Trailer—The Haunting of Morella

The Haunting of Morella_720p(480P)

source: The Haunting of Morella

source: The Haunting of Morella

Edgar Allan Poe is known for his horror novels. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is well put in many ways. But in "The Haunting of Morella", it's raw in every way. Nicole Eggert way before "Baywatch" play dual roles as Morella and her daughter 17 years later. This movie has plenty of sex appeal in it. I wondered Poe thought of it up. My only problem with the movie is that it needed more to the story. It's was just too short for me to understand. It just needed more. I'm disappointed. 1 star!

The Haunting of Morella (1990) ** (out of 4) Based on the Poe story, Morella (Nicole Eggert) is put to death for being a witch but before dying she passes off a curse in front of her husband and baby daughter. Seventeen years pass and the daughter (also played by Eggert) begins to have strange visions and soon a possession begins. Jim Wynorski's THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA deserves a lot of credit. It was a Roger Corman produced cheapie but you have to give it credit for at least looking like an authentic period piece. I must admit that I was really shocked to see how good the film looked. More times than not these low-budget movies update the setting to where they don't have to worry about costumes and other things like that but that's not the case here. I thought the director did a very good job at delivering a nice atmosphere and the setting was perfect. As far as the film goes, I wouldn't call it a complete success but there are enough interesting moments to make it worth sitting through. As you should expect from the director, the horror elements often take a back seat to the nudity and sexuality. There's plenty of both here but the horror elements aren't too bad for what they are. There are a couple bloody moments that will have fans of the genre happy. David McCallum offers up a good performance in his role. Eggert is simply okay in her part. Lana Clarkson stands out in the role of the friend and you've also got Gail Thackray in a small part. THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA isn't a complete success but it's certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching.

Morella (Eggert) is found guilty of witchcraft and murder after she ritually kills her staff. The town people capture her and crucify her but not before she vows to return. 17 years later, her daughter Lenora (Eggert in a dual role) begins acting strange as the spirit of her mother invades her soul and takes over. This period piece boasts some impressive sets and design as Roger Corman's company makes the movie look good. The slow moving tale doesn't do anything with the slick look of the film and not much action or terror is achieved. Characters are introduced simply to be slaughtered. Over flowing with tons of nudity from great looking women, this movie is easy to watch but unsatisfying as a horror film. Nicole Eggert handles her dual role well, but when the film has to rely on a cat jumping in the window for a jump scare, you know you're in trouble.

Stupid childish garbage... Worst predictable story.. . Worst background music

The Haunting of Morella starts 100's of years ago as Morella (Nicole Eggert) is crucified to a wooden cross, denounced as a witch guilty of witchcraft, blasphemy & murder. Morella's husband Gideon (David McCallum) pleads for mercy but it falls on deaf ears, he holds his & Morella's young daughter Lenora as Morella then has her eyes burnt out & is then left there for a week as she presumably dies. Jump 'Seventeen Years Later' & it's coming up to Lenora's (Nicole Eggert) 18th birthday & a lawyer from a nearby village named Guy Chapman (Christopher Halsted) delivers the news that Lenora will inherit Morella's fortune on her 18th. However being a witch & all that Morella had planned for such small inconveniences as being murdered, Lenora's governess Miss Deveraux (Maria Ford) is in fact a servant of Morella who sacrifices the female servant Ilsa (Gail Harris) & her boyfriend Miles (Brewster Gould) in a blood draining ritual to reincarnate Morella so they can have lesbian sex together & do lots of evil things that witches do I suppose. However, Gideon isn't having any of it & sets out to send his ex-missus to the grave for good... Directed by Jim Wynorski The Haunting of Morella didn't do much for me, I thought it was the below average low budget straight to video Roger Corman produced cheapie that it so obviously is. The script by R.J. Robertson is supposedly based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe which might be true but if it is I doubt if much of Poe's literary work is prevalent here. To it's credit The Haunting of Morella at least isn't boring, it moves along at a fair pace & has the requisite amount of babes, blood & breasts to stop most genre fans going into comatose state like a lot of low budget crap can seem to do. The character's are basic, the plot & narrative is simplistic & caters for the lowest common denominator, the exploitation elements are average & as a whole the film isn't particularly satisfying although I thought it was an OK watch if your not too demanding (& to be honest you'd better not be!). There really isn't much else I can say about The Haunting of Morella except if you like these cheap blood 'n' breast horror films then you may like this one otherwise there's very little here to recommend. Director Wynorski doesn't give the film any sort of distinctiveness or style, he's a point & shoot sort of guy isn't he? There is a fair amount of nudity but I was disappointed with the gore content, but then if you think about it it's cheaper & easier to film a naked woman than set up a complex special effect isn't it? A fact that I'm sure the economy conscious Wynorski never overlooks... Technically the film is average, I must give the filmmakers some credit for trying to make a period piece although at times it looks like a school play with limited sets, bad lighting & cheap costumes. The Haunting of Morella contains one of the cheapest & fake looking slit throats I've seen in a long time & the rest of the so-called special effects aren't much better. The acting is of, shall we say a low standard. The Haunting of Morella is average at best & low budget rubbish at worst. A must for Wynorski fans, if such an animal exists but for everyone else there are much better horror films out there.

Hokum involving a deceased witch's coven's attempts to raise her from the dead to inhabit her daughter's rather impressive body (17 years later). This is absolute rubbish, not even worthy of the great Corman's name. At one pivotal moment, two women disrobe under a waterfall ~ and the prettier one is wearing... string bikini panties! And those of you looking for the lovely Nicole Eggert's ummm... assets... can rent "Blown Away" (because this one's an obvious body double). Avoid.