Review #176: 'The Fury' (1978)

Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) is happily holidaying with his son Robin (Andrew Stevens), when he is betrayed by his lifelong friend Ben Childress (John Cassavetes). He is attacked by missionaries with machine guns, only to kill a few himself before apparently being blown up. Ben escapes with Robin, a boy Ben believes to have a powerful telekinetic and psychic ability. As Peter begins his frantic search, fellow psychic Gillian (Amy Irving) is admitted to the Paragon Clinic under the supervision of Dr. McKeever (Charles Durning), who may be linked with Robin's disappearance. As Gillian's power becomes stronger, she feels a connection with Robin, just as Peter comes close to discovering the whereabouts of his son.

Brian De Palma's career is somewhat of a mixed bag. Highly influenced by Hitchcock, his films are packed with homages and winks to a wide range of classic movies. He was prolific with his quality output in the 70's and 80's (Blow Out (1981), Carrie (1976), Scarface (1983), Dressed To Kill (1980)), but his late 80's through to the present have been littered with the dodgy and the dire (Casualties Of War (1989), Mission To Mars (2000), The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990), The Black Dahlia (2006)), albeit with a few decent films (Carlito's Way (1993), The Untouchables (1987), Mission: Impossible (1996)). 1978's The Fury, made just two years after the similarly-themed Carrie, lurks somewhere in between his very best and his worst.

Where Carrie announced the arrival of a potentially brilliant horror/thriller director, with its high tension, gore-drenched climax, and that jump ending that bred a thousand horror copycats, The Fury tackles the same supernatural themes, but just comes off as a bit silly. One half a badly staged action film, with an old Kirk Douglas outwitting a mass of secret agents, and one half a nicely plotted, but rather unspectacular supernatural horror. Although there are few glimpses, it certainly lacks De Palma's knowing cinematic style, best displayed in balls-out Hitchcock homage Dressed To Kill.

Although the film is sporadically entertaining, it's about twenty minutes too long, and seems to slow down to a snail's pace in the middle. It takes too long developing a story which is pretty straightforward, and characters that aren't particularly interesting. However when the climax comes, it's a lot of fun, and is just mad enough to save the film. I don't recall ever seeing a man exploding repeatedly from so many angles before, which is always a bonus. It literally happens about fifteen times. For a more defining telekinetic/exploding bodies film, seek out Scanners (1981).


Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Amy Irving, John Cassavetes, Charles Durning, Andrew Stevens
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie