Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1981)
^ 343-1182 29th 9 Willamette (behind Petty’s Pizza) movie review watch out for Watcher’ By MATT MEYER Of ttw Emerald An ad for "Saturday the 14th" boasts it is "the number-one horror-comedy spoof of the year " The ad is wrong "The Watcher in the Woods" has to be the funniest horror picture made this year Problem is, the film is sup posed to be serious A family rents a huge, ancient British house The owner, an old woman (Bette Davis, of all peo ple), is a little spooky As the story goes, her daughter mysteriously disap peared in a fire during a total eclipse of the sun Suddenly, the two girls of the family, played by Kyle Richards and Lynn-Holly Johnson, start hear ing voices and seeing strange things, such as images of a blindfolded girl, Johnson's age, beckoning to her Johnson tries to unravel this deep, dark mystery The story is full of classic lines from the wide-eyed, pouty-mouthed Johnson, like the ominous. "I don't know why hut I feel that something terrible has hap pened here," or the determined, "I'm not sure exactly why, Mom, but this is something I've just gotta do " "Watcher in the Woods" is — well incredible It's extremely difficult to grant Johnson credibility, no matter how pouty she gets Kyle Rich ards is such a precocious little sister that you start to hope she'll be found hanging in one of the gnarled trees that are constantly popping up through out the picture David McCallum. who plays i IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIONS with goodies from the Book Department All Cookbooks from our regular section Reduced 20% November 2-7,1981 Limited to stock on hand Cash register sales only BOOKSTORE 13th & Kincaid Mon-Fri 8:15-5:30 Sat 10:00-5:30 Textbooks MA-3520 * General Books BM-3510 • Supplies M6-4331 the girls' father, is so embar rassed that he disappears for half of the movie, presumably to rejoin the U N C L E forces Even Bette Davis shows up badly in this picture She gets so crotchety you begin to wonder why her daughter would possi bly want to return from the time warp imprisoning her Although director John Hough hasn't spent much time working with his cast, he has been doing his homework He seems to have watched "Jaws' enought to copy Spielberg's lit tle jabs a big buildup to a dinky joke shockers that come from out of nowhere and comic relief when we re scared by a flapping bird only to be zapped five seconds later by something really scary Unlike "Jaws," the char acters aren't even remotely believable, and the whole es capade becomes a farce Surprisingly enough, there are good points to the movie Special effects are numerous, and on the whole, pretty good The camera work is very good, but unfortunately Hough turns the camera to foggy dales or old ‘trees whenever he can’t think of anything else to shoot Luckily, the film was shot in a picturesque part of Scotland, and even the repetitive trees come out well It s too bad it all goes to waste The film crumbles when the exceptionally weak script gives way Even TV's Nancy Drew wouldn't take an hour to figure out that a black circle overlapping a picture of the sun might be related to a solar eclipse Even Shaun Cassidy as a Hardy Boy could figure it out But not Lynn-Holly Johnson After the previews were over Walt Disney's company name. Buena Vista, flashed on the screen over a sea of orange "Oh, good," my wife said a cartoon!” She was right Imported Coffee & Tea by the pound or by the cup KINKO’S 344-7894 784 E: 13th Bean of the Month Espresso Blend $4.10 lb. Compare our Price* MUwiI&aiSV NEED A PLACE TO STAY? Start with the ODE Classitieds
