Uneven early 1980's supernatural horror that features some sublime shocks amidst the tedium. A small rural up town bemused and shocked by the disappearance of a teenage schoolgirl, erects a fence around the area where the girl vanished to avoid history repeating itself.life goes on in the town with businessman Ian (Edward woodward) and his family, wife Dianne and highly strung daughter Joanne going through the motions of a mundane middle class existence, until everything suddenly and dramatically changes. The main problem I have with this movie is the underwritten threadbare screenplay. At times it felt like I was watching an episode of iconic British tv show 'hammer house of horror' albeit stretched out to feature film length ,thanks to many unnecessary and uneventful scenes that rather than drive or add anything to the narrative, instead come across as attempts to pad out the running time It's a shame really because when lindsey d Vickers debut feature gets it right, it really gets it right. Unlike a lot of supernatural shockers of the period, this movie contains some genuinely effective scares, I can think of at least two that weirded me out a while after watching, it's just when the director has you by the balls, he lets go too often. This movie would have been better as a short film, with all the extraneous celluloid gristle removed, as such it's still an slightly above average chiller. It just could have been so much more.
Review of The Appointment
The Appointment
(1982)
Sporadically great, but ultimately disappointing early 80's chiller
9 February 2021