“I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.”
Tom Ripley-The Talented Mr. Ripley
Wes Craven has done a little bit of everything. Summer of Fear was his foray into television movies. It was created for NBC and titled Stranger in Our House. It was Craven’s first real opportunity to work on a project that wasn’t indie. He credits the film with educating him on how to use cranes, dollies, and Hollywood.
The film stars Linda Blair in her first post-exorcist film. She plays Rachel, a fun-loving teen who welcomes her long-lost cousin Julia into her life after Julia’s parents are killed. Slow things start going wrong for Rachel. She suspects Julia is behind this and asks her neighbor, who happens to be a professor of the occult, to help her.
Summer of Fear is an interesting concept, but the execution is less than stellar. Blair’s performance is good, but everyone else in the film is amateurish. Lee Purcell plays Julia and has moments of greatness but sometimes feels completely lost. There are long pauses between lines and several delayed reactions. Her character is supposed to go from innocent and grieving to sexy and seductive. The latter never comes through.
The script doesn’t do anyone any favors. Rather than dive deep into the fact that Julia is a witch, the film spends much time pretending she isn’t. There is zero time spent with her interacting with other characters until the film is almost over. There are subtle hints she’s seducing Rachel’s father, but it’s all very vague.
This is a made-for-television movie, so I feel I have to grade it with a bit of a curve. Linda Blair’s performance is good, but everyone else in the film feels like they were part of the local theater troop and did this for free. Wes Craven’s direction isn’t terrible, but it’s evident that he was still learning the craft. The climax is a fun. The scene where Julia’s true identity as a witch is revealed is done very well. This scene was the reason the entire film was made, but it’s not worth slogging through the whole film.
Rating: 3.5/10
