A tacky, sickening late entry in the career for nearly forgotten 20th Century Fox leading lady Jeanne Crain who was a bright light in the 1940's and 50's, but outside a few artistic classics ("Leave Her to Heaven", "Pinky") is not as well revered as Gene Tierney or Linda Darnell, two contemporaries who lucked out with better films. She plays the widow of a traveling minister, murdered by a strange cult in retaliation for what they consider blasphemy. Thanks to Crain's testimony, three of the people involved in the murder are sentenced to death, and as she leaves the court, the others from that insane cult taunt her with vengeance. She is obviously quite troubled from the start, but when her boss asks her to look over his children for a long weekend while he is away with his wife, the stage is set for the revenge to occur, and this gives Crain the opportunity to panic, fret, scream and cry with the best of the hag horror heroines, even though she's still quite attractive here.
The schlocky ending is just another nail on the cross digging in the coffin of this tacky movie, depressing and overly sinister from the start, and the type of third rate cinema that didn't deserve to have the participation of someone of Crain's legacy. The kids she is asked to look after are definitely college age and certainly not in need of supervision, but the script asks us to believe that they are of high school age. A twist at the end really discredits anything that has happened up to that time, and makes absolutely no sense. I've seen many films with the subject matter of twisted twenty something's taunt mature adults, and while none certainly can be claimed as good films, at least they could be viewed at in a campy manner. This film doesn't even have that, and I could only shake my head and feel sorry for poor Jeanne Crain who deserved a better film in the twilight of her career.
The schlocky ending is just another nail on the cross digging in the coffin of this tacky movie, depressing and overly sinister from the start, and the type of third rate cinema that didn't deserve to have the participation of someone of Crain's legacy. The kids she is asked to look after are definitely college age and certainly not in need of supervision, but the script asks us to believe that they are of high school age. A twist at the end really discredits anything that has happened up to that time, and makes absolutely no sense. I've seen many films with the subject matter of twisted twenty something's taunt mature adults, and while none certainly can be claimed as good films, at least they could be viewed at in a campy manner. This film doesn't even have that, and I could only shake my head and feel sorry for poor Jeanne Crain who deserved a better film in the twilight of her career.