Premonition (1972)

Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely Fantastic

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I know that Alan Rudolph disowns his first two low-budget horror movies "Premonition" and "Barn of the Naked Dead",but the premise of "Premonition" is certainly fresh and interesting.Red flowers cause three hippie musicians to have premonitions when they see their own deaths.They then start dying in the manner of their earlier premonitions.Virtually forgotten "Premonition" offers some eerie hallucinations and visions.The storyline is often disjointed and the hippie culture of early 70's is well-captured.Very eerie electro score is another highlight of trippy "Premonition".So if you enjoyed "Barn of the Naked Dead" like I did don't hesitate to check out Alan Rudolph's psychedelic debut.7 red flowers out of 10.

A music band shacks up in a cabin to practice for an audition at a hippie gathering of some sort -- all the while smoking weed from a mysterious red flower that gives them hallucinations and nightmares. The acting was both bad and good; at points it was natural, at points terrible. The film was well shot, the locations real dirty and gritty and there we're some beautiful shots of landscapes and women, along with some wonderfully freaky imagery. Other highlights include the music; you have folksy guitar rhythms, charming b-movie pulsating synths, and a wonderful dancing hippie sequence towards the end. If you're into rare b movies, and can tolerate bad editing, incomprehensible story lines, and characters narrating the story directly into the camera, it's worth seeking out for the hippies alone.

Yep, this is it.. a new candidate for my worst film of all time. A dopey hippy touches a skeleton of an old Native American while out in the desert with his buddy, and he starts getting disturbing visions. Nothing however, could be as disturbing as this self-indulgent crap, which is wall to wall with bad folk music, painful dialogue and acting so bad it has to been seen to believed. The plot is completely incoherent: Just what is the point of all those endless flashbacks featuring angels? They mean NOTHING.Never has there been a more annoying on screen presence than the character portrayed by Carl Crow, who is just like Bob Dylan.. except for the intelligence and talent. His mumbling platitudes about life and love will have you climbing the wall in seconds, and we have him to 'thank' for the dreadful opening song. Oh joy.To be honest, after the first 30 minutes I couldn't stomach anymore of the pain. Off the TV went, and I hurried into the garden to do a spot of weeding. Ignore anybody who says they enjoyed it, because they are lying. This is a movie destined to float through history, unloved and unwanted by everybody. It's only possible function is as an extreme form of torture for enemies of the state. Even then, it might be a bit much.. 0/10

I found a VHS copy of this film for the equivalent of 50c when I was a kid at a junk sale with the title "Tales of Terror - The Impure - Wild Rider" and it became a mystery to be unravelled for this particular small town boy from England. It seemed so strange and other-worldy. The film itself is a hippie-fied self indulgent psychedelic mess but is entertaining all the same, especialy the freak out festival scene. This got played in the background at more than a few parties of my youth. I always wondered who would make and appear in such a film and now thanks to imdb I know. It was sad to hear Carl Crow drowned in 1978.But I'm interested to find out more about what the rest of the cast went on to. Be warned the electronic music which starts up when the deadly flower comes into view and that accompanies a lot of the dream sequences is very annoying to 21st century ears. That said your chances of finding a copy of this film and seeing it or of reading this review are pretty slim.