Samhain Project #4: The Norliss Tapes

 

     In the 1970's made for TV movies were a key element of home viewing, and it's shocking the quality of some of the horror projects.  Dan Curtis is a guy behind many of them. If you look at Curtis' resume, he didn't finish his career in the macabre, but it sure started there.  Curtis' was behind the legendary Night Stalker movie and series, Dark Shadows, and of course the infamous Trilogy of Terror.

     The Norliss Tapes was a pilot film for a series that was intended to be The X- Files before it existed.  It surrounds investigative journalist and writer David Norliss who is looking to write a book debunking the supernatural.  Well, it doesn't take Stephen Hawking to know where that will end up leading. Norliss disappears and his publisher comes upon a series of audio cassettes narrated by Norliss himself.  A story is built from the narration involving Angie Dickinson's zombie husband, witchcraft, and Claude Akins, because it wouldn't be the 70's and TV without him. 

     It's dated of course, but you can see where a hell of a series would have formed from the adventures of Norliss' tapes, and how those who remembered the film had trepidatious memories of being freaked out.  Does it hold up? Probably not all the way, but it has some genuinely creepy moments, and Roy Thinnes is rock solid as the skeptical but curious Norliss.  

     There's enough aura and tone generated here to make this a worthy Halloween watch.

     If you can find it.  You can't have my long out of print Anchor Bay DVD copy, so don't even.