Impulse (1984)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Graham Baker

Writers:

Nicholas Kazan (written by) and
Don Carlos Dunaway (written by)

Release Date:

28 September 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Imagine what would happen...if every desire, every urge, every passion, locked deep inside us all...suddenly exploded!

Plot:

After a small earthquake in a small and quiet town, local citizens start to have a bizarre, violent and self-destructive behaviour... |

Plot Keywords:

Earthquake | Children | Investigator | Human Experimentation | Toxic Waste

Cast

Tim Matheson	...	Stuart
Meg Tilly	...	Jennifer
Hume Cronyn	...	Dr. Carr
John Karlen	...	Bob Russell
Bill Paxton	...	Eddie
Amy Stryker	...	Margo
Claude Earl Jones	...	Sheriff
Robert Wightman	...	Howard
Lorinne Vozoff	...	Mrs. Russell
Peter Jason	...	Man in Truck
Adam Baumgarten	...	Boy with Danny
Abigail Booraem	...	Mrs. Ashley
Leonard Burns	...	Pissing Man
Mary Celio	...	Mary Woodson
Jack T. Collis	...	Mr. Arson

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | Norway:15 (video premiere) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Lincoln, California, USA

Company:

ABC Motion Pictures

Soundtrack:

BEFORE THE NEXT TEARDROP FALLS

Hardly a satisfying moment in the entire film...insulting and poorly-made, as well

City girl Meg Tilly receives a horrifying phone call from her mother and, understandably shaken, returns home to her family's rural digs, only to be faced with a mystery: why are all the homespun residents acting out in bizarre and unsettling ways? Radiation thriller, with barely a nod to ecology, has small town residents going berserk, which (laughably) includes two women gazing at each other with desire in a public place and Tim Matheson receiving oral attention from a girl on an office bench. The picture is too silly for words, wasting Tilly's talents while forcing itself into a corner it can't possibly hope to get out of (and predictably, the finale lands with a clatter). Some of the cinematography by Thomas Del Ruth is good (particularly a fire sequence set inside a garage) and the scenario had promise. Unfortunately, the draggy direction and simplistic screenplay have neither surprises nor originality up their sleeves. *1/2 from ****