Leofwine_draca The deeply attractive Jenny Agutter (WALKABOUT) and the not-so deeply attractive Michael Moriarty (THE STUFF) team up with director Freddie Francis (LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF) for this POLTERGEIST-inspired supernatural horror flick set in a tower block. It's derivative stuff at best, a rerun of other films that are far better and more effective, but DARK TOWER ain't so bad.Sure, it has a few pacing problems, but Agutter is always a watchable actress and any film with Kevin McCarthy in it has to be good. Plus, the film does manage to summon up a halfway-decent atmosphere of chilly shocks and lurking evil, moments of unease that are punctuated by some brutal "accident"-style deaths a la THE OMEN. The opening scene of a Peeping Tom window cleaner falling to his doom is a goodie, and then later there are some scenes ripped off from THE LIFT as a mystery elevator bumps off a few other lower-cast-list actors. The ending of the film goes into POLTERGEIST territory (and even THE EXORCIST) as a medium and a parapsychologist are called in to investigate the evil, and come face to face with a bunch of flying killer tools (cool scene) and a rubbery blue zombie that bursts out of the concrete, seeking revenge. The zombie is actually pretty weird looking and effective and the ending, while obvious, a keeper.It's clear that there were some production difficulties with this film because the director's name is a pseudonym on the credits. In actual fact, two directors teamed up to make this one, although I'm not clear if one left and another completed the film, or whether it really was a joint effort (although I doubt the latter). Freddie Francis made loads of effective British horror films in the 1970s but nothing in the film reveals his presence. Similarly, Ken Wiederhorn was responsible for the decent Nazi zombie shocker SHOCK WAVES but direction here is pedestrian throughout. The good news is that, having been filmed in Barcelona, the film has some decent, authentic locations and, in Agutter, a highly attractive female lead.Unfortunately, Michael Moriarty – something of a horror regular in the 1980s – gives his worst-ever performance and one of the worst ever acting performances I've ever witnessed. Wooden just doesn't describe his blandness here. Thankfully, the Austrian Theodore Bikel turns up late with a fine turn as the investigating parapsychologist, and even later on, Kevin McCarthy (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) steals his scenes as a drunken medium on his final case. So it's not all bad, just run-of-the-mill with some decent bits. And one more thing – the scene in which Agutter is chased through the corridors by the camera is yet another homage, this time to THE EVIL DEAD. I'm not complaining.

knightcrawler-1 It is a pretty good ghost story for the 80's, it's not filled up with bad CGI either. The dialog could have been better, some scene's make you cringe a little because they feel awkward. Michael Moriarty is not a great actor. He always seems like he's has difficulty communicating. The phone scene in the beginning of the film is painful. Bad Directing maybe? Jenny Agutter looks lovely and her performance is fine most of the time. The quality of the film seems low budget at times and acceptable at others. I watched it on TV late at night so it was edited. I'd like to see the unedited version. The ending is fun and also predictable. It does bring up questions about whether there is justice in the afterlife.

VanillaLimeCoke So I saw this on NetFlix and was looking for a nice scary horror thriller. Hopefully one that wasn't gory and laced with strong profanity, just one that was scary.Watching this seemed like a very under rated film and was somewhat enjoyable. It was no 1408 or the Shining but it seemed to be only a few steps behind that.The main premise is that this lady has designed this tall office building. She's the architect. But strange deaths start occurring. The place is obviously haunted. But by what? One detective eventually sees the supposed ghost and tries doing some research. He soon realizes that he has psychic powers better than some shrink (or her patient through a psychic exercise of guessing colors and numbers) he hires to investigate the building.The film moves a bit slow but the suspense is quite interesting as the psychiatrist tries to communicate to the unrest-ed spirit to try and set things right. One main interesting thing is how they keep showing the inside of the elevator shaft as the elevator is going up/down.But the ending is disappointing and not pretty as more people die and not even clear to why the lady killed her ex-husband nor even why his spirit kills all those other people instead of just getting back at the wife. It's not the ending I wanted nor even expected.This film sort of reminded a bit of that 'Tower' movie I reviewed back in the summer, only this time instead of the security system going berserk its a ghost.

andybob-3 Architect Agutter is haunted by her dead husband in a skyscraper she designed, and when people start getting knocked off mysteriously detective Moriarty comes in to investigate. Incredibly boring attempt to rip off both `Poltergeist' and `The Shining', it was so uninteresting that I couldn't make it through the whole thing in just one sitting. Nothing happens, it just keeps building up and building up to absolutely nothing and leaves you wondering why you just sat there for 91 minutes? Why did an actor like Michael Moriarty waste his time with this? 2 out of 10, completely uninteresting.