The Appointment (1981)

I'll tell you why so serious

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Finally, a film where the pay-off really is worth the build-up to the event. This is one of those "omen" style films, a movie which starts off slowly and gradually builds the tension, retaining it to the final, horrific, edge-of-your-seat climax which will take time to fade from your memory. It's that good. Completely forgotten these days, this is a minor gem of a film, which, without the aid of any fancy special effects trickery or violence, creates a vivid atmosphere of suspense and genuine fear.For the most part this is just typical character-orientated drama, with a few mysterious events happening occasionally to keep the pace going. The opening is a real eye-opener, and has an evil force similar to the one in THE EVIL DEAD lurking in some bushes before pulling a young girl through the air (achieved very realistically via a dummy and some string) to her death. This is a really spooky, perhaps even frightening, scene, and you expect the rest of the film to follow suit. It doesn't. We are then introduced to Edward Woodward and his family, and the pace slips back down into neutral until the final half an hour.Woodward is the kindly family man who finds himself being haunted by weird dreams involving dogs attacking his car while outside the house real-life dogs prowl around. Woodward, familiar to genre fans from his role in THE WICKER MAN, is pretty good here, playing a typically matter-of-fact guy who might well be your next door neighbour. He is supported well by a cast of unknowns. Well, actually there are only three other main characters in the cast - his wife, his daughter and his car mechanic, whose sole presence is to die a horrific THE OMEN-style death involving a car, in a show-stopping scene which is unlike anything I've ever seen before.Samantha Weysom, who plays Woodward's daughter, has never been in anything else and is actually very good in her role. There are some really tense exchanges between the pair, and perhaps even hints of some incestuous desire lurking in there too: their scenes together are compelling and powerful, where much is left unsaid and you can almost feel the electricity in the air between them. Is Woodward's daughter a vengeance-seeking witch or innocent to the evil forces surrounding her? We never find out, and it's left up to our imagination - more effective that way.The ending of this film is almost unbearable to watch, as you know what's coming, yet are unable to look away. Woodward undergoes the most arduous car journey in existence, travelling through some bleak-looking Welsh mountains where the isolated locations add to the spooky atmosphere. There then follows one of the most accurate, horrific car accidents I've ever seen put on film which has to be seen to be believed, it's a work of visual artistry. After this comes yet another nail-biting scene, which I won't spoil, except to say that the tension isn't relieved until the very end. This is the kind of film they don't make anymore, is completely gripping throughout, and well worth tracking down.

This movie reels you in right from its opening scene where a girl is sucked into some bushes. Then you watch expecting something else creepy like that first scene, but do you get it? The answer to that my friends is a resounding 'No'! This is a very dull movie, and if there is one thing I can't stand a horror movie to be it is for it to be dull. A bunch of dream sequences and this and that and then an event happens the next day where there is a car wreck and then the payoff. The main problem is I do believe this premise was stretched out a bit too much. This might have been a rather good short story, but there was just not enough stuff here for an hour and a half movie.

This film is unique - the horror of the situation derives more from what is implied rather than what is seen. A young girl violinist who is has an insatiable need for attention from her father invokes a dark force to eliminate her rival, thus granting her the star spot in the orchestra. But when her father informs her that he cannot attend her performance due to an "appointment" - she invokes the mysterious force against him.The visual/audio effects are incredible: some very Hitchcockian touches throughout, especially the "invasion of the house" and the "restaurant" scene. The car crash scene is a masterpiece of surrealism. The film wisely does not plunge us right into the bizarre but slowly draws us in - until it is too late to escape.Only one flaw: why is the dark force invoked against the mechanic? Her father would have left for the appointment in any case. And why the missing part on the roadway? Worth seeing though.

This movie is good and bad. Very, very strange and unsettling is the best way I can think of to explain this British horror film. It was scary, shocking, and made my skin crawl with the typical quiet, non-gory British horror. It also features one of the most bizarre and agonizing car wrecks in the history of films! The drawback is there is virtually no plot development. There was no explanation as to what the evil was, why is was there, or what happened to it at the end. And why was the father the main target? It was basically a family going about their daily life and these scary things happening to them. Good on the scare value, blah on everything else! This a rare film to find, at least here in the states. I caught it because it used to be on A&E (Arts and Entertainment) on TV about ten years or so ago.