Search - Invisible Strangler on DVD

Mental Health Issues...

Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein | under the rubble | 08/01/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Celebrity stalker / killer, Roger Sands is serving a life sentence in a hospital for the criminally insane. Unfortunately, he has been studying psychic phenomena in his spare time. Sands is now able to leave the hospital by turning invisible! Now, he seeks to hunt down and strangle the women on his hit-list; all of whom are dancers, models, or actresses. All of these poor women remind Sands of his own actress mother, who refused to ever acknowledge that he was her son. Mum paid for this with her life, becoming Sands' first victim. Enter Robert Foxworth (Prophecy) as the cop who must stop Sands before he exacts his full revenge. THE ASTRAL FACTOR is not bad for a pre-Halloween / Friday The 13th serial killer-on-the-loose movie. The fact that the killer is invisible adds a bit of supernatural tension. The fact that both Elke Sommer and Stefanie Powers (Die! Die! My Darling!) are in it adds a lot of dee-lightful moments! Powers is especially good as Foxworthy's extremely playful girlfriend. At any rate, I liked this one enough to watch it twice in one day, but then I'm a sucker for junky movies..."

ESP And Modern Dance Don't Mix

Robert I. Hedges | 05/03/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is a turgid little piece of melodramatic nonsense featuring some extremely bad acting (from people who should really know better), a dreadful script, and some of the worst special effects since "Plan 9."



The basic premise is that Roger Sands, an ultra-brainy lunatic with maternal abandonment issues, studies ESP and learns to become invisible at which point he starts stalking women who remind him of his mother. He has numerous flashbacks of his mom, and even visits her in the cemetery, where they have a dialogue that explains the background for the film in what is one of the most trite of all plot devices. I should really mention that the special effects in this film will, in all likelihood, make you laugh out loud, with the best of the bunch being the ESP-induced invisibility attainment via an effect that is straight out of the transporter room from "Star Trek," only not as well done.



The detective "heroes" in the film are universally unlikable, but at least one of them (Robert Foxworth) dates Stephanie Powers, who engages in numerous diversionary scenes that pad the plot immensely (please especially note the cake-baking in a mink scene.) I suppose the biggest star power in the movie has to be Elke Sommer, who plays a rich alcoholic nag in some of the most ridiculous costumes I have seen in a while. (One makes her look like the inmate.)



I should note in an effort to add nuance (or at least running time) to the film, there is a subplot about a dancer in a modern dance production that is shown for far too long. I am not a fan of musicals, and I am definitely not a fan of modern dance, so you might suspect that I would really dislike faux-modern dance stage musicals presented at length within a bad supernatural thriller from the 1970s. You would be right. This production is painful to endure, and you will be relieved when Foxworth mercifully jumps onstage and stops it.



Truly this is a poorly made film that is about as campy as you can get. Nonetheless I give it two stars for having some unintentionally entertaining moments as well as laugh-out-loud campy special effects, particularly in the finale where the disembodied voice yells "I never wanted to hurt you, Mama," which is clearly a lie, providing an even weaker resolution to an already weak film.

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Hollow Man in the 70's

Michael Bolts | Superior, WI | 06/23/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Frank Ashmore (Airplane!, V) stars as Roger Sands who is a convicted man who winds up making himself invisible and escape his jail cell. Robert Foxworth (Syriana, Beyond The Stars) plays the Lieutenant on the case. He has to protect several women who testified against Sands. One by one Sands goes after the women and Foxworth wants to find The Astral Inisible Factor and stop him for good. Badly acted, horrible directed and executed thriller has bloodless chills and thrills. The effects are dumber then dirt. Nothing can save this bottom of the barrel mess. Its simply dreadful. The editing is bad as well. I saw LOOP pop on the screen a couple of times. Also starring Stefanie Powers (Deceptions, Hart to Hart), Sue Lyon (Alligator, End of the World) and Mark Slade (Flashpoint, Waikiki)"