I have the oddest feeling that Philippe Mora's Communion (1989) is not a very good film, but I love it anyway, because it makes me nostalgic. It makes me nostalgic for New York in the 80s; for ridiculous "word processors;" for horror writers supporting their families in Manhattan apartments with just their work. Yes, the special effects are hokey. Yes, the actors (starting with Christopher Walken as Whitley Strieber as interpreted by Christopher Walken) all seem to be doing a hammy, slightly ironic Greenwich Village rep theatre read instead of a Hollywood film about alien intercourse. Yes, the screenplay is over-the-top. Yes, the Eric Clapton soundtrack is pretentious. But it all works somehow anyway, and the random moments when it's frightening are actually little slivers of terror embedded in an otherwise merely uneasy tableau about a marriage disintegrating because There's Something Wrong With Dad.™ I was thrilled last night to find that it was finally for sale on iTunes Canada, and I'm going to time-travel backwards with it tonight.
