Horror author Frid(..who portrayed Barnabas Collins on "Dark Shadows")invites friends to his mountain estate where they are threatened by three of his nightmare creations, come to life with a thirst for bloodshed. The three, led by the delicious Martine Beswick(..well cast)as a "Queen of evil", run these people through a series of head games, allowing them no chance of escape with only one afforded an opportunity to survive.
First time director Oliver Stone shows all the signs of being a new filmmaker. While I like natural lighting, in many instances, "Seizure" has scenes which are richly atmospheric(..the use of red is often striking and candle-light can often produce a great sense of mood)while other times(..especially outside in the woods)you can't see a thing. The violence is of the off-screen variety. I found the scenes where the screenplay attempts to explain who these venomous fiends are rather overwrought..I felt that if Stone and company had never given them exposition, it would've worked just as well. Beswick is why I'd recommend it for she is incredibly sexy, very seductive and quite dangerous..a great combination for a supernatural villainous. Some effective camera-work and odd musical arrangements help this film somewhat, but the editing often abruptly moves from one scene to another. I think Stone would fare better 8 years later with "The Hand." I must be painfully honest when I say(..and I got nothing but love for the dwarf population)that Herve Villechaize, as the knife-wielding "Spider", is about as scary as a Cabbage Patch Doll. He seems to be living it up as a nasty minion, in control of people's lives, foretelling how their fates are doomed and that praying to God was futile. Joseph Sirola is a hoot as millionaire blow-hard, Charlie Hughes, who thinks he can buy anyone with indie horror siren Mary Woronov(..looking fantastic)playing his adulterous wife, who only married him for his money. Woronov has an amusing knife-fight with Frid's Edmund. Frid brings the pathos generated by his tortured vampire from "Dark Shadows" to the role of Edmund, a tormented artist who has given birth to the monsters of his creative genius. There are some great make-up sequences such as when Anne Meacham's Eunice Kahn, the type who invested her entire soul into her beautiful face, receiving a hideous mask provided by Spider, and Beswick's ghoulish face drawing towards Edmund, as her cape opens. Also Henry Judd Baker's Jackal, the third evil nightmare killer, an executioner, has a nasty scar on the side of his face that is rather unpleasant to gaze upon, although he's mostly hidden within the darkness of night. Another concern perhaps for this film is that the viewer has few to root for besides Edmund's wife and child, true victims of his demons. Roger De Koven's Serge Kahn is Edmund's confident, who believes that the supernatural killers are historical menaces from centuries ago.
First time director Oliver Stone shows all the signs of being a new filmmaker. While I like natural lighting, in many instances, "Seizure" has scenes which are richly atmospheric(..the use of red is often striking and candle-light can often produce a great sense of mood)while other times(..especially outside in the woods)you can't see a thing. The violence is of the off-screen variety. I found the scenes where the screenplay attempts to explain who these venomous fiends are rather overwrought..I felt that if Stone and company had never given them exposition, it would've worked just as well. Beswick is why I'd recommend it for she is incredibly sexy, very seductive and quite dangerous..a great combination for a supernatural villainous. Some effective camera-work and odd musical arrangements help this film somewhat, but the editing often abruptly moves from one scene to another. I think Stone would fare better 8 years later with "The Hand." I must be painfully honest when I say(..and I got nothing but love for the dwarf population)that Herve Villechaize, as the knife-wielding "Spider", is about as scary as a Cabbage Patch Doll. He seems to be living it up as a nasty minion, in control of people's lives, foretelling how their fates are doomed and that praying to God was futile. Joseph Sirola is a hoot as millionaire blow-hard, Charlie Hughes, who thinks he can buy anyone with indie horror siren Mary Woronov(..looking fantastic)playing his adulterous wife, who only married him for his money. Woronov has an amusing knife-fight with Frid's Edmund. Frid brings the pathos generated by his tortured vampire from "Dark Shadows" to the role of Edmund, a tormented artist who has given birth to the monsters of his creative genius. There are some great make-up sequences such as when Anne Meacham's Eunice Kahn, the type who invested her entire soul into her beautiful face, receiving a hideous mask provided by Spider, and Beswick's ghoulish face drawing towards Edmund, as her cape opens. Also Henry Judd Baker's Jackal, the third evil nightmare killer, an executioner, has a nasty scar on the side of his face that is rather unpleasant to gaze upon, although he's mostly hidden within the darkness of night. Another concern perhaps for this film is that the viewer has few to root for besides Edmund's wife and child, true victims of his demons. Roger De Koven's Serge Kahn is Edmund's confident, who believes that the supernatural killers are historical menaces from centuries ago.