CASSANDRA
Not bad for an Australian "psychic link" movie
My expectations for this movie were lower than they were for The Fear, if that's possible. Not only is it Australian (and the last three Australian horror movies I saw - Darkroom, Next Of Kin and Out Of The Body - sucked the long donkey), but it's one of those "psychic-link" movies which hold such a dear spot in my heart - I mean, my lower colon. So, as you might imagine, I kept portable objects away from me so that I wouldn't be tempted to throw them at the screen.
Okay, for the first half of the movie I did have my rabbit on my lap so that I could comb his fur (it's shedding season), but c'mon, I'm not gonna get THAT pissed off at it... I digress. Cassandra is, surprisingly, a pretty well-made and occasionally effective little movie, leagues better than the cinematic dingleberry I was expecting. Not rush-out-and-see material by any stretch, but an enjoyable ninety-minute time-waster that didn't (unlike those other three) bring the day of my inevitable suicide any closer.
Yeah, Cassandra has her psychic link and visions of death and doom, but the plot does something with them (unlike in most of these movies, which feature the actor staring blankly ahead and saying "He...he has a knife! No!").And Cassandra (played by Tessa Humphries) is given more to do as well, as she probes into her own family's secrets. The killer here doesn't just kill, he keeps writing "Who killed Cock Robin?" at the murder scenes. As you might imagine, the answer to this question will make about as much of an impact on your life as just who shot J.R., or who killed Laura Palmer.
This is by no means a really good movie, but it's hard not to breathe a sigh of relief after having expectations this low. Might have actually gotten a marginal recommendation out of me if the "vision" scenes weren't so overdirected (give the "eye" thing a break, man). As it is, it's just not bad.