How Awful About Allan (1970)

★★★★★ · Not hardly sci-fi · Kentworth · 2014-05-31

How can you go wrong with Aaron Spelling as exec prod and Perkins, Julie Harris and Joan Hackett in leading roles? I'm surprised this is PD. This is a 5-star film all the way; good direction, well executed, extremely well acted. Very dark, eerie, reminds one very much (naturally) of 'Psycho', and likely trying to capitalize on its place in the annals of filmdom. If anyone can pull that off, it's Aaron Spelling as producer. Watch this one. It's good.

★★★★★ · How Roddy about Anthony · carlo subterfuge · 2009-08-23

I guess this just goes to show that back in the day Aaron Spelling movie of the week productions were actually occasionally worthwhile affairs. Anthony Perkins is of course Alan running around throughout this deeply shadowed Gothic mansion in a lovely maroon robe and pajamas, experiencing a sightless world chock-full of enhanced and exaggerated Foley noises: heavy slapback on every door closing and footstep on the stairs. Cute touch. He's back from the sanatorium since there's no cure in sight regarding his hysterical loss of vision (or my hysterical use of puns) and staying with his…

★★★★ · Turn down the lights and you will be hooked. · poggydublin · 2009-08-08

A good dark atmospheric thriller. Unfortunately, it was quite predictable and I was already predicting the eventual outcome after only 20 minutes. However, I was hooked and felt like I was being hustled to get involved, finding myself bewitched by the unwavering performance of Perkins who manages to single-handedly drag the film and the viewer through to the end. So grap a cup of hot cocoa and a blanket, turn down the lights, and enjoy a movie that Hitchcock himself would have been happy to have had in his repertoire.

★★★★ · Not bad · Albert Schlef · 2010-01-15

This movie isn't bad. Someone wrote here that he knew the end 20 minutes into the movie already, but it wasn't the case for me: I was surprised to learn the ending. (This movie is tagged under "Sci-Fi", but it isn't.)

★★★ · Enjoyable, but not great.. · Luke Th. Bullock · 2009-06-23

It is, as another mentioned, a "rainy day movie", something you can watch while drinking tea and eating popcorn or biscuits. I liked the slow pace, the lack of violent visuals, the "natural horror" of mind games and suspense. The ending was not as good as I was hoping for, it seemed as if someone was in a hurry to get the film/script done and "get out of there". All it would have taken was a different angle, and a couple more scenes and it would have been more complete. But is just my 2c..

★★★ · Not exactly <b>Psycho</b> · gmonk · 2009-06-03

Not a bad film, albeit a little slow moving, even for an 80 minute runtime. There are better films in the Horror section here on the archive but this one is worth a rainy afternoon viewing. Someone's messing with the man's mind after he returns from months in a mental hospital. Is it all in his head or is something really going on?