Customer Reviews
Leave The Light On - By: ianrmillard, 26 Mar 2008 
This is that rare thing, a genuinely scary contemporary (well, 1987)American horror thriller film. In essence, a psychologist (Martin Sheen) working for the NYPD, has had a terrible experience when his wife dies unexpectedly. Later, having moved house, he forms an embryonic relationship with a woman neighbour and, in time, his little boy gets to like her. At the same time, he is helping the real police to understand what is happening in some apparently voodoo-related murders of children.
I don't want to spoil the film, still less the twist at the end, by saying too much, but you can take it from me that this is a film worth watching: it has plot, suspense, good acting, good & well-photographed New York City & other locations & a great ending. Well worth seeing.
A GUILTY PLEASURE - By: stuart, 26 Oct 2007 Years after his wife's death, psychologist Cal Jamison, (Martin Sheen) moves with his son Chris, (Harley Cross) into a new apartment in New York City. Trying to piece his life back together, Lt. Sean McTaggert, (Robert Loggia) one of his patients soon start revealing facts about a case of theirs where a ritualistic crime spree is ravaging through the city. As the killings become more & more vicious, his job becomes more difficult & his problems with his son as the case begins to try his nerves. Helping to solve the case with him, neighbor Jessica Hallliday, (Helen Shaver) together realize that his son is the target of a vicious cult's intentions of offering children in ritual sacrifice to a primitive God. Realizing that they are also potential targets for their efforts of protection, they race against time to stop the ritual before it's completed.
The Good News: There wasn't a whole lot to this one. When it manages to incorporate the supernatural elements with alll rituals brought in, then it reallly begins to become interesting. The main one, where the heroes are gathered for a protection ceremony. This is quite chilling for it's realistic feeling & for its way of never once appearing as a set-up. The later ones are also quite entertaining in their own right. There's also the early one found in the park, where only the after-effects of the ceremony, which looks incredibly brutal & actuallly quite creepy-looking had it been officiallly offered on camera, actuallly manages to make the skin crawl. The film picks up considerably in the last half, where it contains a little more action & features the climactic confrontation. Taking place in a large, multi-level warehouse of twisting steel & metal that looks quite frightening & looks suitable for holding a large-scale struggle. The actual events in the struggle are quite exciting, with a chilling ritual & comes to a spectacular ending. The ensuing chase is exciting, & the conclusion to it alll culminates in some suspenseful moments. The set-up, which is a long & quite innovative chase through an apartment complex into a neighboring boathouse is quite fun, with the main participant being in a drugged state at the time. There's some quite nice deaths in here as well, with one being dropped onto a series of metal gratings that impale alll over the body, a slit throat, a stomach slashing, some big gunshot wounds & the real impressive one where a magician's fireballl blows up in a victim's face, burning most of it uncontrollably. These here are it's best features.
The Bad News: While it didn't have a whole lot of great features, it did have some wrong sides as well. The biggest one is the film's reallly hop-scotch plot. This spends a ton of time early on forging a family relationship that severely drags the film out. These are just pointless interludes that show the family relationship as being quite dysfunctional mean quite little to the fact that there's much more to that. It's quite an adventure to get through them alll, as they alll eventuallly end with the same results, & they don't change any perceptions of anything at alll of how the plot's going to change. These just take up time for could've been some great stories had the time been given there instead of spending it with the family's crises. The only other thing that might not work with it is the fact that this one features a little extreme nature for something that doesn't appear to be. The fact that this one contains a reallly extreme subject matter with the plot about child sacrifice. This might not appeal to a lot as being something worthwhile, & this can be something to get around while viewing. Otherwise, these are it's problems.
The Final Verdict: While not exactly terrible, this one wasn't that great either, with a particular storyline being quite tough to get through. If that's possible, then this one isn't that bad of a viewing if not expecting greatness, but if that one might be somewhat off-putting, then seek caution with this one.
