Retro Film/Television Review: Visions of Murder (1993)

When someone makes a trailer for a movie, and when the product looks less attractive than its advertisement, people usually feel cheated. But the author of this review didn't feel that angry after having similar experience with Visions of Murder, 1993 television thriller by Michael Ray Rhodes. The national video distributor in my country was extremely creative in editing various clips from the film and using appropriate music, thus making Visions of Murder look like an exciting blend of supernatural horror and psychological thriller. Of course, in reality, Visions of Murder was nothing more than conventional product of American TV industry.

The heroine of the film is Jesse Newman (played by Barbara Eden), ambitious psychologist that takes a new patient, Gloria Hager (played by Anita Finlay). The young woman tells about spousal abuse and leaves the office. Soon after that, the therapist begins having visions and hallucinations that involve Gloria. Those visions culminate with the vision of Gloria's body being dumped into the sea by her husband. Jesse Newman reports it to the police only to soon become the prime suspect in the murder investigation.

Of course, the standards of American TV movies are lower than the standards of Hollywood feature films. But that shouldn't be the excuse for poor quality, especially in psychological thrillers that, like this one, don't require big budgets to be attractive. What makes those film good are the script, the direction and actors. Visions of Murder fails in all of that. The plot is turning into sentimental overkill at the end. The direction is wooden. The characters are uninteresting and are played by disinterested actors. Barbara Eden practically destroys her character, but the worst disappointment is in the form of Terry O'Quinn, who sleepwalks through the role very similar to the one he had brilliantly played in The Stepfather. This film is interesting only as an example how bad movies could be sold to unsuspecting audience.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/266975-visions-of-murder
Critic: 2/10