It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It's been six years since Nick Cooper has recorded an album. He left the UK behind for Los Angeles and his wife, but now, divorce has landed him back home and back behind the mic. Retiring to the English countryside to record what he hopes will be his return to the limelight, he finds himself haunted by screams and visions of death.Pete Walker's filmography is filled with sex and murder and little, if any, subtext. From House of Whipchord and Frightmare to Schizo and House of the Long Shadows, which united Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine, his films are quickly made and easily digested.The opening of the film has Gail Cooper (Holly Palance, daughter of Jack and the doomed nanny from The Omen) is going through her ex-husband's London apartment one more time. She's not bitter, but almost wistful, remembering their love. Nick isn't home, but she isn't alone. Someone is there, watching her answer a reporter about her upcoming divorce and field questions about her husband's comeback. Moments after she finishes a phone call, someone in an old lady mask kills her in graphic detail, even chopping her hand off. As graphic as this scene is, it gets worse as we return to the scene of the crime multiple times as the camera watches her decompose. And this is one of Walker's restrained movies!Gail's ex-husband Nick (Jack Jones) has no idea that any of this has happened. He's just trying to get through the recording sessions and make his manager Webster (David Doyle, TV's Charlie's Angels) happy. He's moved into the Surrey countryside where Mr. and Mrs. B (Bill Owen and Sheila Keith, who appeared in four of Walker's films) take care of his every need. Yet all is not well. At night, he hears screaming and sees visions of his ex-wife's decaying face. At least he's hooking up with Webster's secretary Linda (Pamela Stephenson, an SNL cast member for season 10 of the show, which was the year Lorne Michaels came back, as well as Superman III).Nick has all sorts of shady people around him, including his right-hand man from the old days, Harry. At one point, Nick ran with a druggy crowd, but now tries to avoid everything, even cigarettes. After discovering that Webster and Linda used to be a couple and the disappearance of Harry, Nick goes crazy. He searches for the voice in the house and only finds Gail's severed head, which sends him into a catatonic state. He's admitted to the hospital for exhaustion and they put him into five days of medical sleep (which sounds wonderful).Nick and Linda finally have sex, but she disappears the next day. This makes Nick even crazier and we start to wonder who is behind all of this. There's a red herring thrown when we discover Webster likes to dress up as an old woman. He also paid off Gail and got her to divorce our hero.When Nick goes back to his old apartment, he learns that it's been cleaned and all the carpeting has been replaced.As Mrs. B tells him not to worry, the old woman attacks. He ducks an axe blow and the old woman is killed, revealing the killer as her husband! It turns out that their beloved daughter was an obsessed fan who committed suicide once Nick married Gail. All of this psychological torture has been their attempt to drive him to suicide.Webster and the police arrive, just as Nick discovers that Linda has been walled inside the house, along with the body of the B's dead daughter, who is clutching a photo of Nick as her body lies in state within a shrine to the singer.As the police arrest Mr. B, Nick looks to the window of the house and sees his ex-wife waving goodbye to him. It seems that all of the psychological turmoil he had been put through wasn't all in his head or in the hands of his would-be murderers.Initially, Walker wanted Bryan Ferry from Roxy Music to play the lead, but Jack Jones chose this as his film debut. A legitimate pop singer who performed nightly concerts while acting daily in this film, he's probably best known for singing the Love Boat theme song. He's had a long career with several Grammy awards and acting roles to his name, including Top Secret and American Hustle.He's really great in this film, a rare example of a man in peril. This British giallo-style shocker is centered by his performance, as his sanity slowly slips. Also, he has the most chest hair I've ever seen on a man, a veritable forest of fluff that freaked out my wife.

"The Comeback" has American '70s pop star Jack Jones playing a popular but dormant pop star attempting to record a new album. After he divorces his wife, he retreats to a manor to work on the new record, unaware that his ex-wife has been hacked to death by a figure in a hag mask and left rotting in their apartment. He soon finds himself haunted by her ghost, and even worse, the hag-masked killer seems to have found him.This weird, slightly uneven proto-slasher film is one of the more conventional films by Pete Walker, though it's certainly still rather odd. It starts out phenomenally: A woman (the protagonist's ex-wife, as we later discover) ascends a ramshackle elevator in a derelict building to the deceptively luxurious apartment she shared with her famous husband. Someone else is there, though, watching her the entire time; it's clear something is going to happen, and even the protracted elevator ride to the top is a masterwork of suspense. The elevator and the building play into the film later on, and the sequences set there are among the most terrifying.Where the film goes off the rails somewhat is the underdeveloped supernatural angle, which is omnipresent but never quite clearly articulated or even acknowledged. Jones's protagonist forges a romantic relationship with his record executive's assistant, and their relationship doesn't add much to the plot, though it does have significance in the finale. Jones is likable enough in the lead, as is Pamela Stephenson as the secretary. Walker regular Sheila Keith turns in a dynamic performance as one part of the husband-and-wife housekeeping team at the manor, alongside Bill Owen. Even with the film's shortcomings, it is a remarkably atmospheric picture that oozes late-1970s aesthetics. It's also a very American-feeling film despite the central Gothic English location, with much of the cast and corresponding characters being Americans. The murder sequences in the film are also notably startling, with the hag-masked killer slicing and dicing whilst emitting a horrific high-pitched shriek-it's truly unsettling, and predates a similar villain getup from 1983's "Curtains." All things considered, I found "The Comeback" a truly engaging film that suffers only slightly by having its hand in too many baskets. Despite this, there are multiple effective, truly frightening moments in it, and a fantastic atmosphere. Its numerous weird touches and proto-slasher elements make it certainly important, no less entertaining. 8/10.

Washed-up American singer Nick Cooper (a credible and likable performance by real-life crooner Jack Jones) hasn't recorded an album in six years, so he relocates to an old manor in the English countryside to work on his career comeback. However, Nick's ex-wife Gail (well played by Holly Palance) gets murdered and her ghost begins to haunt Nick. Or is Nick going mad? Director Pete Walker, working from a crafty and compelling script by Murray Smith and Michael Sloane, relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, ably creates a good deal of tension and eerie atmosphere as well as a strong aura of intriguing mystery, grounds the premise in a believable everyday reality (Nick is shown singing and recording songs for his latest album), and delivers a few effectively harsh bits of nasty gore. Moreover, the fine acting by the excellent cast holds the picture together: Lovely Pamela Stephenson provides a winning surplus of charm and spunk as perky secretary Linda Everett, David Doyle smarms it up nicely as pushy and slimy music producer Webster Jones, Walker regular Sheila Keith and Bill Owen are in top sinister form as a creepy housekeeping couple, and Richard Johnson does his customary professional job as helpful psychiatrist Macauley. The nifty nods top such cinematic classic as "Psycho" and "Citizen Kane" further enhance the macabre fun. Both Robert Jessop's crisp cinematography and the moody score by Stanley Myers are up to par. Recommended viewing for Walker fans.

I had not seen this movie since the early 1980's (shortly after it came out and hit the cable networks) until this past week. Unlike many movies and TV shows that I remember as being "great" and then upon seeing them again after 30 years realizing that they were not as great as I thought they had been, "The Comeback" did NOT disappoint! Jack Jones, for some reason, looked and sounded and...for the most part...acted like Robert Redford! I kept hearing Robert as Jack talked throughout the whole movie! And aside from the one moment of "could have done without that and it would have been just as gruesome" gore at the beginning when Gail is killed (some fake limbs fly off), the movie held up REALLY well. If you have never seen this great little thriller, you need to.