EYE POPPING

In honor of Halloween and from out of the ashes, here comes another Flaming Bore scary movie review: Homicidal, one of the frightening flicks mentioned in yesterday's blog. What a treat!

As soon as blonde bombshell “Miriam Webster” (yes, sort of like the dictionary) checks into the Ventura Hotel, one suspects she’s up to no good--especially after she offers a bellhop $2 grand to marry her at midnight. And after she shocks the new groom by carving up the justice of the peace, you pretty much know that she is, well, most certainly homicidal!

Except Miriam is not really Miriam. She’s actually a loopy chick named Emily, pretending to be Miriam. The real Miriam is the clueless half-sister to Warren, who is Emily’s friend she met up with in Amsterdam, or maybe he’s now Emily’s husband, geesh, who knows exactly WHAT Warren is? Got all that? Apparently Warren has asked Emily to care for his childhood nanny, Helga, who, conveniently, has had a stroke and, being mute, can’t warn others of Emily’s nefarious ways. Helga’s main role is to look suspicious of Emily and to go up and down the stairs in a wheelchair lift that looks exactly like the one used by Norman Bates’s “mother” a few years earlier in the movie Psycho. And we ALL know what happened to "mother."

As the show comes to its head-splitting climax, and I say that in a most literal way, there is a 45-second “Fright Break,” during which time movie goers can leave the theater, sparing their hearts the shock of learning that Emily and Warren are--egads, hold your breath, you won’t believe your eyes--one and the same!!! What’s THAT about? Well, it’s all quite neatly explained in the last minute of back story, and the real Miriam happily exits stage right with her pharmacist beau Karl. The end.

On The Flaming Bore 5-Flame Scale, I give Homicidal 3 Flames. You won’t be fooled by the ending, nor will you need to take the “Fright Break” and head to the Scaredy Cat Room, but Emily/Warren make for a dashing duo of weirdness that will definitely spark your interest.