Year: 1972
Duration: 01:24:20
Directed by: Alan Rudolph
Actors: Carl Crow, Tim Ray, Winfrey Hester Hill
Language: English
Country: USA
Also known as: Head, Voorbestemd, The Impure
Description:Like most horror of the period this is a slow burner but one that rewards the patient, eventually spiralling into full blown acid strewn dementia. One of the highlights is the throbbing and echoing analogue synthesizer soundtrack by a pre-fame Harold Budd, which could really do with a nice vinyl release some day. There is an extensive chapter covering this film in Nightmare USA. The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents, which is arguably the greatest film book ever written in my view.
Review: ”Premonition” centers around a group of hippie artists who discover some unusual red-colored plants, smoke them, and knowledge terrifying hallucinations. Or ARE they simply hallucinations? As a horror film, “Premonition” is extremely understated–almost too a great deal so.(Much of the script is preoccupied with character development nevertheless the figures are lifeless, so you never truly feel involved with them.) But just what it lacks in exhilaration, it more than tends to make up for in regards to atmosphere and mood. The “hallucination” views are very distressing and, once the people in the hippie troupe begin to become obsessed with what they see under the impact for the red flowers(and with what it all could imply), the audience is overtaken by a flesh-crawling feeling of slow, certain doom. That is precisely the things I search for, but find so rarely, in a horror motion picture. “Premonition” was never easy to discover, and will be even less so in the post-VHS age. However if you ever before operate across a duplicate, snatch it up. The sound recording is terrific(even the corny, ersatz-folk theme track is used to chilling effect) and perfectly balances the basic theme for the film…i.e., the nature of reality and exactly what lies beyond the limitations of our everyday, normal belief. Congratulations to Alan Rudolph for putting together a creepy, one-of-a-kind, effective genre picture!
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