DEATH VALLEY

US, 1982, 87 minutes, Colour.
Paul Le Mat, Catherine Hicks, Stephen Mc Hattie, Wilford Brimley, Peter Billingsworth, Edward Herrmann.
Directed by Dick Richards.

Death Valley is one of the many multiple murder thrillers of the early following Halloween and its many imitations. This is a better than average horror thriller. It has a plausible enough plot, establishes the characters as credible human beings and blends the unreality of the thriller with a human story.

Direction is by Dick Richards who has made a number of offbeat films including the Culpepper Cattle Company, Farewell My Lovely, March Or Die. Stars are Paul Le Mat from the American Graffiti films and Melvin and Howard and Catherine Hicks from the telemovie Marilyn, The Untold story in which she imitated Marilyn Monroe excellently. The Death Valley setting has been used by such directors as Antonioni for Zabriskie Point. It is all offbeat setting for this macabre thriller. Some blood and gore, but an effective thriller.

1. An interesting and enjoyable thriller murder mystery? The multiple killing trend of the eighties? Blood and gore? Violent murders? How much sensationalism? Subordinated to character development and plot?

2. The thriller atmosphere, techniques for shocks and scares? Suggestion, tracking shots, music ? The build-up to the eeriness of the climax? The final confrontation? The atmosphere of Death Valley, visual impact, its use? Tourists in Death Valley? The ordinary ingredients of the murder thriller made different by the setting?

3. The basic plausibility of the plot: the marital situation of the family, the preparation of the holiday, the importance for the young boy to accept his new father? The holiday, tourism, the ominous car, the arousing of suspicion, the murderer and the dangers, the build-up to the climax?

4. The setting of the marriage break-up, the effect on Sally? the effect on Billy? His father's talk to him at the airport? The tensions, communication throughout the film? their counterpoint to the tensions of the murders?

5. Sally's relationship to her son, trying to persuade him to like Mike? The various attempts throughout the trip? in the car, meals, motels, touring? his memory of his father and references to him? Suspicion of Billy, rudeness? Billy as a smart boy? Intelligent, with the answers, shrewd? His discovery of the caravan? Suspicion about the car ? His gradual involvement in the dangers? Hal hearing about Billy's testimony? The danger sequences in the motel? In the car? the climax in the house? His being rescued by Mike? Reconciliation?

6. Mike and Sally and the bonds, the memory of the past, the holidays and idea for Billy? His attempts at friendships? The rebuffs? His involvement in the dangers? the final rescue?

7. The ugliness of the murders? their explicitness? The victims? The people in the caravan, the accidental destruction of the caravan? The murder of the policeman after his visit? The horror aspects of the killings

8. The double climax? Hal and his identity, the sane and the insane brothers? The murders of the past and the police recollecting? The horror in the motel and the menacing of Billy The death of the greedy babysitter? The build-up to the climax of the house? Sally and the kidnapping, Mike and the Rescue, the cars? The smashing of the house, the car crashes?

9. The building up of the atmosphere for the finales the atmosphere of the menace and the mystery at the motel, the violence erupting at the house?

10. The influence of other horror thrillers on this film? For example, via the T.V. programmes and Billy's mimicking film-styles?

11. Enjoyable, effective, credible thriller ?