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With
a Vengeance
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With a Vengeance is based on the same narrative device that once made the original slasher movies like Friday the 13th (1980) and Halloween (1978) so compelling. It begins with a horrific primal scene, where a young woman (Melissa Gilbert Brinkman) witnesses the slaughter of her family, narrowly escapes death herself, and then promptly erases all memory of the event, including every trace of her life and identity up to that moment. Then the story flashes to a seemingly tranquil point in time some years later – where the past begins flashing into Brinkman's resistant, amnesiac mind, and the original psycho killer (Jack Scalia, a tele– and B movie regular), under the cover of suburban normality, begins recreating the same, inexorable chain of ghastly events. As a telemovie – director Switzer has had a prolific career in the medium – With a Vengeance goes easy on the graphic details, whilst still effectively milking the psycho-dramatic frisson of this classic slasher plot. © Adrian Martin September 1993 |
