Dark Tower

Weak film that the director disowned doesn't work despite a good cast. A skyscraper is plagued by a series of gruesome accidents and a cop is sent in to investigate. He eventually comes to conclude that the building is haunted and the ghost is responsible for all the accidents. No scares, sloppy editing, and poor effects are some of its other problems.

Rated R; Violence and Profanity.

Dennis Randall (Michael Moriarty), a security agent with slight psychic ability, is assigned to cover a strange series of accidents in a high rise in Barcelona. All of the mishaps seem to happen around Carolyn Page (Jenny Agutter), the building's architect. Sensing he needs to bring in the big guns, Randall recruits paranormal investigator Max Gold (Theodore Bikel) and psychic Sergie (Kevin McCarthy) to battle the vengeful spirit with the building.

Skyscrapers provide great settings and were all the rage for horror films in the 80s (THE LIFT, DEMONS 2, POLTERGEIST III), but this one is the lesser of the bunch. The film had a troubled production history as it was started by Freddie Francis but he left and it was finished by Ken Wiederhorn. The final directing credit goes to one Ken Barnett. The biggest problem with the film is that it drags you from point A to B at a snail's pace, long after you have figured out the mystery. If the film is worth seeing for anything, it is the performance by Moriarty (whose name is misspelled as "Moriarity" in the opening credits). He is clearly plastered in this and often looks like he is about to crack a smile with his loud delivery. In addition to this, Moriarty also starred in A RETURN TO SALEM'S LOT, IT'S ALIVE III and THE HANOI HILTON all in the same year. Now that is impressive.

A newly built office building in Spain is plagued by a series of fatal accidents seemingly caused by a murderous presence. British legend Freddie Francis was the original director on this film, but problems led to 'Shock Waves' director, Ken Weiderhorn, taking over. Neither wound up taking credit.

Larry Cohen regular, Michael Moriarty, stars as a company man investigating the deaths and Jenny Agutter is on hand as the building's chief architect. The once ravishing Carol Lynley has a nothing part as Agutter's assistant, and Kevin McCarthy shows up briefly. The most entertaining character is that of a paranormal investigator who Moriarty contacts midway through. Theodore Bikel livens up the dull precedings with a quirky portrayal of a man so desperate to make contact with something supernatural that he winds up talking to an air conditioner at one point.

Indeed, this is a dull effort overall. With directors and a cast like that, I was expecting something much better and far less pedestrian. The story doesn't have a lot of meat to it, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have done something special with what they did have. Alas, I guess the inspiration just wasn't there this time around.

The big reveal behind the haunting is as predictable as they come, and the climax feels like it would be more at home in a 'Tales from the Crypt' episode. 'Dark Tower' isn't an unwatchable mess, but it's something you could easily skip without feeling as if you missed out.

THE DARK TOWER is an obscure movie that had a lot of potential but squandered the whole interesting idea of an evil building due to some really weak acting, a listless script, totally unfocused direction, and a cast that's seemingly above the age of 40! It's always great to see Jenny Agutter in anything but she deserved a better project than this. The direction is truly bizarre. I'm sure the fact that the great Freddie Francis was replaced by another director has contributed to the weirdness of the film but I wonder what they were attempting to do. It's as if they tried to make the building into a character, and at a certain point, they actually succeeded, not because of some great feat of direction but because the human characters are so weak and messed up that the building looked positively sturdy and 3 dimensional compared to them.

And speaking of humans, I've never seen such an old looking cast. Yes, Jenny was in her late 30s when she made the movie but because practically everyone is above a certain age, this gave the movie a sorta poky feel to it, which was the last thing THE DARK TOWER needed.

But the thing that kills this bizarre quasi-mess is the ending, or the resolution of the mystery/story. It was more funny than scary. One has to see it to believe it.

A real curio of a movie worth seeing for fans of bizarre films.

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).