Seizure (1974)

 

Seizure (1974)

 

This film, though conceptually interesting, isn’t very good. It was deservedly poorly distributed and ignored by Critics upon its release, and would be completely forgotten today had it not been the Directorial debut of Oliver Stone, who co-Wrote with Edward Mann, co-Edited with Nobuko Oganesoff, and provided a little bit of Voice-over.  

 

Stone started his Directorial career with two Horror films, this and the much better “The Hand” (1981), both concerning an Artist finding that what he imagines can turn against him, but his early success was as a Screenwriter for films made by others, garnering much attention for “Midnight Express” (1978). As a Director he entered the Hollywood elite with the back-to-back successes of “Platoon” and “Salvador” (both 1986, and he also Wrote both). As a cinema Artist, he continued to grow, but that Artistry was somewhat corrupt; “JFK” (1991) might be his greatest achievement, but it was also a profoundly degenerate piece of pseudo-History, an amazing cinematic experience that misled all too many into substituting Fantasy for Reality. That makes his giant status both well-deserved and embarrassing; no one can deny Nazi Propagandist Leni Riefenstahl was a Genius, but did she really make the World a Better Place?

 

Stone has always been aggressively didactic, and we can certainly that here, but not so much to suggest a future multi-Oscar winner of World-renowned Blockbusters. What we see here is a guy who he could barely tie his own shoes.

 

The story seems inspired by Director Igmar Bergman’s “The Hour of the Wolf” (1968) and concerns Edmund Blackstone (Jonathan Frid) a Horror Novelist and Illustrator plagued by recurring Nightmares concerning three Supernatural Villains, the Queen of Evil (Martine Beswick), a dwarf named Spider (Hervé Villechaize), and a masked Giant named Jackal (Henry Judd Baker). While Edmund is enjoying a weekend with family and friends, those three show up, take everyone Hostage, Terrorize, and Kill them one-by-one. Says the Queen of Evil, "We are without beginning and without end. Our purpose, our only purpose... is death."

As the Monsters all escaped Edmund’s subconscious, the film is very much about him coming to understand the Darkness within Himself. When revealed, it’s bleak.

 

It's a really cheap production, but surprisingly well-cast. For Actor Frid, it was one of his few film or TV roles after returning to the live stage following his phenomenal success of TV’s “Dark Shadows” (first aired 1966, he joined the cast in 1967). Beswick and Villechaize with both veterans of the “James Bond” franchise (1963 & 1965 for the former, 1974 for the latter). The legendary Character Actor and Voiceover Artist, Joseph Sirola, played Edmund’s money-obsessed older Uncle who seemed to be the biggest problem in Edmund’s life until the Monsters showed up. Edmund’s wife was played by a pre-fame Chistina Pickles. Troy Donahue, formerly one of Hollywood’s greatest Heartthrobs was in the cast as another doomed houseguest, though it should be said he was in the middle of an extraordinary, self-inflicted, career-slump. Mary Woronov, formerly on of Artist Andy Warhol’s “Superstars,” is yet another doomed houseguest. The best performance came from another prolific Character Actor, Roger De Koven, playing a European Intellectual among the houseguests.

 

Doubtlessly, the setup was influenced by the murder spree of the Mason Family in 1969, but instead a quickly executed Orgy of Savagery, these Monsters have Supernatural Powers, able to hold their Victims across days, toying with them slowly. In the down-time between the Killings, the Victims to be had plenty of time to engage in confused pontifications about Fate and Death (Critic Peter Hanson nailed it, “Think Fellini crossed with Ed Wood, then add a dash of obnoxiously overwritten dialogue about destiny and the soul…”), and Actor De Koven was the only one who was really convincing during the lengthy scenes.

 

The Cinematography by Roger Racine was poor, specific scenes were badly composed, even sometimes slipping out of focus. The fight choreography was worse, really laughable, with dwarf Villechaize expected to do karate against full-sized men and, in another scene, a Bikini-clad Character Mikki Hughes (that’s Woronov’s character), has a knife fight with Character Edmund to amuse the Monsters.

 

Director Stone was from a wealthy family, served during the Vietnam War, and later graduated NYU in 1971 after having had Martin Scorsese as a Professor.  Actress Woronov would later dismissive of Stone as a “rich kid” and claimed that the film was only realized because one of the Producers, Michael Thevis, in-part financed the film to Launder Money while the FBI was closing in on him (Thevis was a Millionaire Gangster, Pornographer, and Murderer, jailed that very year, then escaped in 1978, earned a place on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, was recaptured, and died in jail in 2013). Woronov would achieve significant fame as a Leading Lady in Cult Films shortly after this film, but never worked with Stone again.

 

Actress Beswick was a major Sex-Symbol and apparently the constant subject of Crew Members amorous attentions. To save money on hotels, Cast and Crew shared the lakeside house in Quebec that the movie’s only location. She said of the film, “Everybody was a little crazed. I mean, the moods! The things that happened! Everybody took to drinking. We’d have gallons of wine.”

 

The story was supposed to be set during the summer, but filmed in late fall, and that circumstance went badly for Actor Donahue, playing yet another doomed house-guest. In one scene he was expected to jump into the lake, which he did, and suffered Hypothermia for his trouble. The Actor, not long before, had been living homeless in Central Park, NYC, but did manage to rise above these issues somewhere around 1982.

 

Stone apparently didn’t seem to have much fun, “This was my first brutal experience of film making – call it a baptism by fire.”

 

Trailer:

Seizure (1974) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD] (youtube.com)