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The Haunted (1991) / Radius (2017)







This early 90’s made for TV movie, based on real events, chronicles the ordeal suffered by the Smurl family after moving into a home and being terrorized by supernatural forces.
















Jack and Janet Smurl move into a duplex with their two daughters and Jack’s parents. Soon after, odd things begin to occur, such as items around the house disappearing and then reappearing later. Janet (Sally Kirkland) begins to take note of the increasingly bizarre phenomenon, such as hearing voices and seeing shadows. She tries to convince her husband, who at first is skeptical, until he, too, witnesses things he can’t explain. As the activity continues to ramp up, they desperately seek the help of their local priest and anyone else who’s willing to listen. Janet eventually meets Ed & Lorraine Warren, who go to their home and verify that the activity in the house is real and not their imagination.











The film is actually well done and does a convincing job of showing the increasing turmoil that the family is subjected to. Despite a few hokey moments, most of the activity is effective and creepy. All the actors give good performances, with Kirkland (who recently passed away) delivering a strong turn as Janet Smurl, for which she received an Emmy nomination. The Smurl family haunting is one of the more well known paranormal cases, and this movie did a fine job of telling their story without sensationalizing it. It also paints them in an empathetic light, as a family who are simply trying to survive years of torment. I watched this one on YouTube.











The next one I watched was a science fiction story about mysterious deaths that suddenly occur in a rural area.






A man wakes up on the side of the road, having been in a car accident. He’s confused and has no memory of who he is or what happened. He sees a car driving by and flags it down for help. The car crashes and he finds the driver inside dead, with white eyes. When he goes into town, he discovers more dead bodies scattered around. Believing that there could be some type of terrorist chemical attack, he hides out in an abandoned house. Soon enough, he meets a woman who also has lost her memory, and only knows that she had been found near where he crashed his car. Together, they try to solve the mystery of who they are and what’s killing everyone else.












The film starts out good, with an intriguing setup and premise. While the concept has some interesting ideas, the execution is where it falters. The script, especially the dialogue, is bad, and the two leads are pretty lousy actors, coming off more stilted and wooden than anything else. During scenes of high emotion, their performances are cringey and laughable. As the film progresses, it throws a few twists that just come off as contrived and not believable. Had the movie had better writing and actors, it could have been a great movie. Instead, it feels like one of those cheap made for TV flicks you would often see on the SciFi channel. I watched this dumb thing on Tubi.










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