The Glow (2002)

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

**SPOILERS** Odd ball urban horror thriller set in Manhattan but filmed Montreal Canada that has these old geezers more or less kidnapping young couples,formerly orphaned and now childless Yuppies, in order to experiment with in what looks like a crude attempt of draining off their youthful vigors and energies. It's after that the oldsters use those youthful attributes to keep themselves young, or at least alive, indefinitely.Tripping up and mugging youthful and athletic Matt Lawrence, Dead Cain, as he's doing his afternoon jog in Central Park the mugger is chased by these old folks who, after not being able to catch up with him offer the battered Matt an apartment in their townhouse on the expensive upper East Side for cheap outer borough, from Manhattan, rents.Moving in with his newlywed wife Jackie, Porita de Rossi, Matt finds that the oldsters are obsessed with young and childless, as well as healthy, couples like him and Jackie. All this doesn't seem to mean that much to him at the time but when the previous couple at the townhouse, also young and childless, suddenly disappear almost without a trace. Matt and Jackie start to get a bit suspicious of just what these old fogies are really up to. It's really Jackie who gets the drop on the strange and eccentric neighbors as she begins to realize that their somehow trying to poison her with this weird concoction of spring water and strawberry syrup, as well as herbal ice tea. Later when she gets pregnant her unborn baby is killed by one of the bunch turning up the heat in the basement sauna, a freebie for living at the townhouse. It's when Jackie with the help of her co-worker Randy, Jonas Chernick,finds out that the neighbor are lying about their age being well into their 100's not their 70's and 80's that she smells a rat. Randy is then run down and killed in a hit and run outside his studio and Jackie finds the car that did Randy in, parked in the basement of her townhouse. She then finally realized that she's living with a bunch of old psycho killers who are eventually going to do in both her and her totally unaware husband Matt.The movie never explains just what these old psycho's are really up to in that we never get just why they go not only for the young and healthy people in their neighborhood but why do they have to have been orphaned to be kidnapped. The young couples being in the pink of health and childless does in some ways makes sense by why do they have to be murdered? You could have grown up with out any parents but have dozens of friends who would miss, if that's the reason for the old folks wanting orphans to experiment on, you just as much and go out looking for you like Matt and Jackie's good friends both Thrish and Allan, Sabrina Grdevich & Jason Blicker, did. Even at the point of risking or even losing, like Trish & Allan did, their lives in doing it!The ending was somewhat of a letdown in that we never really get to find out, we can only speculate, just what the old crowd wanted in people like Matt and Jackie other then drive them out of their skulls and eventually murder them. Were shown that even when this old crew, the townhouse psycho's, are put out of commission theirs alway a new crew ready to step up to the plate and in their shoes and continue their wild and crazy, as well as murderous, experiments.

The movie is clearly made for TV quality, i.e. it does not present much of a reason to be watched and leaves some questions unanswered but not the ones about the cigarettes or the glow the other user commented on. If you pay attention to the movie, you will discover that the cigarettes come from a discarded purse found in the trash pile that Jackie Lawrence (Portia de Rossi's character) hid in after escaping what is referred to as "the vault" in the movie and which turns out to be some kind of makeshift lab in the basement. The glow itself, appears to be the energy the building owners need to extend their longevity... Just my $0.02!

.... Oh Yes!!! Rosemary's Baby!!!!! The plot could also be considered to be The Cocoon-The Dark Side. The reason all this "scaring the tenants" is going on is not very well explained and as a punch line is a bit thin to say the least. But - Hey - Dean Cain is such great eye candy, who needs a plot!!!!!!!!!

Usually these TV movies are pretty lame. I was surprised to find myself thoroughly interested in this one from the first scene. The first hour is quite good, filled with spooky innuendo and little clues as to what these kindly old folks are really up to. You know there's something not quite right about them, but what is it?After the first hour, the story drags a little bit because they just keep heaping more and more of the same clues on the watcher, but it never gets bad enough to ruin the movie. The final twenty minutes or so has one or two cliched camera tricks and plot devices but that can be excused in a made-for-TV movie.There are no really big surprises in this movie. The viewer has a fair idea of what's really going down pretty early in the movie, but it's fun to watch it all unfold. The cast (especially the old folks) do a great job with their roles and it's interesting to see Hal Linden playing such a two-faced shady character.All in all, I give this movie a 7/10. The first hour is the best part because of the creepy atmosphere but it's worth watching to the end if you don't want to watch another lame game show or Friends re-run.