{"id":9860,"date":"2024-12-10T23:21:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T04:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9860"},"modified":"2024-12-10T23:21:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T04:21:34","slug":"the-premonition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/10\/the-premonition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Premonition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Premonition<\/strong> (1976)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AVCO Embassy\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some violence, thematic material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Schnitzer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Anthony Mahon and Robert Schnitzer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Mollicone and Pril Smiley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Victor Milt\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 5, 1976 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sharon Farrell, Richard Lynch, Edward Michael Bell, Jeff Corey, Chitra Neogy, Ellen Barber, Danielle Brisebois, Rosemary McNamara, Roy White, Margaret Graham, Thomas Williams, Wilmuth Cooper.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0I never heard of The Premonition<\/strong> until I came across the trailer on YouTube about two weeks ago. I added it to my watch list immediately after viewing it. It not only looked good, it had two of my favorite B-list stars, Sharon Farrell (It\u2019s Alive) and Richard Lynch (God Told Me To). I figured it couldn\u2019t miss. Unfortunately, it does. The saddest part is it had potential.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The main problem with The Premonition<\/strong> is the muddled screenplay. It works against the eerie atmosphere in this supernatural tale about a woman, Sheri Bennett, (Farrell), who starts experiencing psychic visions after the attempted kidnapping of her adoptive daughter Janie (Brisebois, Archie Bunker\u2019s Place). The culprit is the child\u2019s biological mother Andrea (Barber, Blood Bride) who\u2019s recently been released from a mental hospital. Her boyfriend, psychopathic Jude (Lynch), searched for the kid while she was away. In the first of many wild coincidences, Janie and her mother go to the same carnival where Jude works as a clown. He and Andrea conspire to snatch the little girl from her bedroom, but flee without her after Sheri catches Andrea in the act.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s here that Sheri starts having disturbing visions. They\u2019re either premonitions or fallout from the trauma of almost losing her daughter. Thankfully, her college professor husband Miles (Bell, Gymkata) is involved (i.e. having an affair) with a female professor (Neogy, Jackpot) doing a study on psychic phenomena. That should clear things up. Meanwhile, investigating detective Mark Denver (Corey, Battle Beyond the Stars) goes looking for Andrea who has a complete psychotic break after the failed kidnapping.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At this point, I should be careful what I say next. If you haven\u2019t seen The Premonition<\/strong>, I don\u2019t want to spoil it for you. Sheri continues to go off the deep end what with the visions and taunting phone calls from Andrea. It\u2019s probably not a good idea to put Janie in the car and drive to the university late one night to see her husband and his colleague, but she does and it yields tragic results. She gets into an accident and her daughter disappears. She\u2019s convinced Andrea is somehow responsible for causing the accident.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This, of course, is a more straightforward description of the plot of The Premonition<\/strong>. I wish the makers had done the same with their presentation. The writers, Anthony Mahon and Robert Schnitzer, can\u2019t seem to get their act together. The pieces of the story never really gel. It zigs and zags all over the place until reaching a conclusion that doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. Clunky direction by Schnitzer (Kandyland) certainly doesn\u2019t help matters any. It\u2019s too slow-paced to make a real impact. Also, it\u2019s not scary. I didn\u2019t jump once.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What The Premonition<\/strong> does have is a genuinely eerie atmosphere. A pallor of doom and gloom hangs over the proceedings. It successfully builds a sense of dread. However, it never fulfills its promise of a fatalistic ending. It just ends. Fortunately, The Premonition<\/strong> is saved (somewhat) by its cast. Lynch turns in a wonderfully OTT performance as a dangerous psycho who we first meet doing a strange dance on the carnival grounds. Farrell is also terrific as the traumatized mom trying to find her little girl. Corey is good as the cop on the case. Young Brisebois does good work as Janie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I honestly wish The Premonition<\/strong> had been a great movie. Instead, it\u2019s a very mediocre one. It could have been great in more assured hands. The problem, like I said, is the flawed screenplay. It has plot holes galore. The writers introduce the husband\u2019s extramarital affair, but do nothing with it. It gets dropped almost instantly. I suppose that\u2019s a good thing since The Premonition<\/strong> is already convoluted enough. It\u2019s a great big disappointment. I guess that\u2019s the reason I never heard of it before.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Premonition (1976)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AVCO Embassy\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some violence, thematic material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Schnitzer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Anthony Mahon and Robert Schnitzer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Mollicone and Pril Smiley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Victor Milt\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 5, 1976 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sharon Farrell, Richard Lynch, Edward Michael Bell, Jeff Corey, Chitra Neogy, Ellen Barber, Danielle Brisebois, Rosemary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/The-Premonition-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10153,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860\/revisions\/10153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}