LISTS… My Three Fave Movies with those with Psychic Powers

#1970s #1990s #AllPosts

 

I foresee reviews for three films with special powers that will move you in different ways…

 

The first of my Wandering Through the Shelves for April 2022 posts with three of my favourites.

 

Carrie (1976)

Only You (1994)

 

This is the next of my 2022 posts for this weekly entertainment-themed challenge from Wandering Through the Shelves.  For my first post for April, the challenge was to pick three of my favourite films with mediums and psychics.

More about this blog’s 2022 blogging challenge is found HERE… and this page also includes the blogger’s challenges for this month, if you are now keen to join this fun collaboration.

…. Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them.

All my weekly contributions for 2022 are found HERE…  and my and others’ contributions for this particular topic are HERE. Please note that due to an accidental date error on the host’s post that this post will be updated next week with a link to next week’s post too… and that post is found HERE.

The three films I’ve selected to illustrate this topic are Only You (1994), Carrie (1976) and The Manitou (1978)…

 

Only You (1994)…

Only You (1994) – Trailer, Old School Trailers

What if a fortune teller and an Ouija board both told the love of your life’s name and then this person called your home just before your wedding…? This plot is the premise for Only You (1994) a film by the director Norman Jewison. And so this film is one of the better and more original ones of this genre before you dismiss this as a really, really predictable rom-com.

Jewison has a strong filmography with a versatile career and this included Oscar winning rom-coms like Moonstruck (1987) and crime films with a splash of romance such as The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Only You has two charismatic leads, Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jnr who have a wonderful on-screen presence and undeniable romantic chemistry. There is also support from the underrated, Bonnie Hunt and Billy Zane. 

The film starts in flashback, as a young romantic 11 year old Faith (Tomei) discovers her true soulmate is called Damon Bradley. She learns his name after she and her brother use an Ouija Board. Years later a fortune teller also tells her this name, saying this is the man she’ll marry. So she’s convinced that he’s the one…

Then we flash-forward in time to just over a week before her wedding day to someone else. While trying on her wedding dress, Faith takes a call from her fiance, Dwayne’s classmate – who is flying to Venice – and he tells her that he is named Damon Bradley… Immediately, Faith drops everything, including her wedding plans, zooms to the airport and then catches a plane to find Damon.. in Venice, Italy. 

She goes on this manhunt with her best friend Kate (Hunt) – who is having marital problems – in tow. Basically, after lots of missed opportunities to meet Damon, Faith meets a handsome American (Downey Jnr). He tells her his name is Damon Bradley. She faints, he catches her, and I sob.

Then she falls in love with him…  and they’ve snogged, she thinks she’s found her Mr Right.  But then she discovers the bad news, that he’s been lying and he’s really called Peter Wright… and he tries to convince her that she loves him, and his name is irrelevant. Faith stomps about a lot and shouts at him a bit and then to make up for things, Peter tells her that he’s tracked down the real Damon Bradley… enter Billy Zane.

This is a well-told, credible film and a nice hark back to Jewison’s Doris Day romantic comedies – Send Me No Flowers (1964) and The Thrill of It All (1963). This romantic comedy has a lovely timeless feel about it and you can easily see it as a 1960s film.

I can picture it now with Doris Day replacing Tomei and with her on-screen true love with support from Rock Hudson or James Garner in this old fashioned romance. If this film had happened, I believe the script wouldn’t have needed changing that much and could even have had Tony Randall in a supporting role as Faith’s brother… 

I discovered this version of Only You in a happy accident when it was shown on the telly. I’d assumed it was an Andrew McCarthy movie of the same name, which also starred Kelly Preston and it also has a rom-com plot. But having seen this other film’s trailer, I foresee you will like this reviewed version much more. And if you hate romcoms but like Italy, it’s worth a look for some stunning cinematography, opera arias and soppy scenes set at Roman landmarks. 

Also,  watch it only to see the convincing on-screen romantic chemistry between Robert Downey Jnr and Marisa Tomei. This cute chemistry hasn’t changed over the years as it was later seen in this scene HERE in their joint superhero movie,  Captain America: Civil War (2016). This film was made decades later, with him as Tony Stark and her as Spiderman’s Aunt May. (And yes, Darlin Husband did ask if this version of Only You was a Marvel movie…). But Tony the eejit went back with Pepper Potts and broke May’s heart (as well as mine, and probably Spiderman’s).

Finally, before you wonder what are the odds of a fortune teller knowing your soulmate’s name, a girl I once knew was told the three initials of her true love’s name. She met him, married him and had two kids with him… But then again a fortune-teller told me I was told I’d marry someone else. 

 

Carrie (1976)…

Carrie (1976) – Official Trailer (HD), Scream Factory TV

This film could be subtitled, why you shouldn’t bully others as this scrawny kid might later develop telekinetic powers and then get revenge on you…  It’s another film from Brian De Palma which is set at his school for girls (and boys) as seen in De Palma’s film The Fury (1978). It was based on the first novel by Stephen King.

It has Sissy Spacek’s defining role as the titular Carrie White, a slim, shy and unpopular 16 year old kid in a high school class. Carrie after a physical education class takes a shower and then starts her monthly periods. Then she is bullied and made fun of by some of those bitchy types we all knew back then and hated.

Carrie doesn’t know that her bleeding is because of her period and that it is a healthy normal thing for a girl her age. She becomes distressed until the teacher intervenes. The girls who bullied her about her periods are given detention and these include the ringleader, Chris (Nancy Allen). Chris is banned from going to the prom by this teacher. 

Carrie’s over domineering and zealous religious mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie) has never told her about this fact of life and so this poor kid thinks she’s bleeding to death. On returning home from school and then telling her mother about her period, her mother calls her sinful and locks her in a small room with an altar to repent. However, Carrie is able to break the lock to this room using telekinetic powers. 

One of those popular girls’ Sue (Amy Irving) feels sorry for Carrie and asks her boyfriend (William Katt) to ask Carrie to the prom. After he asks Carrie to the school prom, he has to reassure her that he’s serious about her. Carrie is still keen to go to her prom, despite her mother’s fears about her going.

After Chris and her boyfriend, Billy (John Travolta) arrange for Carrie and Tommy to win the Prom Queen and King at the prom by fixing the vote… the pair then play an evil prank on her. Then humiliated, Carrie White’s telekinetic powers are unleashed on her schoolmates and the teachers… 

Spacek is perfect casting with her slight frame and her convincing performance.  It was a worthy film adaptation of the lengthy list of Stephen King’s books. King was reportedly happy with the film. The ending was changed but King praised this conclusion, and he also claimed that this book was partly autobiographical.

Carrie could have been played by Linda Blair and Farrah Fawcett. Although in my opinion, Linda does seem much more suited for this part than Farrah Fawcett. Fawcett seems ON appearance more suitable for the role of Sue. Both Spacek and Laurie won Oscar nominations for Leading Actress and Supporting Actress respectively.

This book and film had a remake that wasn’t needed. This had the less waify looking Chloe Grace Moretz in the title role and was released in 2013. To my horror, when researching this I discovered it was just the start of those adaptations. There are actually four films about this character altogether, a Broadway musical and a television special. But if you’ve seen this original take on this novel, the ending stays with you long after the credits. And I believe that this film has the power to move you…

 

The Manitou (1978)…

The Manitou (1978)  –  Official Trailer, Scream Factory TV

Proving once and for all that 1978 was the year that had more bad it’s good movies than any other year, I’m adding The Manitou (1978) for your consideration. And not just as it’s got Tony Curtis and an orange toned – for no apparent reason – Stella Stevens in their psychic roles. But it helps… 

This film came with a warning from Roger Ebert, who adds HERE,

The plot can easily be summarized, but first this announcement: If you happen to be drinking hot coffee at the present moment, please set your cup aside, because elements of the scenario might cause you to begin shaking with helpless laughter and you could spill the coffee on your rug, dog, cat, mate or newspaper.

The story tells of Harry (Curtis), a charismatic but phoney psychic who spends his days “fleecing” old ladies. He’s called by his ex-girlfriend (Susan Strasberg) as she’s been admitted to the hospital. She’s discovered a lump at the base of her neck, which grows.

Then a foetus is discovered growing in it (and according to a disclosure in this film, this medical marvel actually happened)! This fetus then turns into a 400 year old Native American and medicine man, Misquamacus. After some failed radiation and surgical treatment, the manitou is out for revenge and Harry is out to save the day…

After Harry visits another medium, played by Stella Stevens who holds a seance and then a Native American, Singing Rock (Michael Ansara) who assists him in trying to kill this creature. It then goes full tilt (unintentional comic) horror with crazy scenes set in a snowy hospital ward, and even outer space. I kid you not, it’s Bat shit crazy with a capital B. 

Like two other horror films from this year Roger Corman’s The Evil (1978) and the TV Movie Devil Dog: Hound of Hell (1978), The Manitou has a stellar cast including Curtis, Ann Sothern and Burgess Meredith. The cast plays it straight even when the crazier special effects and plot monopolise the screen. The best of these scenes happen (un)naturally in those final scenes. But by the end of the film, I foresee that you’ll be shocked by those sometimes Oscar Winners in this feature film. 

Special mentions for this topic of films featuring mediums and those with psychic powers include The Astral Factor (1978), Family Plot (1976), From Beyond the Grave (1974), The Fury (1978), Endless Night (1972), The Shining (1980) and The Visitor (1981). And check out all my weekly contributions for 2022 are all found HERE…  

 

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Don’t forget to read the other contributions for this topic on Wandering Through the Shelves link up HERE.

Tune in to my post for April 28 on my three favourite TV Shows about Royalty.

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