To me, this movie is perfection.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

American Gothic (1987) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Six friends take off in a plane for a weekend getaway but they're forced to land on a small island where they set up camp. Before long they stumble onto the home of Pa (Rod Steiger) and Ma (Yvonne De Carlo) and their three children (Janet Wright, Michael J. Pollard, William Hootkins). At first this family just seem extremely weird but before long their evil side comes out.AMERICAN GOTHIC is a horror film that got quite a bit of press when it was originally released or at least it did within the horror magazine world. The poster of the film became somewhat of a classic right off the bat as people enjoyed the two elderly farmers and and it made you think of a classic slasher. The actual film itself isn't what one would consider a slasher and in all honesty I'm really shocked that the film got a R-rating. Is the film a compelte success? No, there are way too many flaws for that but with that said there are some interesting ideas here.What's the most interesting thing is the fact that they released this movie during the era of the slasher and that's not what happens here. The idea of young people running into a homicidal family seems like THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE reborn and I think it's fair to say that this film borrows from it but this film decides to not go for gore or scares. I'm really not sure what they were trying to go for other than to show a very weird family but outside of their killing, strange clothes and weird religious rants, there's really not much to them.I give the film credit for trying to do something different but in the end I just don't think the film did enough to really stand out. The lack of scares and gore can be understood had the film done something else with the material but there's just nothing here. The six teen characters are only slightly interesting and the entire backstory of one dealing with trauma does eventually pay off. The twist in the film works in its own strange way and the film at least keeps you interested in what's going on.Of course, one of the big reasons the film managed to get press is the fact that Steiger was a part of it. Yes, the man who was in ON THE WATERFRONT made an apperance playing a weird old religious man and he's certainly the best thing about the picture. De Carlo is also very good as the mother and Wright steals the picture as the troubled daughter. Fans of BONNIE AND CLYDE will enjoy seeing Pollard here as well.When all is said and done, AMERICAN GOTHIC is a mildly interesting movie that deserves credit for doing something different but at the same time it needed to do more.

I don't understand why this little black comedy has so many bad reviews! It's suspenseful, hilarious, cheesy and original, all leading up to what's not the greatest but still a decent movie.Cynthia lost her baby in a bath accident, and was sent to a mental hospital for a while. Upon getting out her husband takes her with his friends to an island of the coast of British Columbia. The plane malfunctions and the group is forced to land on a strange deserted island off their original course. While exploring they find a cabin belonging to Ma and Pa, an elderly couple who are a bit on the redneck side but invite the group to spend the night. They refuse to pay attention to things from any year past the 1930's and are strict with old-fashioned rules like 'no sex without being married' and 'no cursing'.Cynthia discovers the family of Ma and Pa, three 'children' who are all appearing middle-aged. As the film progresses the family begins murdering the group one by one and Cynthia might end up the last left standing.Yeah, this film has lousy acting, forgettable soundtrack and dull scenery. That's not really the point though, the point is, this movie is a laugh-riot! The characters' deaths are all funny, none are scary although some are pretty gross. The only serious moment was regarding Cynthia's baby, that was actually very sad. Aside from that this movie is everything a horror/comedy should be, and it's really worth watching at least once.

The plot = Six young friends fly off on a weekend's camping trip, but when engine trouble forces them down on a remote island in the middle of nowhere, they explore and find a strange house occupied by an even stranger family, and that's when the troubles begin.Okay this isn't a total train wreak of a movie, the setting of the island is a great place for a movie of this type, but of course it's not really used to it's full advantage, but the house though is a perfect setting, and for the first half this movie does keep you interested, like when we're introduced to the strange family, Ma and Pa who are both stuck living in the 1920's backwoods America, and then we meet the kids who are all middle aged but act like children, which was really unsettling.But it's when the action kicks in is when it's kinda disappointing, there is obviously no effort made on the special effects like the death scenes are tame and dull, not a shred of imagination put into any of them and the acting is flawed at best especially from the six young friends, none of them are very interesting, they were all just dull, apart from Sarah Torgov who plays the main character Cynthia who ranges from fragile minded then finally snapping as the movie progresses, although flawed at times and didn't always seemed believable. It's the cast who plays the family who are the real winners here, Rod Stegier and Yvonne De Carlo who play Ma and Pa play they're parts really well without going over the top and the middle aged children each do they're parts well.All in all not a terrible movie, but could have been better with this kind of story line.

Truly awful film that I made the mistake of purchasing. The film is a confused mess of bad scriptwriting, bad acting and bad directing.There really isn't any good qualities about this film at all. It's not like you could even say "well at least they tried, they just didn't have the budget for it". No budget could have helped this poor excuse for a film.The plot of the movie doesn't make much sense and isn't explained very well. I doubt the writers were even concerned about the plot and character development and just went for trying to make an exploitation movie. Only one problem - there's barely any gore or nudity! The actors are really, really pathetic. Beyond belief. Even Rod Steiger is pretty poor in this. He must have been so desperate. Like, even more desperate than when he agreed to do Amityville. The death scenes are so uninteresting because you just don't feel anything for the characters at all - neither love nor hate. There was only one good death scene and that's because it was so ridiculous it made me laugh out loud. I do not believe it was intended to be funny.Honestly, as you watch this you feel embarrassed for the actors playing the mental 40 year olds who still think they are children (a point in the film that is never explained - along with everything else). I really do think all the actors over 30 in this film must have been so desperate to take a role on this. It's pure humiliation. The younger actors most likely thought it was their big break. Shame they couldn't act at all though.Truly, truly awful from beginning to end.