Karen Black

  • Burnt Offerings (1976)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, June 2022) For some reason, I’m very receptive to haunted-house movies – I’ll record them as soon as they show up on the DVR TV guide. But I’m more often than not let down by the results, and Burnt Offerings is another entry in the promising-but-ultimately-disappointing subgenre. The plot gets underway as a family locates a sumptuous residence for a ridiculously low rent and moves there for the summer. Alas, there’s always a price to be paid, and before long it becomes clear to viewers (but not the characters) that the house is out for their blood and/or souls – as accidents, possession, strange behaviour and unusual portents become commonplace. As far as horror films of the 1970s go, Burnt Offerings has the soft cinematography, contrived plotting, star cameo, dumb characters and downbeat ending of its contemporaries. It does make for a bit of a weird experience – the tonal control isn’t refined, so we go from subtle to blunt in moments, with the grand-guignol violence looking cheap and exploitative. Bette Davis shows up without much to do; Karen Black is a bit bland, and both Oliver Reed and Burgess Meredith also seem a bit lost in a genre film. Still, I’ve seen worse: Burnt Offerings could have been much better and made more out of its premise, but it’s passable entertainment as long as you keep your expectations in check.

  • Airport 1975 (1974)

    Airport 1975 (1974)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, November 2018) The original Airport may have been meant as a workplace drama made even more thrilling by the possibility of airplane crashes, but it launched the 1970s disaster movie craze and by the time its own Airport 1975 follow-up came around, the series refocused on a profitable niche: airborne disasters, in this case what would happen if a small plane crashed in a jumbo airliner? The premise doesn’t make a lot of sense the closer you look at it (or rather: it doesn’t make sense that there would be something to do after such a collision), but no matter: it’s up to George Kennedy and Charlton Heston to play the heroes, be lowered in the gaping open cockpit, and bring everyone back down to safety. That should be enough in itself, but contemporary viewers will get quite a kick out of this Airport 1975 because it’s one of the main sources of inspiration for the classic spoof Airplane! That’s right: the nun, the sick kid and other gags all find their origin here, lending an unintentional hilarity to something meant to be deadly serious. Otherwise, well, some of the airborne footage is impressive, while some of the special effects have not survived well at all. Karen Black is not bad as the heroine, despite her character bearing the brunt of the film’s unconscious sexism. Still, for all its faults, there’s a bit of a magnificence to the results—this is not meant to be a good movie, but it seems to know what it’s made for. As a result, Airport 1975 withstands an admittedly ironic contemporary look better than many of its contemporaries.