Like Jamie Lee
Curtis, Linda is another actress
with great talent. Lots slam her
but she never really had a chance
to show herself as a worthy
actress. The first film I spotted
her in was Zapped Again
but don't remember her part.
However, someone told me how
scary a movie titled the Exorcist
was. I wasn't scared by it but it
was sure disturbing watching
Linda Blair's character Regan
slowly being posessed. At first I
didn't like it. I then rented the
video Savage Streets
as I was checking out Linnea
Quigley's films. Linda blew me
away playing a tough girl next
door Brenda who played
Linnea's older sister. Linda in
reality was a year younger than
Linnea but Linda was convincing
in her role. I hit the roof when
critics said it was her worst
performance as usually she plays
innocent type roles. At the time
I didn't know this was the same
actress from the Exorcist as she
seemed very different. I rented
her other movies as I was a fan
of her acting like in Nightforce,
Savage Island
(Two awful films), Chained
Heat and Hell
Night. Hell
Night became my
favourite horror film of Linda's.
Then the special edition of the Exorcist
was playing in theatre's
so my Mom and I watched it as I
wanted to give it another chance.
I loved it and it was better than
the original and scarier too.
Linda Blair became my second
favourite scream queen as Jamie
Lee Curtis ranks my first! Long
live Linda Blair!!!!
Linda Blair was
born on January 22, 1959 in St.
Louis, Missouri started out in
the business since she was 5
years old by modelling for such
well known stores as Sears,
J.C. Penny's &
Macy's etc. She
then appeared in over 75 TV
commercials first appearing in a Downey
Fabric Softener and then
appeared in Welch's Grape
Jelly, Guldens
Mustard, several Ivory
Soap commercials,
cereals, toys & she became
noted for the "HEIDI"
girl for a young girl's doll all
in New York City.
She had many dreams
of becoming a veterinarian and
has a huge interest in
gymnastics, modern dance, tap
dance, piano lessons, sailing,
sewing, and artwork and even
winning the Presidential Physical
Fitness Award in school.
She always loved
horses which was a huge passion
for her and started riding them
at the age of 6 and was in the
larger horse shows by the age of
10. When she was older she began
became a successful Jr. Rider,
qualifying for the year end
indoor horse shows with a variety
of her horses. She carried on
with that through her whole life
apart from acting and hopes one
day has hopes of putting together
a motion picture that portrays
the sport of Grand Prix show
jumping with her company Falcon-Wolf
Productions.
She got her first
taste of regular acting in 1968
by appearing as a regular in the
short-lived crime-drama mystery
TV series Hidden Faces playing
the role of Allyn Jaffe on CBS.
She then got the
feel of being in film's by having
minor roles in The Way We
Live Now and The
Sporting Club. But then
she landed a good supporting role
by playing the 12-year old
Regan-the possessed child in the
shocking box-office horror smash The
Exorcist when it went to
theatre's by the fall of 1973.
Apparently she got was about set
to take the Academy Award for
that role, but when it leaked how
little of the possessed child she
actually had been (dubbed voice
by Mercedes McCambridge, and
substantial use of a dummy) that
dream broke, and with that
disappointment probably came the
first blow to what should have
been a sure road to stardom. She
also received death threats after
the release of the film but the
person doing so was never caught
and apparently Linda has never
seen the film before in her life
after she finished acting in it.
Linda went to therapy after doing
the film as it affected her and
was worried that the film would
scar her.
After the success
of the film Linda landed leading
roles in many movies of the week
and was remembered for her
challanging role as Sarah in Sarah
T-Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic
which went overly well on ABC-TV
and won an AA Academy
Award for special contribution to
this tragic problem that focused
on teenage alcoholics. She also
starred in Born Innocent
and a favourite for Blair fans Sweet
Hostage with Martin
Sheen. She also starred in a Wes
Craven TV-movie to her credit
titled Summer of Fear
as a country girl named Rachel
Bryant who is also a horseback
rider. She encounters someone who
claims to be her cousin who will
be staying at her ranch after her
cousin's parents died but finds
out that her cousin isn't who she
think she is and is a witch.
During her movies
of the week she also had a
supporting role as Janice Abbott
in the critically acclaimed
motion picture Airport
1975 starring Charlton
Heston, Karen Black and George
Kennedy.
She then reprised
her role Regan in Exorcist
2: The Heretic which
then she was blossoming into a
scream queen along with Jamie Lee
Curtis, but however the film was
nowhere near as successful but
however afterwards she then
landed leading roles in cult
film's such as Roller
Boogie and Wild
Horse Hank.
Her next cult
horror film was titled
Hell Night as a sorority pledge named Marti who has
to stay in this creepy mansion
with three other people in order
to join the sorority house but
however two living members in the
mansion are still alive and are
hungry for blood. This was a
favourite to many b-horror fans
and was made by some of the same
people who worked on Halloween
II.
She continued
acting in non b-horror films like
in Ruckus, Chained
Heat, Savage
Streets, Night
Patrol and Red
Heat and guesting in TV
shows throughout the 80's and
90's like in The Love
Boat, Fantasy
Island, Murder
She Wrote,
Monsters, MacGyver, Married...
with Children,
PSI Factor: Chronicles of the
Paranormal and Renegade.
She also used to
date former rock idol Rick
Springfield during this time but
separated because of bad rumours
in their business.
During the late
80's her movie career wasn't
doing as well. Most of her motion
pictures weren't making it to
theatre's at all and weren't very
well done and went
direct-to-video instead like Nightforce,
Witchery, Zapped
Again! and Sorceress.
However she did star in an Exorcist
spoof in 1990 that received a
quick theatrical release called Repossessed
(With Leslie Nielsen and Ned
Beatty) by playing the Nancy
Aglet to overcome her feelings
acting in the Exorcist.
In 1993 she went to
the Philippines and filmed Double
Blast, a kid's martial arts
movie, which ran on cable in
April of 1995.
She also wanted to
experience the true craft of
acting and pursued theatre for a
while bny starring in stage
productions like It Had
to Be You (Starring Laverne
& Shirley's Eddie
Mekka) in Canada for two months, Women
Behind Bars with Sally
Kellerman both in L.A. and
SanFrancisco, Run For Your
Wife (Starring Murray
Langston and Pat Paulson) and was
remembered for her role as Rizzo
in the musical Broadway
production of Grease.
Linda has done many
animal and other sorts of
campaigns such as being a regular
in the TV series GENESIS
AWARDS, which aired on
the Animal Planet on
the Discovery Channel.
She also did fundraising for
campaigns like Dolphin
Research Center (Flipper's
original home in Florida), Linda
Blair's Mid West Flood Relief
Fund, Last
Chance for Animals and ECHO
(the Earth Communications
Office). Linda also hosted an
awards show Metro Teen
Aids in our Nation's
capital for teen AIDS
awareness.
She hasn't been as
active as an actress lately but
still does the odd gig as during
the new millenium she was a
semi-regular in the MTV
show S Club 7 of L.A.
and hosted many TV shows
including the Fox Family
Channel's series The
Scariest Places on Earth which
is a documentary and goes world
wide to interview several people
who they claim have been in
haunted houses, haunted castles
and ritual grounds and
graveyards.
She recently
starred in a family film with
Adam Baldwin called Monster
Makers and a handful of
others to come. Apparently she
announced that she will no longer
act in horror films.
I eventually got to meet her at Monsterpalooza as she is a very nice person to meet and seems to really care for her fans and thanks to her agent for letting me take a pic of us together.
The
Exorcist 1973 Ah yes.
Who wouldn't remember this film?
The film that made Linda Blair a
household name although she
started her acting career before
this came out and was up for an
Oscar nomination but that was
dropped when they found out her
voice was overdubbed during the
scenes when she was possessed as well as a body double for most if it too performed by an uncredited Eileen Dietz.
Of
course the story sets out in
Georgetown as a young 12 year old
girl named Regan MacNeil (Blair)
is often lonely since her parents
spilt up and her mother Chris
MacNeil was busy with her acting
career and Regan spends time with
a Ouija Board and talks to
someone named Captain Howdy and
slowly gets possessed by him and
ends up getting extremely vulgar.
Her bed starts to shake, she
mastubates with a crucifix and
she throws someone out the window
and kills the person and then the
demon takes over her mind
entirely.
Linda Blair does very well as an innocent pre-teen having a nice charming type of behavior to her role along with her innocence too.
It's very disturbing to watch her slowly change and get vulgar as well as getting scared too.
My Mom and I saw the
special edition on October 2000
at a theatre which had more
scenes that were too intense for
it's 1973 theatrical release such
as young Regan (Blair) running
down the stairs upside down like
a deformed spider which was quite
creepy.
A very disturbing film
that was made based on real life
events and a definite classic
which was based on the best
selling novel by William Peter
Blatty.
Check it out if you
haven't seen it before which I'm
sure most of you already have. I
mean what Linda Blair fan hasn't
seen this film already? It was
based on real life events too.
Born Innocent 1974 Her follow up after her fame in 'The Exorcist' in this Made-TV-Movie in which she played the title role in this drama about her as a runaway named Chris Parker who's sent to a reform school in which she does well acting uncomfortable getting checked out and needing to take a shower before entering the country club for juvenile delinquents in which she does well sobbing while taking a shower and getting into this.
The scene's really get suspenseful especially when we spot a tough teenage lesbian
trying to come on strong towards her as well as her mates telling Chris to hit her as there's good peer pressure used in the story as well as the going on's in a place like that as it keeps you watching as to what will happen later on.
There's also more good peer pressuring moments with the kids acting dumb on knowing about their geometry and Chris knowing the answers making out she's the brainy girl they don't want as it was nicely put in and offers a nice innocence when she answers the teachers questions.
Then things look painfully disturbing when Chris takes a shower as we know what's going to happen next offering perfect intensity as to what the girls do to this poor kid as Bliar really does a nice job freaking out and getting emotionally upset.
Offers perfect reactions to what she thought was worst by being int there and trying to improve on her home life as she draws this in terrifically. The story adds a great psychological feel to everything when she comes home to visit and having to deal with her abusive father and her getting upset. Makes you think that this kid is struck between a rock and a hard place.
Blair brought on her versatality pretty good acting deceivingly innocent while back at the reform school but acting menacing as well as aggressive starting fights especially while attacking one of the caretakers there in the rec hall by first asking for something politely and then getting into a rage. Showed perfect vengeful behavior too as well as terrific crying out emotions when she's devastated during a scene on a miscarriage with one of the girls there just letting it out.
She also brought it to life when she acts deceivingly innocent near the end of the movie when she is scolded on the riot in the rec hall since she was like that in the beginning and using that to not get in trouble which she shines off well by acting like this in order to survive being in there. Yes she was marvellous with all of this and full of energy too.
Her work in this makes me wonder if it helped her success by being in other prison films as an innocent one like in 'Chained Heat' as well as 'Red Heat'. For anyone who likes girls in prison or detention center's then this one's for you.
Sarah
T.-Portrait of a Teenage
Alcoholic 1975 This show
was and ABC-TV movie of the week
and went overly well and it put
Linda to the test of how she can
portrait such a character as she
did.
It was showing a real look
at a teenage alcoholic and
battling the demons of her
addiction. A very strong teenage
drama and Linda won an AA Academy
Award for her portrayal as Sarah
and this was a couple years after
her fame in the Exorcist and
became a successful actress in
movies of the week.
Sweet Hostage 1975 Another TV movie as she was in high demand for these types in which she has the lead role once again playing a tomboy farm girl named Doris Mae Withers and is kidnapped by someone crazy after escaping an asylum named Leonard Hatch (Played by a younger looking Martin Sheen) after giving her a ride when her truck breaks down as this seemed mildly suspenseful when she realises that he's kidnapped her but the story is very slow but yet draws you in later on when she learns to warm up to him by his charming attitude and then eventually falls in love with him as this seems to lisghten things up that she was kidnapped by the right guy.
She seems to do a fairly good job with her outgoing personality and showing a good innocence as she often portrays these types of roles as the good girl. We also see the background family of this kid which looked a little dysfunctional which also draws you in thinking that maybe she was better off with this guy kidnapping her.
It's very sad later on to what happens to this poor crazy fellow which is supposed to make you cry but the flick is very average and not drawing you in enough to be that way. It's a romantic drama as often these types aren't overly exciting regardless.
Blair I believe was playing a 17 year old and she was like nearing 16 as it makes you wonder if she got her license or not since it shows her driving a pick up truck during the first part of the story.
Exorcist
II: The Heretic 1977
Linda reprises her role as Regan
as she is now at a center helping
children with mental disabilities
and she is getting tested by
psychiatrists as they think the
old demon is back possessing her
as she is predicting harmful
events before they happen.
Father
Lamont (Played by Richard Burton) is sent
by his Cardinal (Played by Paul Henreid) to
discover the death of Father
Merrin (Played by Max von Sydow).
Lamont
travels to Africa in search of
another possessed by the same
demon named Kokumo (Played by James Earl
Jones) which Father Merrin had
performed an exorcism several
years in the past. He has
constant nightmares of swarming
moths and other insects there
assuming it is controlled by the
demon.
He returns to New York to
see Regan and to go back to her
old home in Georgetown to defeat
the demon.
Not as good as the
first one but not a bad film like
movie critics say. Some good
effects.
Summer of
Fear 1978 Another movie
of the week Linda starred in and
apart from her role in
Sarah T. Portrait of a Teenage
Alcoholic she was also
noted for this film too as it was
after her reprising role as Regan
in Exorcist II: The
Heretic.
Then she was
gaining a reputation acting in
horror flicks and blossoming into
a scream queen like Jamie Lee
Curtis was at the time.
The story
starts off with someone driving
and the car gets out of control
on a highway cliff and the car
falls off the cliff and explodes
and then an image of an evil
woman appears. Next thing Linda
Blair's character Rachel Bryant
wakes up from her sleep and her
mother Leslie (Carol Lawrence) is
in tears as she tells her the
devastating story that her aunt
and uncle died in a car crash and
her cousin Julia (Lee Purcell)
will be staying with them in
their ranch.
She meets her cousin
Julia who seems a little unusual
and disturbed about something and
Rachel's horse Sundance goes
ballistic when he sees Julia as
the family is shocked at
Sundance's behaviour.
Julia joins
Rachel and her friend Carolyn
(Played by Fran "The
Nanny" Drescher in
one of her first supporting
roles) as they go out and Julia
styles her hair to attract
Rachel's boyfriend Mike Gallagher
(Jeff McCracken) who is also
Rachel's horse trainer.
When
Rachel, her cousin Julia and her
friend Carolyn return from their
outing and Sundance manages to
escape the ranch and attacks
Julia and Julia tires to hide in
one of the Bryant's vehicle's to
keep herself safe as Sundance
tries to trample on it.
Then
Rachel's father Peter (Played by Jeff East)
puts his foot down and tells
Rachel he is staying in a stable
but Rachel tries to convince her
father that Sundance has never
behaved like that and only around
Julia and Rachel gets suspicious
but her father doesn't care.
The next day Rachel wakes up with
terrible rashes on her face
during her prom night and has to
back out so Julia asks if she can
go and puts on Rachel's dress
that Rachel made as it fits her
better than it did with Rachel
and what Rachel has noticed is
there was not a reflection in a
mirror where Julia was standing
and Rachel feels dizzy and nearly
passes out. Julia goes to
the prom with Rachel's boyfriend
Mike as well Julia tries to
seduce him and the same with her
uncle Peter by massaging Peter
and he is close to falling into
her spell.
Another time when
Julia is sleeping she notices her
picture with her and Mike is gone
and the frame is broken that held
the picture as well she sees some
burnt out matches and some paper
burnt with melted wax. She opens
a drawer and sees a wax figure
with Sundance's hair on it and
goes to the barn where Sundance
is staying to see if he's alright
and is shows Sundance lying down
but then wakes up and Rachel is
relieved.
The nexy day Mike
breaks off his relationship with
Rachel because of Julia and then
she does a horse tournament with
Sundance. Suddenly Sundance goes
beserk and falls and breaks his
leg and is put down. Rachel is
convinced that the wax figure she
found in Julia's drawer is a
voodoo doll that Julia used on
Sundance and goes to her neighbor
Professor Jarvis (Played by MacDonald Carey) to ask him about witches
and asks him of borrowing some
witchcraft books as she believes
her cousin is a witch because she
found a picture of her with
cursed images on it and wants to
show him proof. Later on she
can't find the picture and
suddenly later Jarvis nearly dies
of a stroke and is sent to the
hospital.
Suddenly Rachel clashes
with Julia and then tries to
poison Rachel's mind that her
parents will love her more and
then Rachel is asked to leave by
her father.
But suddenly Julia is
showing her evil side by her
actions.
Rachel goes to the
hospital to ask Jarvis about what
other side effects are there on
witches and he tells her that a
witch cannot be exposed on a
picture taken from a camera so
Rachel asks her mother to take a
picture of Julia and her brother
Tom (Played by Jeremy Slate) and Julia gets
nervous when her picture is taken
of her. Then Rachel asks her Mom
when she'll develop the pictures
and tells her she'll do so the
next day but Rachel knows Julia
will try to destroy the evidence
by then so she demands her mother
to develop them now and tries to
convince her mother that Julia is
a witch but her mother doesn't
want to believe it although she
is starting to believe it herself
as well.
Rachel sneakily takes
the polaroid film and develops it
herself in a studio they own and
after the picture is developed
she doesn't see anyone but Tom in
the pics. Julia suddely catches
Rachel and takes the pics away
from her and then burns them.
Then they get into a cat fight
and Julia tells Rachel who she
really is as her name is really
Sarah and her cousin Julia died
in the same car her parents did
as she controlled it to go off
the cliff and will happen the
same to them.
Rachel's father is
also under Sarah's spell
and nearly tries to hurt Rachel
after she locks Sarah in a
room but defends herself by
knocking him unconcious with a
chair.
She takes off with her
brother Tom as their mother is
out and needs to warn her as well
as trying to get away from
Sarah. The vehicle suddenly
is being controlled as
Sarah manages to escape
from the room with her powerful
strength and turn into the evil
woman that was shown in the
beginning of the film after
Rachel's relatives car exploded.
Sarah is on their tail
driving another car and then
controls Rachel's mothers car to
try and go off the cliff too but
suddenly Sarah's car goes
off the cliff and explodes and
everything is back to normal with
the family.
Then at the end it
shows another family and
Sarah joins them convincing
she is a relative like she did
with Rachel's family as you can't
kill a witch.
This is very much
like one of those young adult
novels known as Fear Street by
R.L. Stine as his stories are
very similar to this one.
The flick was one of the highest budgets
for a TV movie and could've
easily been a motion picture that
was directed by Wes Craven before
he did 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' or 'Scream' (A film Blair had a
very small role in as an
obnoxious news reporter but was
uncredited) and was basically
famous for his first film at the
time 'Last House on the Left'.
The
TV-movie was based on a popular
novel by Lois Duncan as well as
music by Michael Lloyd & John
D'Andrea who gained a reputation
by working with 70's recording
artists such as Shaun Cassidy and
Leif Garrett.
Roller
Boogie 1979 A cheesy
but fun teen disco film like a
cross between 'Xanadu'
and 'Saturday Night Fever'.
Linda Blair plays a poor little rich
girl type by the name of Terry
Barkley wholives in a mansion
with her family and grows tired
of living the rich lifestyle and
wants to enter the roller derby
contest with a popular skater
named Bobby James (Played by professional dancer Jim Bray)
while her parents are on her case
telling them that place is a bad
influence on her life.
Some
criminals try to force other
people to shut down their local
roller derby and Terry and Bobby
try to find out about the
criminals and put a stop to them.
There's a neat chase scene with
Blair and Bray's characters rolling away on a
hill road from the criminals
while they try to chase after
them with guns. Although the
story is not believeable it still
is fun to watch especially if you
love disco.
Directed by Mark L.
Lester (Class of 1984).
Ruckus 1981 A nicely done above average film set in a small county which we spot a strange man named Kyle Hansen (Played by 70's and 80's icon Dirk Benedict whom was famous for his work in the TV shows 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'The A Team') entering the place in which he looks at burned up as we all wonder where he is coming from along with acting very strange when he goes to a hamburger stand. Linda Blair appears in this scene watching this fellow in which she portrays a healthy country girl named Jenny Bellows who is a single mother whose husband was declared missing in action in Vietnam. She seemed to take on a different role here instead of portraying a kid in her previous films which was a nice change here. She still looks quite young.
Nice comedic moments with the hillbilly's bullying Hansen showing fighting or gunshooting sequences offering alot of slapstick especially with the one liners.
There's many nice scenario's involving Hansen and Bellows when she tries to give him a chance and helps him out to fit in which makes the story come across nicely as well as a good old romantic country song while they are dirtbike riding together which is a memorable part in the film as well as her tidying him up so we see what he looks like underneath that soot from the Vietnam war. The romance between the two of them looked pretty convincing.
Neat effects on vehicles exploding when Hansen sets traps on the hillbilly's that are trying to come after him.
Blair was fairly good in her role with a nice southern speaking accent as well as showing a good emotional situation in the story too.
This film is for anyone who enjoyed the TV show 'The Dukes of Hazzard' or the 'Walking Tall' trilogies as it offers comedy, drama, romance and action mixed together.
Hell
Night 1981 A great
film to watch on Halloween night
and this time Linda Blair plays a
sorority pledge named Marti with
three others by the names of Seth
(Played by Vincent Van Patten the son of
legendary actor Dick), Jeff Reed
(Played by Donny Osmond look-a-like Peter
Barton) and May (Played by Jenny Neuman)
that have to wear costumes and
spend a night at the Garth Manor,
twelve years to the day after the
previous resident murdered his
entire family before being able
to join Alpha Sigma Rho
fraternity and its sister
sorority.
Some people claimed
that one family member of the
Garth's still is alive and
resides at the manor. The
fraternity leader Peter Bennett
(Played by cult actor Kevin Brophy) and his fraternity
friends decide to pull scary
tricks on them while spending the
night there but however they
realise that a hulking survivor
is at the Garth manor and is
slaughtering them then making on
the move with the sorority
pledges as well by going through
trap doors etc.
What the pledges
realise that there is two hulking
Garth killers at the manor and
the only survivor is Marti as she
tries to kill them both before
they kill her.
Chained
Heat 1983 Another
film Linda was remembered by. A
cheesy expolited but enjoyable
film as she plays an inncoent
victim named Carol Henderson who
she accidentally kills a man in
her car and gets hauled to prison
18 months for it.
When she
arrives prison she encounters
corruption and sleaze, where the
other female inmates are sadistic
crack-selling lesbian rapists and
the guards and warden are no
better as well as blacks being
separated from the whites as
there's racsim there.
She also
meets the head warden named
Warden Bacman (Played by the late legendary John Vernon) who
has his own jacuzzi in his office
and invites the prisoners to join
him there and video tapes them.
After Carol witnesses a murder
she runs to Bacman and then
Bacman beats her and rapes her as
well.
Then the female wardens
drown Bacman while he tries to
seduce Carol's prisonmate friend
and they're caught on tape. Carol
takes the tape and tries to
report it to the head of the
prison so they can make their
prison a better place with
wardens by even teaming up with
the head bully Ericka (Played by cult icon Sybil Danning).
Savage
Streets 1984 Linda
Blair takes on a different role.
This time she is a tough girl
next door named Brenda and is a
leader of a fun loving group
called the Satins.
Well while her
friends the Satins and her deaf
mute sister Heather (Played by
B-film cult actress Linnea
Quigley whom is also a scream queen) cruise through the town
they notice that a vicious gang
called the Scars are selling
drugs to people so Brenda decides
to teach them a lesson by driving
off with their car and then put
trash in it.
That steams up their
Scar leader Jake (Played by cult actor Robert Dryer)
and so the next day they pay a
visit to their school and seek
revenge as well as it's their
wimpy Scar follower Vince's
(Played by Johnny Venocur) Birthday so
while Heather waits for Brenda in
a gymnasium to walk her home the
Scar's drage Heather into a
washroom and brutally rape her
one by one and then throws Vince
on her for a Birthday surprise to
lose his virginity and when
Brenda and her friends return to
the gym the Scars split and Jake
kicks Heather in the head that is
is in a coma and sent to the
hospital.
Brenda obsesses in
finding out who did this to her
sister and then finds out from
Vince that it was the Scars after
they also killed her pregnant
best friend Francine (Played by Lisa
Freeman) by Jake throwing her off
a bridge.
Brenda goes in for the
kill and dresses up in a leather
suit along with some arrows,
ropes and a bear trap to kill two
of Jake's gang members Fargo (Played by cult actor Sal
Landi) and Red (Played by Scott Mayer)
while Jake finds them dead after
returning from running over Vince
with his car.
Brenda shoots him
with two arrows in both knee caps
but Jake is close to killing her
but Brenda splashes paint on him
in a paint store and burns him to
death with her cigarette lighter.
A cheesy exploited but great action revenge
story and I find this to be one of
Blair's best film. It's certainly disturbing to watch an innocent deaf mute girl get raped in which viewer discretion was strongly advised for this one with all the moments that happen here like you's almost see in a film like 'Deliverance' or even 'I Spit On Your Grave'
However, alot
of critics put her acting talent
down on this one so much she won
a Golden Raspberry Award for
'Worst Actress' in this film but
I never liked critics in the
first place.
But she was cast as
a tough girl in a couple of other
film's after this one was released so at least that's
something good.
There are other
film's similar to this one like "Class
of 1984", "3:15-The
Moment of Truth"
and "Young
Warriors" (A film
that Linnea Quigley had a small
supporting role in).
Directed by
Danny Steinmann as well as
co-writing the film which he did
the same for that god awful
slasher flick "Friday
the 13th Part V-A New
Beginning" as well
as music by Michael Lloyd &
John D'Andrea who did the same for 'Summer of Fear'.
Plus an excellent music scores by such
artists as John Farnham, Real
Life, 3 Speed and Michael Bradley
which at the time a soundtrack
was released although it was only for promotional purposes as you can find it on ebay like I did which is a shame that it wasn't officially released in stores.
Night
Patrol 1984 One of
those 'Police Academy' ripoff's but
not extremely terrible but not
that good either.
Linda Blair
plays an officer named Officer
Sue Perlman who's madly in love
with a motorcyle cop named
Officer Kent Lane (Played by Pat Paulsen a
regular performer of the 60's TV
comedy "The Smothers
Brothers Comedy Hour")
who he also calls himself Melvin
who's noted to be a pathetic
loser as well and gets demoted to
working the night shift as a
punishment for his constant
screw-ups. His main love is stand
up comedy but doesn't want to
tell anyone about it so instead
he puts a paper bag over his head
to disguise himself while doing
stand up comedy at gigs as he is
billed "The Unknown
Comic".
Of course the
streets are crawling with
weirdos, hookers and perverts.
And this time they're wearing
badges like what you see in a
Police Academy retread.
There's
alot of funny scenes and stupid
and gross scenes like one of the
gross scenes are 3' 9" late
comedy actor Billy Barty who
plays their boss Captain Lewis
who tends to fart and surprise,
surprise there's a special
appearance by the crude, controversial and foul mouth stand
up comedian Andrew Dice Clay whom
is apparently funny this time as
he plays a wannabe entertainer
named Tony Baroni and tries to
sell himself to an agent by
harrassing her with what he has
to offer which one scene he
dresses up as John Travolta from
'Saturday Night Fever'.
There's
also a cameo by Pat Morita as a
rape victim. Written and directed
by Jackie Hong who has a bad
reputation for bomb films like "The
Being" and "Blood
Diner."
Red Heat 1985 This is the film I'm convinced that director Robert collector saw Linda in 'Chained Heat' and immediately cast her in this one which was a far better story too. It was a foreign film made on a low budget as well as the production values looking like an independent type of flick but not made for video like at all.
The story seems to be a little bit boring at first looking like a typical drama with Linda Blair's character as Christine crossing the border to meet up with her fiancee' Michael (Played by William Ostrander whom I enjoyed in his supporting role as Buddy in the 1983 John Carpenter horror classic 'Christine' but he plays a clean cut dude with his hair short in this one) in which they have a sex scene after they meet up since he's doing business in West Germany.
Suddenly later on there's a heated argument by Christine in a restaurant in which there's a spy there named Hedda (Played by Sue Kiel) and later on Christine witnesses a group of thugs kidnapping Hedda and then take her too as they're gagged in a truck. This looked distrubing to watch as the two of them are sent to a women's prison and Blair let out alot of great screaming intensity. It boggles me as to why she's sent there since she's innocent. A scary thought.
There's even some lesbain lust scene's by two jail matron's who peek out of their window to see who is brought in leaving an impression that this jail is full of perverted types.
When she is pleaded guilty and sentenced for 3 years and then sent to her room with her cell mates there's a good approach by the head lesbian bully named Sofia (Played wonderfully by Sylvia Kristal) and coming on strong towards her which looked nicely paced and giving you a bad feeling about her too.
During the rest of the story there's alot of intense moments with some of the cellmates being raped by Hedda and her gang as well as the odd nude shower scene's in which we see a full breast shot by Blair. She is even nude in an intense rape scene with one of the warden's named Werner (Played by Herb Andress) along with Hedda joining the fun which looked distrurbing to watch.
But yet I loved Blair when she act vengeful and tough in which she whacks Hedda with a heavy type of big brush in which this gave me a moment of joy to watch seeking revenge against this mega nasty bitch.
Blair continues to act tough when her sentence is doubled yelling out a "Fuck you!" as well as acting rowdy in the prison cafeteria. (I found alot of this borrowed in the Tom DeSimone classic 'Reform School Girls' a year later. I always found Blair great when she got tough and aggressive since I saw her role in 'Savage Streets'.
The excitement keeps piling up as Michael and his men use guns to try and free Christine along with some of her cellmates. I found this to be quite heroic and in good taste. Showing a perfect revenge plot.
This film was a very dark psychological thriller and disturbing to watch but done in great taste making you fear on going to jail without a reason behind it.
It's a defininete for any Linda Blair in which she shows out a ton of great energy and one of her best performances too.
I'm not sure whether or not that this film was released theatrically or not but I think it did in the foreign areas. It's a hard one to come by on VHS or DVD but worth checking out if you come across it.
Savage
Island 1985 What an
awful film! Linda Blair playing Daly which she was
only in it for a short time as a
person trying to track a criminal
down in the first bit of this
film then it goes to an extremely
boring South African foreign film
called Escape from Hell which is
supposed to be linked to the
scene with Linda Blair and after
the film it shows Linda again for
a short bit and then the end!
This is a ripoff for Linda Blair
fans.
Nightforce
1987 Linda again
plays a sharp courageous person who wouldn't take crap from anyone named Carla
but this is no 'Savage Streets'.
You would expect this to be an
exciting film when you see the
video box cover of this one but
the plot is thin and lame as
Carla and her friends organising
a Commando mission to try to
rescue one a Captain's daughter
of a U.S. Senator in Central
America. We spot some scene's with her character along with her friend Christie Hansen (Played by Claudia Ugy) at a health spa which seemed typical for a cheesy low budget action flick like this one and more cheesy moments when spanish thugs run out of their car and grab this person and then drives off but at the same time looked like a fun situation as I was hoping for an enjoyable so bad it's good flick.
We do have moments with the gang of friends practising their gun shots and preparing for battle as well as Blair's character Carla coming in and showing a good seriousness of joining them which should please the fans big time.
Also we spot poor Christie in a cage made of bamboo and she is naked with hay on the ground as I had a feeling that this was gonna be an exploited T&A flick to keep viewers watching for more due to the cheesy plot. Well it draws in your attention but doesn't get overly carried away with all of this.
Also we get a moment with Carla and her friends going to a deserted area in Mexico with a bar full of thugs as well as them being cornered in the ghost town by these locals as this for sure gives you an intimidating feel on these goons being territorial with people outside of their country. Then there's the mysterious one Bishop (Played by Richard Lynch) who saves the day with his battling although alot of the moments here looked slightly off.
Alot of pointless situations later on in the story but things look interesting when the real battle begins as Blair certainly looked alright being in a cammando mood like the rest of them firing her weapon which is also another pleaser for her fans and then she disappears a little bit which makes you wonder if she was killed offscreen but then the picture takes you by surprise later on nearing the end when she runs to catch up with the other survivors that stows away in a helicopter.
The film was directed by Lawrence D. Foldes whom was also famous for his cheesy cult action 1983 film 'Young Warriors'
in which that one was done in better taste.
Apparently this one was given a limited theatrical release even some say it went direct-to-video.
Plus Blair surprisingly does a songtrack for the closing credits which was a cheesy 80's pop tune which was very catchy and enjoyable at the same time. Her singing isn't too badly performed either.
Grotesque
1988 Linda has the
main supporting role in this film
but she is really nothing special
in it as a frightened victim to a
vicous gang of murderous punks.
She first encounters them while
driving to her family's cabin
hoping to have a relaxing time
there with her friend Kathy
(Played by Donna Wilkes) while
driving along and being stopped
by them but eventually manages to
drive away. However they follow
them to their cabin and terrorise
her family but she manages to get
away only later on to get caught
and killed as well.
However, these punks don't
realise that she has a brother
with a grotesque looking face
that manages to seek revenge
against them by killing them.
The direction is incredibly
disturbing when Linda Blair
watches her family getting slayed
and does a good job by acting
intense when this happens but
however she sounds typically
whiney in other scene's when she
gets frightened by what is all
happening there.
The story is very 'Tales
from the Crypt' like and
very cheesy too to top it off. It
just made it to be considered
above average in my books and went straight to video during it's release.
Witchery
1988 This is Linda's
worst film to date and made for
video! A pregnant woman named
Jane Brooks (Blair) is taken back
to the house of her husband's
mother on an island.
There she
begins to have strange nightmare
about her child and step-family.
For the husband and mother are
actually reincarnated lovers who
were burned at the stake for
practicing witchcraft.
She must
soon escape from their clutches
or have her child sacrificed to
Satan.
While trying to escape the
house Satan won't let them as the
family is being tortured to death
and when police helicopters try
to see if anyone is in the house
but don't see anything as Satan
tries to make out that it is
deserted.
Cast features former TV
star David Hasselhoff in the lead
role as Gary which this film was
shot a few years after his
"Knight Rider" fame
came to an end and was shortly
going to be starring and
producing the awful blockbuster
series "Baywatch."
The
Chilling 1989 One of
those cheesy zombie film
version's of George A. Romero's
which I think this film was a
tribute to his work.
Linda plays
Mary Hampton who works at a
cryogenic centre and on Halloween
night a thunder storm occurs
while her and some other
employees are at a booming
business in freezing the bodies
of the recently dead in the hopes
of defrosting them later when
science has discovered a way to
cure what ails them.
Things are
going well until the storage
facility loses its power during
the storm, threatening their
frozen clients.
To make matters
worst, a lightning strike causes
the bodies to revive as homicidal
zombies.
What has the cryogenic
lab been doing to its customers
to cause this kind of change, and
can they stop the zombies before
their rampage goes out of
control? Mary and others are
being chased by the zombies and
almost finding that there is no
escape from them as the zombies
try eating the employees at the
cryogenic centre alive.
Okay
horror film and alot better than "Witchery".
Zapped
Again! 1990 A sequel
to the cult hit that starred
heartthrob Scott Baio. This time Linda Blair
has a supporting role playing a
school teacher named Miss
Mitchell.
A new kid named Kevin
(Played by Todd Eric Andrews) moves into a
school where he meets up with
some preppie jocks that bully him
but however he befriends with a
beleaguered Science Club when he
uses an old potion by using his
grandmother prune juice he starts
to have telekinetic powers to get
back at his enemies as well as
having a bit of fun on the side.
Okay comedy with a few chuckles
but still it's average and never
made it to theatre's like the
first one did.
Reposessed
1990 A hilarious
'Exorcist' spoof! In the beginning
of the film it shows a spoof of a
scene that happened in the
Exorcist when the priest
unleashed the demon inside of
Linda Blair which in this film
she plays a character named Nancy
Aglet.
Then years later Nancy is
married with a family as she
watches TV all day and becomes
posessed again by watching a
religious show hosted by a priest
named Father Jebedaiah Mayii (Played by the legendary Leslie
Nielsen) and shows hilarious
clips of trying to get her bed to
shake etc. like in 'The Exorcist'.
Also when two of her kids
misbehave she still sits at the
TV and spins her head back to
tell them their consequences if
they don't behave.
Father
Jebedaiah Mayii invited the
possessed Nancy to be on his show
so he can fight with the devil
inside of her along with his
friend Ernest Weller (Played by Ned
Beatty, who had a special
appearance in the Exorcist
II: The Heretic).
This
film was given a quick theatrical
release and most people who saw
'The Exorcist' watched this one as
well for a laugh.
Linda also did
this movie to shake off her
feelings for her role in 'The Exorcist' since her
character disturbed her a great
deal.
Dead Sleep
1990 An underrated but well done mystery-thriller in which she plays a nurse named Maggie Healy who just got employed at a psych ward and knew her craft by portraying this role.
There's situations where she sometimes has her patience driven by one of the patients in which a senior citizen makes a pass at her and moments like that.
But then the patients get raped or murdered by one of the doctors at the ward which was done in a fair fashion.
Some well written moments with a mental patient helping her out for missing clues which seemed like a great moment on their teamwork proving that this patient isn't as crazy like she was made out to be.
When she finds out as to who's doing this she gets caught in the act while finding some information and trying to escape from him as this had some good action packed moments.
The film was based on actual events which made things quite interesting.
The acting is a bit dated but Linda did fairly well in her role and got into it big time. She travelled to Australia to be in this direct-to-video flick.
Bedroom
Eyes II 1991 An
unrelated sequel to the soft core
porn dud as Linda Blair portrays
as an artist named Sophie Stevens
who links up to a jogging voyeur
named Harry Ross (Wings Hauser)
he finds a real resemblance of
Sophie from his first wife that
was murdered in a hit and run
death.
When Harry falls prey to
his voyeuristic instincts again
and watches his new wife Carolyn
being seduced by one of her young
proteges, he decides to use
Sophie in a plan to make Carolyn
pay for her infidelity, but his
scheme backfires when she merely
explodes with anger at him,
rather than admitting her guilt.
As if all this were not enough,
Sophie then turns out to be the
sister of Harry's dead wife.
Sophie gets murdered and found in
the trunk of her car as two
killers try to set Harry up by
being framed for murder.
Blair
acts very lustful in this film
and she really grabs attention to
the viewers that watched this.
Fatal
Bond 1992 A nicely
done thriller filmed in Australia
as Linda Blair portrays a
restless hairdresser named Leonie
Stevens who meets up with a
drifter named Joe Martinez
(Played by Jerome Ehlers) who claims he's
in the car business and claims he
has a strong business with
avoiding the law and falls madly
in love with him.
But however he
is wanted by the police and a
corpse is left behind them each
time they travel through South
New Wales and she begins to
wonder about him and is almost
persistent by leaving him and
calling the police but she can't
seem to break free of him as she
is still crazily in love with
him.
Although film critics put
this film down I beg to differ as
I enjoyed the story as well as
the acting and I consider this
one of Blair's best film's along
with "Savage
Streets", "Hell Night"
and "The
Exorcist."
A Woman
Obsessed 1993 An
okay thriller-horror of an artist
named Arlene Bellings (Played by Ruth
Raymond) who lives in an old
mansion imagines that her dead
husband has been reincarnated as
her natural grandson who was
adopted as she invites her
natural grandson Ted Barnes
(Played by Gregory Patrick) and Ted's wife
Evie (Blair) to her mansion for a
few days but don't discover that
she has a dark secret as she has
a small graveyard where she talks
to her dead husband next to her
mansion.
She poison's Evie and
drugs Ted with a drink and ends
up killing Evie. Then she ties
Ted up making out like he's her
husband.
She seduces him and when
he tries to escape she tortures
him by breaking his toe's and
then plans a wedding while he's
tied up and injured.
A
suspenseful story. Well acted,
but there's some things that need
improvement. Linda's cat was used
in the film.
Double Blast 1994 A ridiculous family oriented slapstick comedy-adventure flick that looked like a made-for-tv type movie only to be a direct-to-video dud as Linda Blair plays a professor named Claudia who deals with some goons on a business gone wrong as she ends up getting kidnapped and gagged and are witnessed by two martial arts children whom are kidnapped as well asn are planned to be rescued by their martial arts father leading to more complications on getting kidnapped as they are on a journey for some missing gold and treasures.
Blair seems to do okay portraying her role with her attitude and sarcasm and got incredibly annoying when the head mobster named Nadir (Played by Joe Estevez) hypnotises her with a watch which looked corny to watch and amateurishly done too. She goes in a trance like she's an annoying little girl but does well with her high pitched speaking but I felt like slapping her she got on my nerves so much.
Did okay when getting fairly tough by fighting against Etevez's role as well as having a nice charming attitude towards the lead actor Dale Cook who played the martial arts father Greg while hunting for the treasure in a mysterious cave.
Although the film was trite and dull alot of the times we do have some fun touches with the kids doing their ninja against the goons and so fourth. The acting is a bit off in this film though.
Gang Boys 1994 Now this is one of Blair's best movie roles which is an excellent story about a 15 year old homosexual named Marjorie Joiner (Played by Dave Buzzotta) whom is attacked by a group of hooligan's lead by the nasty Bentz (Played by Cole Hauser) who starts a NAZI type of cult and bashes him for his sexual preference as this for sure looked pretty intense and strongly done and then left naked passed out on the mean streets of Hollywood Blvd.
Blair comes in as his mother named Maggie as she does well getting emotional at the hospital due to what her son went through as well as being perfectly convincing by playing this role and Wings Hauser who also directed this piece plays her separated husband with a drinking problem who doesn't accept for his son's preferences. He was also terrific in his role and seemed to act like a ham in the beginning of his performance when he's drunk.
There's also a discussion between the two of them as it was perfect especially due to their disputes and Blair was powerful by smacking him in the face for his homophobic comment on his son. She shows great aggressions as well as him too.
Plus there's a situation with Wings's character starting a fight at the NAZI area with Cole which looked kinda strange since you see the family resemblance between the father and sonwhen on screen they were portraying totally different roles. However the scene looked intense and very effective full of dynamic action too.
Also perfect touches with the son convincing to his father by accepting the way he is which shows many touching moments on to keep the family alive as well as a good scene between Blair and Hauser getting back together and making love in which she shows a bit of her nudity while doing this. However, this scene is a real serious moment and not one of those same old plots to keep the people entertained and aroused.
Everyone does a great job by going in for battle to do ends with this gang of thugs which is another exciting situation to seek revenge on gay bashers.
Story looked great when we see the father trying his best to stay on the wagon with his son helping him out and making him do some jogging and other physical moments as well as the wife helping out too on other ends.
Cole Hauser was marvellous and lived to play a vicious leader showing a perfect intense energy into his part and Buzzotta certainly made his role believeable as a gay teen.
Yes sir this had a strong plot and quite dramatic with no cheesy moments at all. It was made on a low budget and I don't believe this one made it to theatre's although it would've stood a great chance getting at least a limited one. A hard to find movie nowadays since VHS tapes have been pulled out and this one didn't get reissued.
For any die hard Blair fans this one is for you.
Try finding this on ebay or other areas like that.
Sorceress
1995 A terrible soft
core porn horror made for video
dud of two friends, who both work
for the same high-priced,
high-powered law firm, are both
married to modern day witches.
Erica Barnes (Played by Penthouse
favourite as well as starring in
that porn series on Playboy
Channel Sex Court Julie
Strain), the wife of Larry (Played by Larry
Pointdexter), believes that he is
being led astray by Carol
(Played by Rochelle Swanson), an old flame,
who also works for the same law
firm.
Erica decides to act and
one night after a torrid sex
session Larry drifts off to sleep
and begins to dream.
Soon the
dream turns into a nightmare of
sex, violence, murder and death
involving himself, his friends
and colleagues from the law firm
which appears to be frighteningly
realistic as she possesses
Carol's body to try and sacrifice
him and the other man's wife
named Amelia Reynolds (Blair)
goes into a dark room to do
witchcraft by torturing her
husband and friends.
Offers
gratituous sex and lots of skin
but of course Linda Blair keeps
her top on which is a wise move
for her career. Boring and
pointless.
Scream
1996 Well Blair had
a very minor uncredited role in
this one and I really don't
review uncredited actors but she
was quite noticeable so this is
one as well as having a few small
scenes so this is an acceptance
and had a few lines in it as well
so she should've been credited
when you come to think of it. But
of course Fonz from TV's Happy
Days Henry Winkler had a
supporting role in this one as
the school Principal and was
uncredited as well so
whatever....
Anyways Blair played
a obnoxious news reporter trying
to get information off of people
about the slaughterings by a
killer that calls people up on
his cell phone and asks them
about their favourite scary movie
and how they'd like to die that
night as someone in a ghost face
mask and black cape just like in
the horror movies and guts them
open with a blade.
This movie
brought back the horror craze and
was directed and created by Wes
Craven who did the same for many
horror films including "A
Nightmare On Elm Street"
and was a blockbuster hit in
theatre's which followed two
other sequels.
The Exorcist: The Believer
2023 Blair reprises her role once again but it's only a bit part at the very end of the story. However it caught me by surprise as I was like "Shut up".
This movie is fairly good although some critics put it down on two kids possessed and goes to the aid of Chris MacNeill (Ellen Burstyn) to help out on an exorcism.
Has more special effects in this one as well as alot of intense violence. Yet nothing too gruesome at the same time. Yet it makes you jump at times which is what I like in a horror flick.
Paid a lot of tributes to the original as this was somewhat a reunion of the devil and Chris coming to terms with one another as well as Blair appearing in the very end of the scene in which she surprises her.
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