*May Be Spoilers*

This is a very well-done suspense/horror film that pays off in the end. Actually, for the first 40 minutes or so you might yawn a few times, the proceedings might seem a little uninteresting. I was thinking as I first watched it, "I mean, sure, Kelly Preston is cute and all, but there seems to be very little horror involved and what small amount of suspense there is is just hampered by being somewhat bland and poorly executed," and the scene I'm thinking about involves the fiery death of some poor bloke. This is the one scene in the film that probably would have been better if they had used a different, less-special-effects-oriented approach to it, which is exactly what "Spellbinder" manages to do most of the time. It's not an overtly gruesome or sensationalistic horror film; it keeps the horror on a mental level.



The midpoint was when the film started to slowly become interesting to me at first, and when parallels between certain plot points introduced earlier in the film are connected. All of a sudden we start getting some great, memorable moments, like Audra Lindley's radical way of turning negative attention towards Tim Daly from his coworkers; the scene where the entire cult of satanists are peering through the windows at Daly and Preston, pressing up against them and bending the glass; and of course the last 25 minutes, which is the best part. What I really loved about it was that it made me think back on the earlier part of the film and realize the whole film was good, it made me appreciate the subtle, slow buildup to the fantastic climax even more! I fortunately hadn't read any spoilers on here when I watched it so I really didn't even know there were any "twists" in the plot, and the film is smart not to overplay certain types of clues that other horror films make so obvious that it's insulting to the viewer, like the dinner party scene where Preston and the older woman don't get along, etc.



I recommend "Spellbinder" for those who want to try something refreshingly different in the late '80s horror genre, something that wisely neither plays all its cards in the first half-hour nor cuts them up and drenches them in gore.

My rating: 8.5/10

In Los Angeles, the successful lawyer Jeff Mills (Timothy Daly) plays a basketball game after hour with his colleagues. When he comes to the parking area with his friend Derek Clayton (Rick Rossovich),they see a stranger hitting a young woman and Jeff and Derek protect her. Then she explains that her name is Miranda Reed (Kelly Preston) and she lives with the man named Aldys (Anthony Crivello). Jeff brings her home and they have one night stand; but she moves to Jeff's apartment and they start living together.

When Aldys finds Jeff, Miranda vanishes and he seeks the police department to report the disappearance of Miranda. Lieutenant Lee (Cary- Hiroyuki Tagawa) sees the photo of Miranda and asks him about her necklace. Soon Jeff learns that it is the symbol of a satanic sect that worships the devil. Out of the blue, Miranda reappears and explains to Jeff that her mother is a witch that introduced her to her coven. She is trying to leave them and she needs to miss the next solstice, when they will gather at a beach to sacrifice a human being that will spontaneously participate of the meeting and take his heart. When Miranda is abducted by the worshipers, Jeff decides to seek her out.

"Spellbinder" is a spooky, sexy and underrated horror movie with a flawless story in the style of "Rosemary's Baby". I saw this movie three or four times in the 90's and today I have just watched it again on VHS. The plot convinces mainly due to Kelly Preston, who is lovely gorgeous and sexy and capable to seduce the lonely Jeff Mills like she does in the story. The final twist is absolutely unexpected and surprises the viewer. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Enfeitiçados" ("Bewitched")

Note: On 03 September 2015, I saw this movie again.

One of my all-time favorite late 80's horror mystery thriller sleepers, this nifty little flick plays like a modestly budgeted "Fatal Attraction" crossed with "Rosemary's Baby." Handsome nice guy Los Angeles lawyer Jeff Mills (appealingly essayed by Timothy Daly) saves the beautiful and enigmatic Miranda (a strikingly sexy and mesmerizing Kelly Preston) from a knife-wielding creep (the astonishingly ugly and unnerving Anthony Crivello) in a gymnasium parking lot. Jeff and Miranda immediately fall in love, finding happiness with each other. Unfortunately for them, Miranda turns out to be an honest-to-goodness witch who defected from a sinister coven that's keen on getting her back so she can be used as a sacrifice for the spring solstice.

Director Janet Greek wisely allows the story to initially unfold at a leisurely pace, firmly grounding said plot in a nicely delineated everyday world which makes the supernatural aspects of the story seem plausible and thus all the more effectively scary. The performances are uniformly excellent, with especially solid turns by Rick Rossovich (who got tossed through a wall by future California governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar in "The Terminator") as Jeff's best friend, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as a hard-nosed police detective, the always delightful Diana Bellamy as Jeff's motherly, concerned secretary, M.C. Gainey as a paranoid wacko survivalist loner, and veteran thespians Audra Lindley and Stefan Gierasch as elderly members of the creepy coven. Moreover, Basil Poledouris supplies a splendidly spooky'n'shuddery score, the suspense steadily mounts as the movie progresses towards its harrowing conclusion, the slick cinematography gives the picture a glitteringly smooth and polished visual sheen, and Tracy Torme's clever script comes complete with a genuinely jolting socko surprise climactic twist.