Spellbinder (1988)

I really love this movie. Suspense, mystery and sensuality from start to finish. The characters, the plot, the music, the photography seem so normal in the first analysis. But the feature film is so well shot and staged that it takes the viewer into the plot. The plot and the mystery get better every minute. I really enjoyed the ending. It's those endings that makes you think days on the subject addressed. I think I would also have a sad ending if I were the main character in the movie. Another detail to mention is the charm of the big city in the 80's. Charm brings with it mysteries, secrets and dangers. And finally, I recommend this movie to everyone.

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.

I liked the movie a lot and was very well done. As some others have already said it has the same motif as "the wicker man" the first version (not the one with Nicholas Cage). What I would like to note is the group of people the witches belong to. Even if it is in reality a form of Satanism most practitioners do not see it that way and call it neo-paganism. I feel like Wicker Man expresses much better that part. In most cases those groups that practice neo-paganism (Wicca for instance) may seem benign in nature as they do not do sacrifices almost never. But in certain conditions they do animals sacrifices. (like when a new witch is promoted)Also in very specific case they all also do human sacrifices as the Wicker Man showed. It helped the movie a lot that Miranda is gorgeous, and the acting was very good. The symbols used though should be better documented.

Some of the commentators have ragged on this movie for it being predictable, and some parts of it are, but some parts of the ending really surprised me. Again, I saw this movie originally when I was about 19, so maybe what would be obvious now weren't so obvious to me back then. Anway, given the context of the late 80ies when Spellbinder was made there was all this talk about Satanism, most of which later proved to be just urban legend type of stuff, probably made the movie for me a little more spooky in the 80ies then say if someone just randomly saw it now. Anyways, the movie I thought had a pretty cool plot that had some surprises, the acting was good, Kelly Preston was hot, and the movie freaked me out a little back in the day, so I'm giving the movie 8 out 10 stars. I haven't found it on DVD yet, if I did I would buy it and add it to my collection.