Am I going insane? I could have sworn the DVD write-up on this movie said it had Raul Julia in it. I put this movie in for one reason. Raul Julia. Then the movie starts and the credits say Faye Dunaway, Frank Langella, and I'm like, wow nice cast. I figure Raul Julia isn't one of the main actors. A bit part. A small role. But nope. He wasn't in it at all.
Deadly Trap versus Death Scream. What I'm trying to do is think about which name fit the movie better. And I think it's a draw. It's a draw where neither of them fit very well. Plus the synopsis, the synopsis with the name added on top makes it sound great. Like a 70's action movie. The synopsis you ask?
"Jill is surprised and angry when her computer-genius boyfriend decides to quit his job in a big company for unclear reasons. But when her children disappear mysteriously and seem to have been kidnapped, she wants to know more, and discovers that she may be caught in a DEADLY TRAP..." -IMDb.
What that plot doesn't say, wow, that's going to be a LONG ass list. You see, I wasn't drunk, I wasn't distracted, I wasn't angry and half paying attention. I actually WATCHED this movie. I sat there, eyes open, jaw set, and I watched this entire movie. And I'll tell ya, this plot synopsis doesn't cover half the nonsense in this one.
First of all, Jill is a extremely untrustworthy narrator. She is the main character, and is prone to fits of amnesia which are never explained, and have nothing to do with the plot except to serve as a catalyst for some of the things that go wrong. It's a slow development and it reminded me initially a lot of Footprints on the Moon. You have a main character woman where odd things are happening to her, seemingly pointing towards missing time, missing memories, etc.
Except...this woman isn't half as well written as the woman from Footprints, and they explain the amnesia away and then it promptly never comes back. Except one part where she has a hard time remembering a phone number later. Also, Jill has two kids, 8 year old Cathy and 4 year old Patrick. Half the time that she's hanging out though, she's got Patrick...and where the fuck is Cathy? That really bugged me.
Eventually, Patrick is indeed kidnapped. Maybe it's cause she lets him run all over the place chasing his hula-hoop? Cathy also pretty much vanishes, conveniently left out of the story for the most part. And what is the story? Well, to be honest, I have no idea. It just sort of goes, and I will admit I had no real clue what was happening in this movie. It's a tough road to walk through to follow the plot, and I can admit I don't really know what happened in the end.
You should check out this dude's awesome 70's movie blog here, I'm a giant fan of this blog, being that I am immersing myself in 70's movies for a LONG time right now. This particular one, despite the fact I really wanted to like it, and it has various times of creepy atmosphere, only gets 1.5 stars.
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