Mild horror flick about a woman who discovers her fate is tied to her haunted New York apartment. Distractingly star-studded (at least in film buff terms), with supporting roles divided between the bright past (Ava Gardner, Arthur Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, John Carradine, Martin Balsam, José Ferrer) and the bright future (Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Beverly D'Angelo, Tom Berenger, Nana Visitor), as well as an unrecognizably-young Jerry Orbach and an all-too-recognizably-young William Hickey. There's some decent atmosphere from the on-location shooting, and the punchy editing keeps the narrative carrot dangling and attention away from the goofy story. (It's kinda like a Fulci movie that sacrificed gore for coherency.) Unfortunately, most of the goodwill is frittered away by the blank acting from leads Cristina Raines and Chris Sarandon, some awful dialogue (choice quote: "Jesus, Allison, you really are reading Latin!"), and most heinously, the boneheaded choice to cast people with real-life deformities as Damned Souls in Hell, using their disfigurements as a kind of monster makeup. (What the fuck, Winner?) In the middle of all this is one genuinely unnerving moment (similar to one in Pulse), and in these days of advancing years and lowered expectations, I'll take it.
Where we saw it: tv | We deign to rate it: 49 outta 100