The
Haunting of Morella
1990
Director- Jim Wynorski
Cast- Nicole Eggert, Lana Clarkson, David McCallum,
Christopher Halsted, Jonathan Farwell, Maria Ford, Gail Thackery
The
movie begins with a witch, Morella (Nicole Eggert best known from the 80s
sitcom Charles in Charge and her stint on Baywatch), being tortured by a mob of
angry villagers. Her milquetoast husband stands by with their infant daughter
while villagers prepare to finish her off. Morella pronounces a curse that her
spirit will live on in the body of their child, Lenora, and that one day she
will have her revenge.
Fast
forward and Lenora (also played by Nicole Eggert) is 3 days away from her 18th
birthday, upon which she will come into an inheritance (in a rare bit of spot
on casting, Nicole was herself 17 at the time and 4 months away from her 18th
birthday).
Her father has become eccentric over the years and a tad unhinged not to mention he has also gone blind. Lucky for them he’s filthy rich. He has kept Lenora confined to their plantation her whole life. He secretly fears his dead wife’s curse and hopes to shield her from anything that might bring out his dead wife’s spirit.
He is aided by a governess
Coel (statuesque Lana Clarkson better known to fans from her sword and sorcery
movies like Deathstalker and Barbarian Queen). Unbeknownst to him though, Coel
was a disciple of Morella and secretly works to bring back her dead mistress’
spirit.
A young handsome, lawyer
shows up with legal papers for Lenora’s inheritance but he’s quickly turned
away lest he stir up Lenora’s adolescent loins and risk a return of Morella.
Coel decides to take matters into her own hands and leaves Lenora’s father’s
diary conspicuously out for Lenora to find. From its pages, she learns the
truth about her mother.
Morella, it turns out,
wasn’t just a witch, she was working on a Bathoryesque scheme for immortality,
complete with bathing in virgin blood. This proves to be just what the
witchdoctor ordered. Morella’s personality begins to surface and Coel begins
dark, bloody rituals to hasten her mistress’ return.
The movie was directed by
Jim Wynorski (best known for the 80s horror-comedy, Chopping Mall and the
mainstream debut of Traci Lords in Not of This Earth). It was produced by Roger
Corman. It is nominally an adaptation of a story by Edgar Allan Poe. But if
you’re familiar with Corman’s work (i.e. Pit and the Pendulum, Masque of the Red Death among others), you know better than to expect a strict (or even
faithful) adaptation. This is fine by me as Corman’s Poe pics were all pretty
entertaining, just don’t watch one to help you write your book report.
Rather than Poe, this film
is more like an erotic retelling of Mario Bava’s Black Sunday. Both films begin
with a witch issuing a curse before her execution. Both films have a Gothic
setting. Both involve the spirit of malevolent ancestor trying to replace their
innocent descendant. Both have the star playing two characters, one evil, one
good (this was something that Barbara Steele did several times in her career,
including Black Sunday).
Now, I don’t want to sound
like I’m equating Black Sunday with The Haunting of Morella. Black Sunday was a
landmark film that spawned the Italian Gothic horror genre. Morella is, when it
comes down to it, a B movie, all be it a B movie with pretty good production
values. It looks as good as the better
Full Moon pictures of the same era. It has impressive sets, a good musical
score and good costumes (though probably too revealing for its vaguely early 19th
century American setting).
But more
importantly than what it is, I think you’ll notice what it isn’t!. If you know
Wynorski’s catalogue, this film is distinctly unlike most of his other
offerings. His older 80s stuff was very entertaining but very tongue in cheek.
His 21st Century stuff has mostly been T&A flicks with porno
names (Bare Wench Project, The Da Vinci Coed, The Breastford Wives, Witches of
Breastwick….see a pattern here?).
The
Haunting of Morella, on the other hand, is dead pan serious. If I didn’t know
better I’d think it was directed by some alternate universe Wynorski. It makes
me wish he’d a done a few more movies like this. That’s not to say that this
movie is without his signature dose of nudity. There is a fair amount of nudity
here. Lana Clarkson fans, especially, will be pleased by her rather lengthy
nude scenes.
But even
though Nicole Eggert was seventeen at the time, you don’t have to worry about
Chris Hanson showing up if you decide to watch this. This isn’t To the Devil aDaughter. Though Nicole has several erotic scenes, all of the nudity is
accomplished with editing and a body double. The use of a double is so obvious
in fact, it’s a bit distracting. If I have any complaint about the movie it
would be that they should have just ditched her naughty scenes rather than try
to pull them off in such a convoluted fashion.
As for the
performances, Nicole was good, especially for someone so young. I wish that she
had spent more time in horror because I think she could have been a good scream
queen. It was interesting to see Lana in a much more reserved role without a
sword. Older fans may recognize David McCallum as Lenora’s father. He was in
the creepy Disney movie Watcher in the Woods but he is best known as Illya
Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
So to
sum up, if you’re wanting a thoughtful adaptation of Poe, this is not the film
for you. But if you like Gothic creepiness, and you enjoyed Full Moon and
Vestron flicks from the 90s, then you will probably find this erotic thriller
both entertaining and possibly a little arousing.
