By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Sometimes when horror goes the route of being too artistic with photography, minimal dialogue and metaphors, the end result is a pretentious production that relays a disdain for the genre. It often appears that the creators believe themselves above the genre yet feel as though to breakthrough to film-making they must make a scary flick, but still insist on showing their “depth” though it often ruins the movie and alienates the audience.
THE APPOINTMENT (1981) is not one of those movies. It utilizes beautiful shots, symbolism, foreboding and little conversation to build suspense, utilize new techniques and tell a horrifying story with imagery rather than the traditional methods. Though the plot is often missed by the viewers and dismissed as a lot of nothing, there’s actually quite a lot there. It’s certainly a film one has to pay close attention to and maybe some should give it a second watch as it is easy to miss an intricate scene.
The film begins with a teenager being grabbed into the woods. It isn’t a slasher. There’s no seen villain, but there is certainly an evil entity that lives there. The authorities seemingly know that something isn’t right and puts a fence up to ensure no other casualties occur.
It works for three years, until Ian’s (Edward Woodward) spoiled teenage daughter Joanne (Samantha Weysom) thinks the charm and flirtatious ways that work on everyone else will work on the supernatural force within the woods. Soon strange things begin to occur. Ian is tortured with horrible dreams where his wife Dianna (Jane Merrow) who is caressing him turns into someone else. Pictures seem to come to life and a pack of angry dogs seem to be following Ian everywhere he goes. Even on a truck passing by, the dogs are seen. Apparitions are appearing with the intent of harming Ian.
This is such an unknown and under-recognized horror gem. There are moments where practical effects are utilized to show scenes that are quite unbelievable. One has to wonder what type of budget the production had and even more than that how these feats were accomplished. Nowadays, CGI would have been used and the audience wouldn’t even flinch at what they saw. I’m always a cheerleader for practical effects and the love and adoration that was put into this film flows through every scene. This is coming from a place of love for everything horror and suspense while using an intellectual and artistic approach rarely seen as complimentary to the genre.
I can’t say enough about this movie. As usual my husband Steve and brother Geno watched the film with me, but rarely do all three of
us agree on the film. This one received rave reviews all around. So many movies attempt to be smart and artistic and fail horribly. THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH (2012), CRUSH (2013), or even the highly renowned recent horror documentary ROOM 237 (2012) all were failed attempts at combining an artistic vision while staying true to the horror genre. They like so many others ended up talking down to the audience in the most pretentious way possible.
Even outside of horror when watching THE APPOINTMENT, I couldn’t help but think of the critically acclaimed movie THE MASTER (2012), I remember sitting in the theater with my husband, best friend, and her fiance watching this production and all of us looking at each other in disbelief. Meghan and I went in assuming this was going to be something profound and intellectually stimulating while providing depth and insight. Instead it was just a mess. It was created by someone who really wanted to make a brilliant masterpiece. The issue was that it was constantly talking down to the audience, over explaining elements that didn’t need it and not explaining situations that made absolutely no sense. It was so awful it was laughable. I remember going out to eat afterwards and just talking about how ludicrous the positive reviews for the film were.
On the opposite side, we have a truly great movie that is completely unnoticed. Despite THE APPOINTMENT being over 30 years old, it needs to be re-visited. It needs its moment to shine and be understood. Hopefully, horror fans will seek this out and give it the proper attention it deserves.
Scared Stiff Rating: 9/10 Artistic Horror Done Right
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