Humans are such easy prey
1986-10-24
$4.5M
85 min
The Resonator, a powerful machine that can control the sixth sense, has killed its creator and sent his associate into an insane asylum. When a beautiful psychiatrist becomes determined to continue the experiment, she unwittingly opens the door to a hostile parallel universe.
The problem with turning a short story into a movie is frequently that there just isn't enough story to pad out ninety minutes. That is certainly the case with this. A pair of scientists - "Tillinghast" (Jeffrey Combs) and "Pretorius" (Ted Sorel) have developed the "Resonator". This is a device that allows people to see reality in a sort of 3-D, with that added dimension not normally visible. Thing is, that is where some pretty malevolent beasties live and having had a glimpse of the world we live in, they want to come visit. A bit of carnage ensues and soon "Tillinghast" and psychiatrist "McMichaels" (Barbara Crampton) are trying to find away to contain and return their monstrous visitor to his own realm before the body count spirals any further. The special effects here are quite effective - and for about half an hour the story itself is quite decent. There has to be more to the multi-verse than can be seen to the naked eye, etc. Sadly, though, the middle half hour just lacks for substance and it never really gets it's head of steam back for the denouement that is quite well stitched together, and actually quite entertaining, but a but lacking in jeopardy or menace. The acting really isn't much better than you'd see supporting a standard episode of "Starsky & Hutch" but that's not so important. It's the scary visuals that work here. Not especially scary, but creatively developed with a minimum of ketchup and soap. Not great, no - but it's enjoyable enough.
