Encounter with the Unknown

This was a comment I made on the YouTube posting of this 1972 movie a few years ago.  As such, it's not a review per se, but more a considered reaction to the mostly (and inexplicably) glowing remarks of numerous other commenters on this film.  Time stamps refer to the YouTube video.

It’s interesting to contrast my own impressions of this movie with just about all the comments on it here. It almost seems as if the others watched a different video. Or, alternately, that I’m an alien of some kind — which, now that I think of it, would also explain many other instances of my views contrasting starkly with those of most others. Hmm...

Anyway, this was my first time seeing this flick, unlike (again) many others here who apparently remembered seeing it — and being freaked out by it — as kiddies. Now, I could see a child finding this piece creepy — maybe. But I struggle to see how an adult, whose sensibilities have presumably been elevated by watching many actually good films, could watch this thing and not be immediately struck by the lame, stilted, dreadful dialogue; the hammy, third-rate, early '70s TV-level acting (especially in the first segment); and the utterly ludicrous and risible scripted situations (e.g., in segment 2, after failing to summon the courage to scope out the hell-hole in broad f-ing daylight, the dad decides the middle of the night is a much better time to do it… Well, of course it is!).

All of these problems and many more made this flick too unintentionally funny and MST3K-worthy to be remotely effective as either low key horror or supernatural creepfest. Want to see a vintage micro-budget horror film that’s truly creepy despite some obvious z-movie liabilities? Check out Carnival of Souls (1962).

Having said that, there were a few things I did like about this movie, and all have to do with the third and final segment. The two featured songs — the instrumental Sleepy Shores by Johnny Pearson (which was also the theme music for the British TV show Owen MD), and the folksy Rememberin’ (How It Used To Be), composed by Steve Beeson and sung Becky Fain (who also appeared in the movie) — were nice additions. Also, there’s this tasty bit of prose from Rod Serling’s narrated introduction to the last segment:

54:12 “There is a bridge in our mind that leads through time and memory; from what we know, to shores beyond knowing. It sways high and darkly dangerous above the canyons of our disbelief, like some spectral spans spun by devils for us to tread. To walk this bridge is to accept all kinds of possibilities, especially the most exciting possibility of all: the possibility of impossibility."

Finally, one line in the uncredited narration that closes the picture sounded like a nearly verbatim quote from pioneering psychonaut John C. Lilly, from a 1972 book called The Center of the Cyclone.

The movie line (@ 1:28:32):

“And remember, in the enchanted room, in the unique miracle of the mind, what you believe to be true either is true, or your mind will make it so.”

Lilly’s quote:

“In the province of the mind, what is believed to be true either is true or becomes true, within limits to be found experientially and experimentally.”

Importantly, though, he added: “These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.”