Vicious Alpha

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Movie
German title Vicious Alpha
Original title The Fury
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1978
length 113 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Brian De Palma
script John Farris
production Ron Preissman ,
Frank Yablans
music John Williams
camera Richard H. Kline
cut Paul Hirsch
occupation

Vicious Circle Alpha (Original title: The Fury ) is a SF thriller by Brian De Palma from 1978 with Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving in the lead roles. John Farris wrote the script based on his own novel.

action

Peter Sandza worked for a secret government organization for years. His son Robin is now supposed to go to school in Chicago. When saying goodbye, an attack is carried out on Peter, behind which his colleague Childress is. This fails, but his son believes he is dead.

Peter Sandza has to go into hiding and is looking for his son. To do this, he instructs someone to look for people with psychic powers. As soon as he has found Gillian Bellaver and informed him of this, agents are after Sandza.

Gillian Bellaver, a teenager, now discovers that she has supernatural powers. This makes u. a. noticeable in that other people sometimes start bleeding when she touches them. She cannot cope with it alone. It burdens her, which is why she lets her mother take her to the Paragon Clinic , which is run by Dr. Jim McKeever and run by Ben Childress for help. Childress researches the use of supernatural powers as a weapon, for which he already abused the son of Peter Sandza.

Peter Sandza's friend Hester also works at the clinic and has access to Gillian. She persuades her to flee so that she can show Sandza the way to his son. She finds an opportunity and helps Gillian to escape. When agents try to stop them and someone chases them in his car, the waiting Peter Sandza shoots him. However, the runaway car hits Sandza's friend Hester and kills her. Sandza flees with Gillian.

Gillian eventually leads Sandza to the place where his son Robin is being held. Robin is subjected to many attempts and experiments, drugs are administered to him, and he is slowly getting out of control. He fears that the girl Gillian, who seems to be even more talented than him, will be displaced and thus become superfluous. When he senses Gillian's closeness, he uses his psychic abilities to kill his female caregiver.

Sandza and Gillian are caught by security guards. To calm Robin down, Childress allows Sandza to talk to him. However, Robin has gone insane from the abuse and therefore doesn't seem to recognize his father. A fight ensues in which they both die, an event Childress wanted to get rid of Sandza and Robin, who had become useless due to his madness. Robin dies in the arms of Gillian, who has built up a special psychic connection to him, and before his death he gives her his powers with the implicit message to avenge him and to protect himself from Childress.

Gillian wakes up in a bed where Childress is waiting. He talks to her and tries to convince her, but she should only replace Robin. When it seems that she succumbs to his persuasion and falls around his neck, she kisses his eyes, whereupon they start to bleed. She eventually uses her new powers to kill him.

Premieres

  • USA March 10, 1978
  • Germany March 1st 1979

Reviews

Roger Ebert described the film in the Chicago Sun-Times as "elegant entertainment" that was "fast-paced" and had "energetic presentations". Kirk Douglas, Carrie Snodgress and the "beautiful" Amy Irving were particularly praised. Brian De Palma's direction is best when it comes to bizarre, supernatural topics.

Helmut W. Banz said in the time of 9 March 1979, the film was "less of a para psychological thriller than a paranoid, interspersed with elements of an occult shocker and an anti-CIA treatise."

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was "garishly staged" and "designed as an effective cinema of tension". He puts “scientific talk” in the foreground and is “only really captivating in a few passages”.

Awards

Rick Baker and William Tuttle won the Saturn Award for makeup in 1979 .

Trivia

The film was shot in Illinois (including Chicago ) and Israel . Its production amounted to an estimated 5.5 million US dollars .

Daryl Hannah played her first film role in this thriller.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roger Ebert: Critique
  2. ↑ Film tips . In: Die Zeit , No. 11/1979
  3. ↑ Alpha vicious circle. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ^ Filming locations for The Fury. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
  5. ^ Box office / business for The Fury. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .