Spellbinder

Released by: MGM Limited Edition Collection
Released on: March 27, 2012.
Director: Janet Greek
Cast: Timothy Daly, Kelly Preston, Rick Rossovich
Year: 1988
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The Movie:

Directed by Janet Greek in 1988, long before she worked on Babylon 5 but after she made the Weird Al Yankovic video for Ricky, Spellbinder stars Timothy Daly as a young lawyer named Jeff Mills who works at a Los Angeles law firm who heads out of the gym one night with his pal, Derek Clayton (Rick Rossovich), and witnesses a greasy looking asshole with a ponytail slapping around a foxy young lady. He interferes and sends the greaseball on his way and offers to drive the foxy young lady home. They chat it up, and it turns out her name is Miranda Reed (Kelly Preston) and she doesn't really have a home. Well, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jeff offers her his bed, noting that he'll sleep on the couch. She takes him up on the offer and before you know it the two are madly in love, screwing like rabbits and bathing together by candle light, kissing one another's kneecaps.

So yeah, Jeff and Miranda hit it off, much to the delight of all of Jeff's friends who are stoked that he landed such a hottie. After all, as they keep reminding him, 'you deserved it.' The singular voice of discontent is Jeff's assistant, Grace Woods (Diana Bellamy), who grows very suspicious of Miranda when she sees her reading palms at a party and taking a turkey out of the hot oven without using oven mitts! She warns Jeff that something is amiss with his new lady friend, but he's not hearing any of it. It isn't until strange stuff starts happening around Miranda that Jeff wonders if maybe something suspicious is going on - well, as luck would have it, Jeff finds out that she's the member of a coven, that her mother was a bad witch, and that her coven is looking for someone to serve as their next human sacrifice! Oh snap!

A pretty hokey mix of occult chills and marginally sexy thrills, Spellbinder is deadly in its predictability and more or less screams in your face about where it's heading very quickly but it moves at a good pace and offers up enough skin and Satanic highjinks that easily amused trash movie fans will dig what this movie delivers. The obvious reason a good chunk of the movie's male viewership will be interested in the film is the fact that Kelly Preston (of Blue Thunder fame, among others, but Blue Thunder… fuck yeah!) gets naked here. Aside from that what else works? Well, the last thirty minutes do a good job of amping up the horror movie clichés in a good way, from an attack on Jeff's house by the coven members all the way through to the finale and 'see it coming from a mile away' twist ending. Predictable or not, it's a fun ride and the movie does what it does well.

As far as the performances go, Timothy Daly is likeable enough as the male lead even if he does remind you of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman at times, not in his personality type but in his appearance and style. If he and Preston don't have instant chemistry it's close enough - we like them as a couple and want to high five him for boning her after knowing her for twenty four hours. Rick Rossovich as the wing man is… goofy but goofy is in keeping with the rest of the movie so that's less a complaint than it is an observation. When the dust settles Spellbinder is as entertaining as it is dopey - worth a watch? Absolutely, just be prepared for all that the eighties had to offer and a fun movie ridiculously devoid of anything remotely resembling suspense.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Spellbinder looks really good in MGM's 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are very nice in that silly eighties sort of way and black levels are definitely solid. Detail is also pretty good for a standard definition presentation. Sometimes the picture looks a bit soft but this is an eighties movie so it's sort of in keeping with the movie's aesthetic.

The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track sounds just fine, offering up clear dialogue without any noticeable background hiss or noise - dig that eighties score. The levels are well balanced, the score sounds good and there are no problems here to complain about.

Extras are limited to a theatrical trailer that plays up the sexy side of the film and a static menu. The movie is divided into chapters in ten minute intervals.

The Final Word:

There's no denying the fact that Spellbinder is really fucking goofy and ridiculously predictable but it's a fun late eighties mix of Satanic Panic and sexy softcore cheesecake. It's not well made, well acted or well written but despite that it's completely entertaining in a completely brainless way. MGM's DVD-R isn't going to floor you but it offers up the movie in a pretty nice presentation and hey, a trailer. Neat.