Overall Rating Awesome: 45.95% Worth A Look: 24.32% Average: 5.41% Pretty Bad: 24.32% Total Crap: 0% 1 review, 31 user ratings

Latest Reviews Oversimplification of Her Beauty, An by Jay Seaver Shadow Dancer by Jay Seaver Man of Steel by Daniel Kelly Man of Steel by Rob Gonsalves Kill Bill: Vol. 1 by Jay Seaver Jackie Brown by Jay Seaver Foxy Brown by Jay Seaver More Than Honey by Jay Seaver Man of Steel by Brett Gallman Berberian Sound Studio by Peter Sobczynski subscribe to this feed

Latest Features DVD Reviews For 6/16: "Only A Ninja... Can Destroy A Ninja." Criticwatch - You Will Believe Warner Bros. Will Use Junket Whores Films I Neglected To Review: Summer Loathing DVD Reviews For 6/3: "You Learn To Love The Rope." Criticwatch - Now, Do You See? Criticwatch - Pete Hammond: Hello Kettle, You're Black DVD Reviews For 5/20: "A Minute Of Silence Can Last A Long Time... A Whole Eternity." Films I Neglected To Review: Bad Night At Black Rock or The Iceman Killeth. This Week in Capsule Reviews - 14/05/13 Criticwatch - The Not-So-Great Quote Whores of Warner Bros. subscribe to this feed

Reincarnation of Peter Proud, The

Buy posters from this movie

by Chris Parry

"Canadian horror... isn't that kind of like Polish science?"

A man (Michael Sarrazin) begins to experience disturbing dreams of a murder long past. The dreams are too vivid and numerous to be explained as mere brain-pukes, so the dude goes to a researcher (Paul Hecht) to get an explanation. They hook him up to an EKG and then wonder why his dreams aren’t registering on the machine… uh, I’m no doctor but I think I can figure that one out.

So dude gets his Playboy-standard girlfriend (Cornelia Sharpe) in the car and decides to go look for the mystery town he sees in his dreams. Eventually she loses patience and bails on him mid-search but not before she lets us see her deliciously tan-lined cans, her scrumptiously peachy butt and then dishes out a few ridiculously corny lines of dialogue. And then she’s gone, never to be heard from again, which is good since as soon as Sarrazin finds the family involved in he murder, he starts screwing the daughter (Jennifer O’Neill).

Which is where this film gets ridiculous. Sarrazin is apparently channeling the spirit of the old dead guy, murdered by his wife (Margot Kidder) a few years before Sarrazin was born. Or maybe he’s the reincarnation of the guy but if that’s the case the title of the movie is completely incorrect since Sarrazin is playing Peter Proud, not the reincarnated guy.

This movie is a mess, even if you catch it without the horrific network TV cuts which delete all nudity and thus render the storyline virtually unintelligible. The writing is the worst kind of dime-store garbage, the acting sucks even by 1970’s made in Canada standards and the entire premise is fatally flawed. It’s supposed to be spooky but the only thing that scared me about this thing is that so many at the IMDB seem to have been genuinely scared out of their wits by it… when they were 9.

Margot Kidder provides the only truly compelling moment of the film when she kicks back in the bathtub, fantasizes about being raped by her now-murdered husband and pleasures herself. It makes no sense, it serves no purpose but it does get your mind off the terrible aging make-up used to attempt to make Kidder look like O’Neill’s mom. I could have done better with a trowel, a pound of putty and a yellow highlighter pen.

Monotonously slow, interminably hokey and totally predictable, this is the sort of movie that makes you happy we moved on from the 70’s.

link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=6615&reviewer=1
originally posted: 01/03/03 07:15:37

printer-friendly format

User Comments

3/03/10 engelheart this is easy..watch the uncut version and it is a classic horror flick 5 stars

1/08/10 Jeff Incredibly creepy---exactly what you want in this type of film!!! SEE IT! 4 stars

6/30/09 Bruce miller A movie you'll remember many years later. 4 stars

5/30/09 marc russo hauntingly erotic 5 stars

5/18/09 art AN EFFECTIVE THRILLER! 3 stars

5/28/07 L.Pruitt Great premise. Thought-provoking. Well executed. Loved it!! Plan to purchase/ 5 stars

11/11/05 zeitgeist Could do without Margot Kidder's beaver shot,but it was good in a "Logan's Run" kind of way 4 stars

10/30/05 Oubiedoobie So hotl, it gave me a rod. So real, it scared the crap out of me 30 years ago. 5 stars

3/31/05 Jorge L Rodriguez This film is a classic;it deals with the possibility of reincarnation 4 stars

6/03/04 Harry Kunt Strange movie...kinda like my name 2 stars

5/18/04 Steve Read the book and seen the film twice-excellant! Now looking to purchase and see the remake 5 stars

2/17/04 Jaime I saw this film in the 70's and its has stuck in my mind for almost 35 years, looking buy 5 stars

1/26/04 T^im Sweet 70's silly sex... gimme! 5 stars

1/24/04 robert crosby i thought it was a great movie and am looking to purchase it 5 stars

1/13/04 shalini saw it as a young adult.....somehow it stuck in my memory 3 stars

1/13/04 Robin Beatty Great film that has lived on in viewer's minds for almost 30 years now! Awesome. 5 stars

1/07/04 Jeff Green I Remember it well... 5 stars

1/04/04 ocnmist54 I remember yjr movie way back when, I liked it, and I read the book too. 4 stars

10/13/03 graeme noel not scary, but atmospheric 4 stars

10/12/03 T. Donald Great Movie, remake in 2003 5 stars

9/22/03 Tony Blass I loved this film. Delirously sensual, absoringly romantic and mystically spooky 5 stars

9/22/03 Richard This film is superb. It's creepy, absorbing and tremendously atmospheric. 5 stars

9/05/03 kyosti mannelin rarely very good, exiting, looked twice 1975, still remember..and read the book. 5 stars

8/20/03 JD totally watchable--the third time around even 4 stars

8/02/03 Randy Noland It was great 5 stars

7/25/03 cr I haven't seen it in YEARS, but liked it "back when". 4 stars

3/06/03 R.W. Welch Slack pacing and uninspired script undermine potentially interesting premise. 2 stars

2/03/03 R Vyas Very very good 5 stars

2/03/03 martín la ví en mi juventud solo una vez y la tenia idealizada me gustaria verla despues de 20 año 4 stars

1/18/03 DAVID BOCK EXCELLENT 5 stars

1/03/03 Charles Tatum I remember the idea being more interesting than the film 2 stars

IF YOU'VE SEEN THIS FILM, RATE IT!
Note: Duplicate, 'planted,' or other obviously improper comments
will be deleted at our discretion. So don't bother posting 'em. Thanks!

Your Name:

Your Comments:

Your Location: (state/province/country)

Your Rating:

USA 02-Feb-1975 (R) UK N/A Australia 02-Feb-1975 (MA)

Directed by J. Lee Thompson Written by Max Ehrlich Cast Michael Sarrazin Jennifer O'Neill Margot Kidder Cornelia Sharpe Paul Hecht Tony Stephano

Advertisement

Overall Rating

Latest Reviews

Latest Features

User Comments