Alison's Birthday (1981)

I love this movie so much

Touches You

Good concept, poorly executed.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

With a bit more of brimstone & treacle, Ian Coughlan's ALISON'S BIRTHDAY could have made an impression. Unfortunately the movie is ultimately a bit too low-keyed and tasteful for it's own good -- a common problem with a lot of Australian made horror outings. However, it is well written, competently made, and does contain a couple of nice, evocative little scenes. Joanne Samuel plays "Alison", a somewhat mousy looking young lady who first learns of the things to come at age 16 when during a Ouija game her friend becomes possessed by the spirit of her long dead father who warns the girl of evil things to come on her 19th birthday. The possessed girl is killed in a freak accident, and then the story fast forwards three years to the week before Alison's fateful day. She finds herself invited to a private party for her to be thrown by her relatives out in the country, compelled to attend, and then discovers she cannot leave.This comes much to the consternation of her boyfriend, played by cult Aussie actor Lou Brown. An interesting screen presence who seems to have made a small career by being bland, Brown finds himself scorned by Alison & the family, and engages in some background research that the Sydney Public Library that would have made the gang from "Scooby-Doo" proud. Eventually he pieces together the bits of the mystery: Alison was born on the 19th hour of the 19th day in the Celtic calender, and on her 19th birthday will be eligible for some kind of bizarre work study exchange program involving a 103 year old "relative" who has made a special trip to be present for Alison's birthday.If you're afraid I have given everything away don't worry, the story is told in a rather labyrinthine manner with plot twists and scenes out of nowhere. Director/writer Ian Coughlin channels two American hits of the occult horror genre: ROSEMARY'S BABY provides the basis for the reclusive family "cult" complete with odious herbal drink concoctions, and THE OMEN provides the basis for a kind of conspiracy involving a stolen baby, a murdered family, and a secret clique of high-society cultists who have been waiting almost 20 years for Alison's birthday to arrive.Spain's Jose Ramon Larraz would troll through the same material a year later for his BLACK CANDLES, and while ALISON'S BIRTHDAY is without a shred of doubt a better film, Larraz' picture proves to have more resonance by overtly providing what jaded horror audiences of the time expected out of films like this -- Sex, gore, mind-blowing satanic blasphemies, drugs, and a nonstop barrage of nudity & amoral behavior. By contrast, Coughlin's cult are much better behaved even when about to skewer someone & toss their body into a shallow grave, and sadly the film suffers for it. A cinematic release is cited for the film's production credits but to me this has "made for cable TV" written all over it.The film does have a couple of great scenes & bizarre touches, specifically a chase through an overgrown, weed-infested cemetery made up of forlorn gravestones stacked one next to the other like eggs in a carton. The initial burst of demonic skulduggery with the 16 year old girl talking like Freddy Kreuger is good for a chuckle, and Lou Brown drives yet another absurd automobile that is supposed to be "cool" or "hip", this one an open-windowed dune buggy type contraption with a folding roof on it that makes it look like a golf cart. There are some freaky dream sequences, intrigue involving a Stonehenge circle out back of the old house, and the cult members have a kind of sinister duality about them that proves a nice touch, with their dapper tuxedos and doctors who learned the Vulcan Nerve Pinch.So what the film may lack in the more lurid areas of sex or gore are more than compensated for by decent plotting, credible acting and an offbeat, self-composed musical score that no doubt features Mr. Coughlin on nylon string Spanish guitar. It's all in very good taste, up to and including the absence of any kind of "satanic" influences: These are Celtic mystics, portrayed here as kind of a militant form of the Druids in perhaps an allowance to Australia's notorious censorship laws.Sadly what movies like this require is content in as poor taste as can be mustered, and the closest the movie comes is in the form of actress Lisa Peers' bra-deprived occult freak former girlfriend, not to mention the outrageous cover design for the British home video release with a naked chick kneeling before a satanic altar ... They made the movie about the wrong girl, maybe, but fans of occult thrillers who would perhaps prefer to avoid the usual exploitation angle will probably like this one more than some. I like how it defied formula while still being derivative, and along with Coughlin's later STONES OF DEATH script speaks volumes for his respect of American horror & desire to emulate it. Nothing wrong with that, nothing at all.5/10

A sixteen-year-old named Alison and two friends play "ask the glass," a variation on Ouija, played here on a glass table, using square tiles featuring numbers and the alphabet arranged in a circle, and two titles for yes and no in the middle, and an upturned glass as a planchette. A warning is spelled out for Alison from her deceased father, who is then pushed out by some other power. The girl he briefly possessed snatches a circular amulet from Alison's neck, then is crushed by a bookcase.Close to Alison's nineteenth birthday, she goes to visit her aunt and uncle. Her boyfriend tries to continue visiting her, but the family tries to keep him away. Alison discovers a miniature (though still large) stonehenge in a secret garden, has nightmares, and gets hypnotized. The boyfriend tries to do some research about the name Mirne, which the warning mentioned, and also Alison's real family.The stonehenge is neat, and I liked that a character takes the time to do research. However, the movie on the whole is on the boring side. The picture quality on the video is not terribly good either. The VidAmerica videobox is sort of a warning: the cover features a drawing, and the back has no pictures from the movie.

An on screen caption informs us 'Alison - Sixteen years, Four months'. Alison Findlay (Joanne Samuel) & two of her school friends, Chrissie Willis (Margie McCrae) & Maureen Tate (Julie Wilson) are holding a séance. Spooky things begin to happen & Chrissie becomes possessed with Alison's dead Father's spirit who warns her about what will happen on her nineteenth birthday. Chrissie is crushed to death by a bookcase that falls on her. The credits roll & then another on screen caption now helpfully informs us 'Alison - Eighteen years, Eleven months, Twenty Six days'. As Alison's nineteenth birthday fast approaches her Aunt Jenny (Bunny Brooke as Bunney Brooke), who along with her Uncle Dean (John Bluthal) brought Alison up when her parent died while she was a baby, phones her & invites Alison to her childhood home for her birthday. Alison agrees as Jenny also informs her that her Uncle is ill & has only a short time to live. Alison decides to take along her boyfriend Peter Healy (Lou Brown, the IMDb is wrong as Peter is not Alison's uncle, it's definitely Uncle Dean), they travel down & at first things are fine as Alison remembers her childhood & is reunited with Jenny & Dean, Alison is untroubled by the miniature Stone Hendge at the bottom of their garden. But that night Alison has terrible nightmares & wakes up to find a 103 year old woman (Marion Johns) in a wheelchair by the side of her bed. Jenny & Dean claim that the woman is her Grandmother they never told her about, despite this Alison still thinks everything is fine. Peter becomes suspicious when Uncle Dean warns him to stay away from Alison for a couple of days, Peter tries to see Alison but is told a phony excuse about her having nervous exhaustion by a dodgy looking Doctor named Jeremy Lyall (Vincent Ball) who when questioned is very evasive. When Peter forcibly tries to remove Alison the police are called & he is arrested. Peter decides to investigate further & visits a friend named Sally Brown (Lisa Peers) who seems to be some sort of astrologer, Peter mentions the name Mirne, the name Alison mentioned from her nightmare. Sally looks in a book & authoritatively says that Mirne was in ancient Celtic mythology a powerful female demon worshipped by Celtic magicians & was said to dwell in stone. Things turn nasty quickly for both Peter as he unearth's some sinister & shocking facts, & for Alison as her Aunt & Uncle have special plans for her nineteenth birthday party...Written & directed by Ian Coughlan Alison's Birthday is as dull as dishwater & as exciting as watching paint dry, I was bored to tears. The script is so slow it's untrue, the script goes for psychological terror totally ignoring the exploitative possibilities, & it fails completely which is no surprise. There is no suspense or tension & everything is so uninteresting & just plain dull. Nothing exciting, scary, gory or interesting happens until the last ten or so minutes when there is a decent climax & twist ending, unfortunately for Alison's Birthday this is far too little, far too late. Not one single drop of blood is spilt throughout, there is no nudity or bad language either & while these things aren't necessary for a horror film to be either good or entertaining they sure as hell help & since Alison's Birthday is so drawn out & dull some decent exploitation elements would have livened things up considerably. As it is Alison's Birthday is one of the most boring uneventful films I've seen. The film is also very flat & basic in terms of production values, it's not a poorly made made film but it isn't a particularly well made one either which makes it even more painful to sit through. Another minus against Alison's Birthday is that it is an Australian produced film & therefore everyone have annoying accents (G'day mate want to come to me barbie?), sorry but it's true! I can't think of a single good feature about Alison's Birthday by which I could recommend it. I pretty much hate this film, no matter how cheap you may be able to pick this up for don't bother unless your an insomniac that is. Guaranteed to have most people reaching for the 'stop' or 'fastforward' buttons well before it's anywhere near finished, do yourself a favour & avoid Alison's Birthday. Trust me you'll be glad you did.

**** POSSIBLE PLOT SPOILERS ****Australian entry into the 1970's demonic/witchcraft horror cycle. Film starts with a prologue ( similar to 'Halloween' or 'Prom Night'), where 16-year old Alison is warned, whilst doing a Ouija Board, that she must get away before her 19th Birthday.Film moves forward a couple of years to find Alison invited to her Aunt and Uncle's to celebrate her birthday which is fast approaching. Film has similarities to 'Rosemary's Baby' with vulnerable young girl falling foul of a witchcraft cult, personified by much older, normally trustworthy characters. Her Aunt makes Alison drink her 'herbal chocolate', in the same way as Ruth Roman brought Mia Farrow concoctions in the Polanski classic.The film has basic production values and the acting is poor, but the storyline is well thought out and quite complex, remaining true to its horror roots. The middle section of the film concerns Alison's boyfriend (an annoying character who drives around in a feeble yellow buggy), trying to uncover what is going on and save Alison. He goes through old newspapers and searches hospital records, slowly piecing things together, as Gregory Peck did in 'The Omen'.If you're not mad about the genre 'Alison's Birthday' will be barely watchable, but for horror fans there is more than enough here to keep the interest from waning. The storyline is quite strong and manages to carry the film along. The ending seems a foregone conclusion - but in a final effort the film keeps the horror dark and provides a bleak, nightmarish finale.Great video cover with a naked girl lying on an altar before a horned demon.