The Haunting of Morella

Year: 1990

Director: Jim Wynorski

Written by: R.J. Robertson

Threat: Ghost

Weapon of Choice: Dagger

IMDb page: IMDb link

       The Haunting of Morella

Rish Outfield's reviews
Fairly mediocre, though not particularly bad. You can smell Roger Corman's influence all over this one. More nudity than you can shake a stick at--literally every female character took her clothes off, although "Charles In Charge"'s Nicole Eggert was blatantly body-doubled. I've got to admit, the combination of lesbian witchcraft and amazingly poor special effects is pretty unique. There was a bit of emotion from time to time (emotion is good, remember), but mostly there were just short stretches of poorly-delivered dialogue between nude scenes. The best part of the film was Eggert's father, who created the only memorable character here.
Best Scare: Well, there was a very literal bloodbath, but that's about it.
I'd Recommend It To: People who like (naked) people.

The tyranist's thoughts
Based very loosely on the Edgar Allan Poe short story "Morella," this one seems to fall short on a lot of levels. While it does depend heavily on the elements of Poe's story, for the most part it discards anything resembling plot and character. The main similarities are in minor story points (like the I'll live on forever in her part). In some ways this turns out for the best, in others the worst. Poe's story wasn't terribly filmable as it was. The film dwells mostly on things that would have occurred after the majority of the story and really only sketches in the major details from the story in exposition. The film adds all but four of the characters and some things that Poe may never have even considered (like a strange lesbian love triangle).
It is quite apparent that this was filmed during Jim Wynorski's large-bare-breasts-sell-movies period. Okay, maybe he doesn't have any other period. The film is pretty cheaply made, but it is done in a way that really doesn't detract too much from the story. Quite honestly only two things about the production bugged me a lot. One was the recurring thunder and lightning effect that wasn't startling and seemed under-achieving. The second were the sunglasses that the Gideon Locke character wears after he has gone blind. They couldn't look more modern if they had tried. In all other respects, they did an adequate job adapting a relatively unknown Poe story to the big screen.

Sequel
Owes everything to/rips off earlier film
Sequel setup skull
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting skull
Bad dialogue skull
MTV Editing
OTS skullskull
Girl unnecessarily gets naked skull
Wanton sex skull
Death associated with sex skull
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location skull
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise skull
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Toilet stall scene
Victim locks self in with killer
Killer is in car with victim
Cat jumps out skull
Fake scare skull
Laughable scare
Blood hits camera
Beheading
Killer doesn't stay dead skull
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
No one believes only witness skull
Blood fountain skull
Poor death effect skull
Excessive gore
Music detracts from scene
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
No one dies at all
Death in first five minutes skull
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unresolved subplots skull
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
What the hell? skull

Total Skulls: 19

Other movies in this series:
None