crowd of people gathering around a skyscraper, shaped like an enormous coffin. The movie itself is painfully disappointing, especially if you take a closer look at the people who were involved in making it. The directors-duo Freddie Francis and Ken Wiedernhorn both have much better films on their repertoire. Francis made some great British horror classics in the 70's, like "The Creeping Flesh" and "Tales that Witness Madness", while Wiederhorn single-handedly was responsible for the only recommendable 'underwater-Nazi-zombie' flick ever made: the unique "Shock Waves". Some of the cast-members too have delivered better films. The male lead Michael Moriarty frequently works with Larry Cohen ("Q – the winged Serpent", "The Stuff") and Jenny Agutter will always be remembered for her starring in "American Werewolf in Londen". I avoid talking about the film's plot simply because there isn't much to say... It's pretty much a reworking of "Poltergeist" (which I didn't like, neither) in a skyscraper, with the restless spirit of a murdered person avenging himself on anyone who enters the building. Agutter plays the brilliant architect who seems to be the ghost's main target and Moriarty is the clairvoyant police officer who looks after her. The opening sequence is promising, with a guy falling 17 storeys down and crushing an extra pedestrian along the way! Unfortunately, the screenplay then turns into a boring mess without tension or surprises. Moriarty teams up with a couple of other paranormal investigators and they uncover some dark secrets. There's practically no gore, no humor and no feeling with the characters. Moriarty gives his lousiest performance ever and even Agutter's gorgeous eyes can't save this mediocre movie.

When the directors act under a pseudonym then you know the movie had problems. I don't know what the problems were but they are obvious as you view the production. Wooden acting, wooden props and wooden script don't help. What's good is the always splendid Jenny Agutter as an architect who has stolen her late husband's architectural ideas and plans and thus caused their project of high rise flats to give birth to some paranormal incidents. People start to die under mysterious circumstances at the flats. Michael Moriarty comes in to try to unravel the mystery and pulls in Theodore Bikel and Kevin Mccarthy to help. The direction and special effects are so weak though that the actors must have had a sense of dread at getting involved with such a turkey. It's not the actor's fault as they struggle to give worthwhile performances in a very cheap looking movie. Carole Lynley, an actress I always liked, is completely wasted in a non-part, an assistant to Agutter in her office. The two best performances are down to Jenny and Theodore Bikel who at least try their best. The horror effects are schoolboy standard and completely amateur so tension is absent throughout. A non horrific horror film best consigned to the video basket at the charity shop.

Like most the time. Cool poster artwork (striking enough to draw you in), but a so-so feature. Oh the disappointment. However it wasn't just the cover that caught my attention, but the cast was another draw-card featuring the likes of Jenny Agutter, Michael Moriarty and Kevin McCarthy. The trio managed to bring some dependable class to something of a predictably mundane and clinical ghost story of a haunted skyscraper. The classy Agutter elegantly glows and a laid-back Moriarty has that magnetic presence that I could be entertained by a film about him painting a fence. Character actor McCarthy is a delight as a washed-up physic, even though his role in quite small.

Architect Carolyn Page heads to office for some quiet time, but instead witness the unusual death of a window cleaner being slammed against her window and then plummeting to his death. Security officer Dennis Randall looks into it thinking that it was an accident, but then the deaths continue within the building. He comes to the conclusion that there's something unnatural going on and it has somewhat to do with Carolyn. So he seeks the help from a professor of paranormal field to uncover the building's dark secret.

It's low-grade handling shows and there's a real lack of imagination in its workman-like execution, despite the presence of director Freddie Francis (who would be replaced half-way through by co-writer/producer Ken Wiederhorn --- who was behind such films as "Shock Waves" and "Return of the Living Dead Part 2"). Nonetheless the Barcelona locations are beautifully projected, the high rise building does bestow some effectively moody moments and Stacy Widelitz's music score is alarmingly eerie. The opening death is quite well done and rather creepy, but the pacing from then onwards is too sluggish concentrating on its constant mystery / investigative elements before breaking loose in its dying stages with some haunting imagery. Nothing wrong with that, but being all build-up it's not all that hard to figure out how it's going to end. There's a lot of talk and too little shocks or atmospheric tension being sustained. It felt more like an extended episode out of "Tales from the Crypt", but it did have that old-fashion, guilt-ridden, slow-burn Gothic feel that could have been better implemented. There's limited FX on show, but commendably used. The rest of the performances; Theodore Bikel hams it up as the Doctor of the physic field and there's able support by Carol Lynley and Anne Lockhart.

"Dark Tower" is a grim, but blotchy little forgotten b-grade horror offering

About average movie that looks like a TV film, with some decent semi scary scenes. The acting's ok but seems to be redubbed, which I think was the case for most movies made in Spain at the time. It's Jenny Agutter who carries the film though, getting more and more frightened as the film goes on. As what seems usual with her films she does seem to spend the final scenes running about with her shirt undone (not a bad thing).