mosquitodragon’s review published on Letterboxd:
And that, folks, is why you should always keep a mulcher on hand. Every home should have one!
This made-for-television movie about a haunted dress is watchable mainly because it stars Madchen Amick, a woman so gorgeous that all the other less-than-scintillating visual details are rather drowned out. It also features a fairly tired Anthony Perkins who turns up for about 15 minutes in total to say words and look intelligent (and probably dodgy) while saying them. This movie also showed me that Dee Wallace's casting as a psychotic killer in The Frighteners wasn't as against type as I'd always thought, because she does the same thing here (in fact, she looks almost identical to her character in that other film, thanks to that long frizzy black haired wig).
People talk a fair bit about how Tobe Hooper's output was wildly uneven, but honestly, he was reduced to such tawdry material (pardon the pun) in his later career that such films really shouldn't be considered part of his auteur output. Wes Craven had the same issue, but at least for him the TV movies and director-for-hire gigs came early in his career. It was a little more ignominious than that for poor old Tobe, more's the pity.
This is fine for a telemovie. It could have been an episode of some horror anthology series and it wouldn't have looked out of place.
I don't want to incriminate myself as too much of a sleaze (too late?) but given this is about an evil dress, there may be a scene where Madchen has to fight it wearing only her underwear. It's possible - I was careful to avert my eyes but I suspect there may have been a bit of flesh exposed. Just a content warning there for all the men who don't want to be exposed to such problematic material (meaning the evil dress, obviously).
