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A Whisper In The Dark (1976)

DVD Cover (NoShame Films)
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Overall Rating 57%
Overall Rating
Ranked #10,991
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Martino is a young child who claims to have an invisible friend called Luca. His parents assume it is just a game, but strange things start to happen... --IMDb
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Review by Tristan
Added: July 4, 2007
Martino (Alessandro Poggi) is a young boy with an imaginary friend named Luca. Because of this, his sisters and family ridicule him. In actuality, Luca was to be the name of a son that Martino's mother previously miscarried. It would seem that Luca would be the imaginary friend who seeks revenge or, gives people their comeuppance for teasing Martino, but this is not the case. Strange things soon begin to happen though, such as a balloon floating through the air on its own, while a child's laughter can be heard very faintly. Or a sudden rainstorm occurring, preventing the girls from going to their party, and when they try and get there anyway, the air suddenly goes out of their tires.

The ____ family, (didn't catch their last name) live in a gorgeous villa, where they don't seem to really leave very often. The governess Francoise (Olga Bisera) spends all her time looking after two bratty twins, who are more over-the-top and ridiculous than William Shatner. The mother (Nathalie Delon) spends most of her time wandering the grounds, very anxious and high strung for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with the breakfast conversation, where Martino discussed a dream he had, in which Luca stated that he was "cold and nobody wanted to play with him". After witnessing his father Alex (John Phillip Law) cheat on his mother Camilla, Martino has a brief "conversation" and decides that it is up to Luca to see that his never happens again. So being the haunting ghost that he is, he decides to leave a large toad in her bath. Hardly what I'd call an infidelity deterrent, but effective nonetheless, as Susan (Lucretia Love) decides to make like a tree and bail. To make matters worse for Camilla, her mother has arrived, making her even more stressed and anxious. But this is quickly forgotten, as more and more events keep occurring, strengthening her belief that Luca is real, and haunting their home. Desperate to uncover what is really taking place, Camilla hires the Professor (Joseph Cotten) to live in the house, and try to help Martino overcome whatever it is that has him believing in Luca.

Unfortunately for the Professor and the rest of the family, Luca isn't taking kindly to being forced out. For the last half of the film, which feels very much like Poltergeist I might add, you really feel like Luca is more than just an idea of a character. You feel like he really is a physical being by the way the rest of the family acts towards him.

This movie was a 50/50 split for me. Half of the acting was good, half of the acting was atrocious. Half of the dialogue was good, half was awful. The score, well that actually worked for pretty much every scene. By the last half of the film, I was really counting down the minutes. It just seemed like the film built up and never delivered. By the time the credits rolled I was only liking Poggi's performance. I felt he did a great job. Of course it was dubbed, so it's hard to tell what kind of emotion his voice would have had, but his body language and expressions made him look so distant. Maybe one of the worst acting jobs I've ever seen came from John Phillip Hall. I wanted to slug that man for being such a pompous ass, and prancing around like he had something to offer the film.

I'm pretty impressed however, at how well the film was restored for DVD. Aside from a few crackles, and a spot or two where the video lagged behind the audio, it looked great. All the scenes looked fantastic, and the dark colours and contrasts really gave the movie a Gothic feel. When all is said and done though, I didn't like this movie very much. It had so much potential, but didn't live up to any of it.

5/10.
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