American Gothic (1988)

So much average

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

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.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

A different sort of slasher film, this one. It concerns three young couples who head for an island vacation in the Pacific Northwest. Plane troubles force them to land on a different island. Unfortunately, this one is dominated by stereotypical backwoods redneck type senior citizens, Pa and Ma (Rod Steiger and Yvonne De Carlo). They live with three middle aged children, Fanny (Janet Wright, 'Corner Gas'), Woody (Michael J. Pollard, "Bonnie and Clyde"), and Teddy (William Hootkins, "Hardware"), who all have the mindsets of children. They're also murderous, laying waste to most of the interlopers in various ways.Although there's some excellent atmosphere (this was filmed on Bowen Island, the same Canadian locale utilized by "The Food of the Gods"), and some decent enough gore, "American Gothic" gets most of its strength through characterization. You sure don't care about most of the victims. In fact, you're happy to see them die. The screenplay is by Burt Wetanson and Michael Vines, and not only does it make these people insufferably obnoxious, it's patently absurd. Who in their right mind gets on a swing that's perched right at the edge of a cliff? The most sympathetic victim is Cynthia (Sarah Torgov ("Meatballs"), in what appears to be her last acting credit). Cynthia just got out of a mental institution because she wasn't able to deal with the tragic death of her baby.Steiger and De Carlo have a field day as the rigid, religious, backwards yokels, and Steiger has a priceless, memorable monologue right at the end. Wright is rather endearing, Pollard is his usual self, and Hootkins is solid as the twisted Teddy. Familiar faces among the victims also include Stephen Shellen ("The Stepfather" '87) and Mark Lindsay Chapman ("Titanic" '97).The outcome involving Cynthia is somewhat intriguing, offering up at least two possible reasons for her actions. And this brief but generally amusing little movie does teach us one lesson: if you're stuck on an island, with little to no chance of getting off, it might be wise to respect the ways of your hosts, however antiquated they may be.Seven out of 10.

the only question after the end of film is why Rod Steiger accept to work at this project. because it is not exactly a bad movie. only, maybe, boring. and this is the basic problem of it. to see an old film was a form to discover something original. or American Gothic is a ball of clichés. sure, the atmosphere, the secrets, the mystery, crimes and the revelation are interesting but especially for the fans of genre. and this is the cause for looking a decent answer to the presence of Rod Steiger. because he remains a shadow of Yvonne of Carlo. and this is all. so, difficult to do a honest verdict about the film. except, maybe - one from too many others.

This British/Canadian co-production had a lot of promise. It managed to gather some eccentric actors (Rod Steiger and Michael J. Pollard among others), a director (John Hough) who had previously directed some cult movies like "The Legend Of Hell House", and a premise that promised horror as well as touches of black humor. But the execution will leave most audience members unsatisfied for the most part. The main problem is with the screenplay - until near the end, scene after scene rolls out at a very slow pace, and the last five minutes suddenly are executed VERY quickly, as if the filmmakers were running out of money and time and had to wrap things up quickly. Also, there is no real explanation as to why the strange family on the island lives the way that it does. It's well lensed on eye-catching British Columbia locations, and the movie never looks really cheap despite its low budget, but a pretty look will only take a movie so far.

The plot = Six young friends fly off on a weekend's camping trip, but when engine trouble forces them down on a remote island in the middle of nowhere, they explore and find a strange house occupied by an even stranger family, and that's when the troubles begin.Okay this isn't a total train wreak of a movie, the setting of the island is a great place for a movie of this type, but of course it's not really used to it's full advantage, but the house though is a perfect setting, and for the first half this movie does keep you interested, like when we're introduced to the strange family, Ma and Pa who are both stuck living in the 1920's backwoods America, and then we meet the kids who are all middle aged but act like children, which was really unsettling.But it's when the action kicks in is when it's kinda disappointing, there is obviously no effort made on the special effects like the death scenes are tame and dull, not a shred of imagination put into any of them and the acting is flawed at best especially from the six young friends, none of them are very interesting, they were all just dull, apart from Sarah Torgov who plays the main character Cynthia who ranges from fragile minded then finally snapping as the movie progresses, although flawed at times and didn't always seemed believable. It's the cast who plays the family who are the real winners here, Rod Stegier and Yvonne De Carlo who play Ma and Pa play they're parts really well without going over the top and the middle aged children each do they're parts well.All in all not a terrible movie, but could have been better with this kind of story line.