Twists of Terror

Twists of Terror
American/UK VHS cover of "Twists of Terror"
Genre	Horror, Thriller
Written by	John Shirley
Directed by	Douglas Jackson
Starring	Jennifer Rubin Françoise Robertson Nick Mancuso
Theme music composer	Alan Reeves
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Nicolas Clermont Stewart Harding (line producer) Neil Meron (executive producer) Craig Zadan (executive producer)
Editor(s)	Glenn Berman
Running time	90 minutes
Release
Original network	Showtime Networks
Original release	July 2, 1997 (1997-07-02) (Canada) October 17, 1998 (1998-10-17) (USA)

Twists of Terror (aka Primal Scream) is a Canadian horror/thriller television film starring Jennifer Rubin, Françoise Robertson and Nick Mancuso, directed by Douglas Jackson. The film first aired its native Canada in July 1997 and then in Germany during November 1997, whilst the film's video premiere in the UK was during April 1998, and made its television premiere in America, October 17, 1998, on Showtime.^[1]

Background

The film is based around three stories, with the first involving Jennifer Rubin, the second involving Nick Mancuso, and the third involving Françoise Robertson. The stories are titled "The People You Meet", "The Clinic" and "Stolen Moments" respectively.^[2]

Originally the film was released on VHS in both the UK and America,^[3] whilst a DVD was released in Canada on November 26, 2003.^[4]

The film's tagline reads "Terror is just outside the door."^[5]

Plot

A collection of three macabre tales, presented by an agoraphobic middle-aged man, named Philip, who lives in a seedy section of Los Angeles. As he sorts through his piles of yellowed newspaper clippings, he relates his paranoid nightmares through three stories.

"The People You Meet" is based on a couple, Joe and Amy, who are on their second honeymoon, when they are forced off the road by a speeding sportscar. They get a lift from an odd local who is not what he seems. They pick up another hiker, who just happens to be a friend of the local, and they kidnap Joe and Amy and take them to an abandoned cabin. It concludes with the man and woman both turning on one another, as they had set each other up.^[6]

"The Clinic" finds a workaholic traveling salesman, Crenshaw, who after stopping for gas late one night in a nowhere town is attacked by a vicious dog. He finds sanctuary in a private clinic where he is treated by the young Dr. Roberts and a beautiful nurse. Very strange things seem to be happening in this clinic. Blood on the walls, bone chilling screams, patients dancing in the hall. Crenshaw is told that the hallucinations are caused by a rare form of rabies however it turns out that inmates have taken over the clinic, which is an asylum.^[2]

"Stolen Moments" shows a shy and pretty Cindy Craig who has trouble meeting men, living her life in an apartment with a plethora of pets. One evening she goes to a bar and is picked up by two men, they go back to an abandoned house and have sex, but then she murders them and resumes her life as the 'quiet' woman she is.^[7]

Cast

• Jennifer Rubin as Amy
• Françoise Robertson as Cindy
• Nick Mancuso as Crenshaw
• Joseph Ziegler as Philip
• Christopher Heyerdahl as Darien
• Carl Marotte as Joe
• Martin Neufeld as Dr. Roberts
• Jayne Heitmeyer as Tanya
• Andrew Jackson as Barry
• Jack Langedijk as Richard
• Keath Thome as Bernard
• Claudia Besso as Mai
• Steve Adams as Sam

Reception

Allmovie gave the film two out of five stars and wrote "This made-for-television chiller offers up three spooky stories."^[8][9]

Reelfilm gave the film two and a half out of four stars, and wrote "What really kills Twists of Terror is the painfully dull second story, which just seems to go on and on for far too long. And by the time the twist comes, it's really hard to care. The third tale isn't bad, but after that second one, all of my interest had vanished and was replaced by growing irritation. Mancuso was good, though, as was Rubin (she was also in the dreadful Little Witches - it's really a shame that she's getting typecast as a horror chick)."^[10]

Canuxploitation.com wrote an unfavorable review, stating "As with much of his work, Jackson manages to put a nice professional sheen on Twists of Terror, but like so many Canadian direct-to-video timewasters, the film falls victim to its lack of resources--from an underdeveloped script to unconvincing actors and a wretched synthesizer score. The films trio of terrible tales may not be as flagrantly stupid as those in Freakshow, but they also fail to live up to the promise of The Uncanny, which managed to integrate an interesting wraparound vignette with its well-thought-out (if not always successful) stories. Too uninteresting and sanitized to recommend to the horror fans that might be interested in it, Twists of Terror is a triple disappointment."^[11]

Apollo Guide gave a rating of 31/100. Emanuel Levy awarded the film three out of five stars.^[12] The book DVD & Video Guide 2005 (Ballantine Books) gave the film two and a half out of five stars.^[13]

References

External links

• Twists of Terror at the Internet Movie Database