Starring Orson Welles, Pamela Franklin, Lee Purcell, Michael Ontkean, Harvey Jason
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A young wife moves with her husband to the community of Lillith, but finds much to question about his new boss, who favors the occult and owns the town and controls the people's lives.
This is another movie that sounds better than it is, with the thought of Welles playing a satanic cult leader a strong draw, but the famed auteur plays an almost emotionless role with no memorable scenes and the filmmakers do little to punch up his menace. Some of his dialogue is even drowned out by an overpowering organ in the musical accompaniment. The story does offer a good showcase for Franklin, whose beauty and large expressive eyes definitely make an impact, although there's only so much she can do to carry the film. I found the movie to be very much in the same vein of other 1970s films focusing on the occult, with an overemphasis on the cult's rituals and exposing female flesh, and not enough placed on depicting the actual supernatural forces called by Welles and his followers. Although known for creating his own special effects, director Gordon isn't credited with them here, and while a late scene of a boy being resurrected by the cult is well done, you wish they had had come up with something more to better distinguish the film.
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