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If the blind recluse Gideon Locke seems a tad depressed and bewildered in 1990's "The Haunting of Morella," I suppose he's got reasonable enough cause. Seventeen years earlier, his beautiful wife Morella had been crucified and eye-gouged to death for the crime of witchcraft (in an opening scene that still pales in comparison with the similar one in Mario Bava's 1961 horror classic "Black Sunday"), and now, his look-alike daughter Lenora is beginning to show signs of possession. This by-now-familiar storyline has been padded out with gratuitous (but always welcome!) nudity, lesbianism, mucho gore and various gross-out FX to the point where any resemblance to Poe's short short story "Morella" is glancing at best. This being a Roger Corman production, the film has been put together on the cheap, but typical for Corman, still manages to look handsome enough. In her dual roles as Morella and Lenora, Nicole Eggert proves something of a mixed blessing. She is OK in the evil witch role, but hardly seems a proper young 19th century British lass; more like a whiny Valley girl. As her towering and murderess governess, Lana Clarkson literally stands out in this cast. Her nighttime waterfall tryst with servant girl Maria Ford is a hoot and a half, as I'm not certain that Frederick's of Hollywood existed 200 years ago! Best of all, of course, is my main man, David McCallum, as Lenora's reclusive father. Blind, unkempt and constantly rattled, he is here as different a character as can be imagined from supercool U.N.C.L.E. agent Illya Kuryakin. Anyway, while nothing great, "The Haunting of Morella" should prove just fine for an evening's entertainment. Oh...I just love the name of the actor who passes sentence on Morella in the film's opening scene: Clement von Franckenstein!
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