The Sender (1982)

 

The movie opens with a young man casually strolling thru the park collecting rocks.  It isn’t until he starts to walk into the lake with his pockets full of them that you understand he is trying to kill himself.  The action then moves forward to a psychiatric hospital where he is now a patient.  Dr. Gail Farmer begins trying to treat him for his depression and amnesia (he doesn’t remember who he is).  Right from the start there is something very creepy about the kid, which is only made worse when his mother shows up.  She seems to appear and disappear at will.  After a nasty incident with electro shock therapy the doctors realize the young man is a telepath and is able to send his dreams and visions to those around him.  But where does he come from, why did he try to kill himself, and what is up with his mother disappearing?    

 

I had never seen or heard of this movie until I popped the DVD into my player.  After watching it I can kind of understand why.  The beginning of the movie with the main character walking thru the park collecting rocks is very creepy.  When he finally gets to the water and walks in over his head is shot beautifully and will stick with me for a long time.  But after the first five minutes or so the movie becomes a real chore to watch.  It is incredibly slow and mind numbingly boring.  If you are going to attempt to watch The Sender I recommend that you have a very strong caffeinated drink to help you thru.  Honestly I feel asleep twice while watching this movie and it was only with the help of a couple strong glasses of tea that I managed to get thru the third time.  

 

The cast does the best they can do with the material.  Veteran actress Shirley Knight does her best as the man’s mysterious mother.  The movie is more interesting when she is on screen, which isn’t often enough.  Kathryn Harrold and Paul Freeman also are good as the doctors trying to unravel the mystery of the telepathic boy, though again a weak story/script doesn’t give them much to work with.  Now when writing this review I was shocked to realize that the young telepath was portrayed by     Zeljko Ivanek who seemingly has appeared in just about every police procedural that is on T.V. today.  Normally I enjoy his work, but here it seems to me all he does is walk around and stare blankly at the camera.  That might be what he was directed to do, but it makes for an entirely uninteresting and bland character.  

 

Technically this movie is put together competently.  The sound and picture are pretty good.  The special effects are okay and do provide a couple jarring and disturbing images including rats coming out of a mouth and a nifty neck slice.  But for the most part the effects are like the rest of the movie, not very interesting.

 

 

1 ½ out of 4

 

reviewed by John Shatzer

 

© Copyright 2008 John Shatzer