Communion (DVD)

...confused with the 1977 movie Communion AKA Alice, Sweet Alice; this 1989 movie is based on "true" events that the stories author Whitley Streiber experienced during the course of his life.

Whitley (Christopher Walken) is a writer of fictional fantasy novels, a loving husband, and a good father; a man with an unusual but highly addictive personality, with an even weirder sense of humour. Abandoning New York for the weekend ...
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Communion is an incredibly compelling movie that you either take onboard, or dismiss in the first 10 minutes. Those open minded and with wide taste in movies will undoubtedly welcome the movie with open arms; you see this is no conventional movie. Flicking at the drop of a hat from the reality to the possible fiction Communion offers some very unusual scenes which go from being odd, to borderline hysterical. While it hits the ... more

Not to be confused with the 1977 movie Communion AKA Alice, Sweet Alice; this 1989 movie is based on "true" events that the stories author Whitley Streiber experienced during the course of his life.

Whitley (Christopher Walken) is a writer of fictional fantasy novels, a loving husband, and a good father; a man with an unusual but highly addictive personality, with an even weirder sense of humour. Abandoning New York for the weekend Whitley, his wife Anne (Lindsay Crouse), son Andrew, and family friends Alex (the late Andreas Katsulas) and Sarah (Terri Hanauer) head for their cabin in the countryside. Whitley experiences a strange turn of events during the night, and Alex and Sarah are also disturbed by the unexplained night time event that they describe as "bright lights".

On returning to New York, Whitley's behaviour spirals out of control, jumping out of his skin at the most irrational things. While Anne initially puts his behaviour down to writers block, it's only a matter of time before things get out of control and the subject of Alien abduction is laid on the table.

Communion is an incredibly compelling movie that you either take onboard, or dismiss in the first 10 minutes. Those open minded and with wide taste in movies will undoubtedly welcome the movie with open arms; you see this is no conventional movie. Flicking at the drop of a hat from the reality to the possible fiction Communion offers some very unusual scenes which go from being odd, to borderline hysterical. While it hits the subject of Alien abduction head on and with great seriousness, a combination of Whitley's unique personality and a stark image of how people claiming to have been abducted by Aliens are dealt with by "non believers".

Whether you're a believer of this sort of thing or not it's irrelevant, Christopher Walken makes this movie incredibly good viewing, because he faces the situation as a non believer. Whether his portrayal as Whitley is accurate or whether it's all Walken is something that is not quite clear, but whichever the case from a movies angle Whitley is a great person to have round for an evening of fun.

The special effects for the movie are not exactly special with the Aliens being depicted by literal little green men, and little blue men; both with minimal facial expression and quite obviously men in suits. But this is part of the movies charm; it really does not want you to take things too seriously. In Whitleys time with the aliens he gets the typical things, injections and anal probes; however as time goes on his visits turn more into a party like atmosphere, with Whitley and the aliens dancing to Mexican inspired music.

Pushing the movie back into the realms of seriousness, the movie gives great focus on the family environment when someone has experienced trauma. Whitley goes from being great fun to be around, to an absolute nightmare, and frighteningly so when one night he almost kills his wife while running rampage with a shotgun. And then there is the effect on their six year old son, who seems to be experiencing the same phenomena as Whitley, is he a victim of abduction too? Or just a neglected child needing to try and create bonds in the severed relationship with his increasingly wayward father.

I really dislike Lindsay Crouse as an actress, I find her wooden and incredibly plain, but here she really lets her hair go and she goes from being incredibly plain to fantastically sexy, this is the sort of woman you want, and dare I say need as a wife. There is absolutely no wood in her performance here, her acting is fluid as is her dialogue, and its not down to script; I really believe that she was give carte blanche with this role in order to make the audience feel for her side of the story.

I love Francis Sternhagen in this movie too, and actress who never really figured on my Radar (as in exactly who she was though I was aware of the name) until this week seeing Stephen Kings Mist, here she has that firm edge that slowly weakens as she gets to know the Streibers. Here she stars as a psychiatrist who treats the couple, but is basically a rape councillor who changes her views as her heart goes out to the Streibers.

I should also draw reference to the great Eric Clapton who delivers the movies electrifying score, I have to say while being very good it's also very similar sounding to the soundtrack he delivered he delivered to the BBC four years earlier for the series Edge Of Darkness. There are two things that really stick in your head about this movie, first is Walkens portrayal of the largely eccentric Whitley Streiber, the second is Eric Claptons haunting score.

I love every bit of Communion, a movie I have now seen more than a dozen times, it's a movie that fails to become boring to me, and with each fresh viewing I draw something new from it. From Walken's crazy dancing and off the wall behaviour, to his visions of humans with great big alien heads this is a most brilliant movie.

Communion has no special features; the DVD is currently deleted, but due for re-release on the 15th of May with an RRP of £5.99.

Spencer Hawken 03/08 

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