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Summer of Fear is another made-for-TV horror movie. Like the last entry in this series, Invitation to Hell, Wes Craven directed. Summer of Fear aired October 31, 1978 on NBC.
How does it stack up to previous made-for-TV horror entries like The Intruder Within, Midnight Offerings, Curse of the Black Widow, Satan’s Triangle, Killdozer, Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell and Invitation to Hell.
Let’s find out!
Summer of Fear
The movie starts with car POV as the vehicle careens down a cliffside road. The unseen driver and passenger scream. It sounds like a man and woman. Obviously, the woman must be driving then. The car goes over the edge and bursts into flame.
I stand corrected. That is the type of maneuver only a celebrity high on drugs and success would make while in the throes of a false sense of indestructibility.
A snarling, glowing-eyed girl is superimposed over the carnage. She looks crazy but could be changed into wife material with sensitivity, faithfulness and a dash of simp.
Cut to Linda Blair waking up. Wow, her hair is huge. Saying Blair grew that hair would be incorrect. It is more accurate to say that hair grew Linda Blair. A 1970s black man would give up Orange Crush for hair like that. He could grow a ‘fro big enough to make Whitey fly biplanes at it.
Blair gets out of bed to see her mom and dad in a tizzy. The car-crash couple were the mom’s sister and brother-in-law. Mom and dad need to get to the funeral. They lament that the couple’s daughter, Julia, is now all alone in a cruel world.
Perhaps, they will bring Julia home with them. She could be like a pet but better because she could vacuum and become an extension of themselves to project their failed and unrealized dreams upon.
Fall of Fear
Blair and her boyfriend, Matt, ride horses. Matt coaches Blair for an upcoming horseshow. Blair loses all audience relatability. The only character movie viewers hate more than tennis club members and college deans are horse show participants.
By the way, what does a gay horse eat? Hay-haaaay…
Mom and dad return home with Julia in tow. Julia is played by Lee Purcell. Purcell did not have a huge career, but she showed up in a couple of recognizable movies like Mr. Majestyk and Stir Crazy. She was also active in television.
Blair takes Purcell to her room. For whatever reason, Blair has a framed picture of herself in a bikini on display. She is on her knees in the photo, like there is a policeman out of frame arresting her. It’s little things like this that make one believe movie-making must be a trip.
A day actually existed where someone said, “Linda, we still need some stills of you in a bikini for the bedroom picture. Suit up!”
Linda: Okay, what do you want for a pose?
Photographer: Surprise me.
Linda: How about if I get on my knees?
Photographer: Whatever, I want to hit the craft table before Purcell eats all of the olives…
Winter of Fear
Blair’s brother, Peter, pulls up in a white van. Hey, it’s the guy who played young Superman in Donner’s film — Jeff East. Dude could easily score a touchdown every time he touches the ball, man!
Blair wants to go out and have fun but doesn’t want to leave Purcell home alone. She wonders if East wants to hang out with Purcell. He is not into that. Blair plies him by saying, “She’s pretty.”
Wait…what? Why would that be a factor? Purcell is their cousin. This leads to research into cousin marriage laws in the United States. Did you know that marrying a cousin is legal, or largely legal, in 19 states? And it’s not all the Deliverance states either. It is legal in places like California, Hawaii and even New York. It is also legal in Arizona, if both parties are over 65 or one is infertile.
Summer of Fear takes place in California, so East could take an interest in Purcell, legally, but we will still label him a disgusting freak on principle.
Later that night, Blair goes to her room and knocks over Purcell’s suitcase. A silver cylinder falls out. Blair discovers a human tooth inside. This should not surprise us. Once cousin luvin’ is introduced, missing teeth is sure to follow, along with banjo music.
The family talks about an upcoming festival. Purcell doesn’t have a date because she just moved there.
“I will escort you,” the father says.
Yeesh, now we know where East’s character gets it from.
Speaking of the father, he is played by Jeremy Slate. Slate showed up in North by Northwest, The Sons of Katie Elder, and was the crazy priest in The Lawnmower Man.
Spring of Fear
Blair takes Purcell clothes shopping. Purcell looks a bit too mousy to get all of her relatives in a courting mood. They meet a friend at the mall. It’s Fran Dresher! If you can hear a name, it’s Fran Drescher.
Purcell gets a makeover. She now looks ready to do the lion tamer act on Circus of the Stars. She got her hair done and a new outfit of tan shorts and a tan vest. Give her a whip and pith helmet, and she could go Siegfried & Roy on any big cat.
Next, the trio of girls say “hello” to their neighborhood professor. When he finds out Purcell is from the Ozarks, he mentions he did a field study of the people and superstitions of that area, plus he is an expert on the occult. This is so random one can’t help but believe it will be convenient for the plot later on.
Blair’s horse attacks Purcell once they return home. Maybe the lion tamer outfit set it off. It could have been a circus horse that was abused by the lion tamer after hours. Then one night the horse escaped by tunneling out of its stable. It lived life as a vagabond, surviving by selling itself on the streets of San Francisco and developing an addiction to fentanyl. After a near-death experience, the horse collapsed on the steps of a recovery center and begged for help. Through years of counseling and midnight talks with a witty, yet haunted, bedmate, the horse healed and became Blair’s friend. Most days, things are good, but sometimes it still has bad dreams…
Purcell injures her ankle in the horse attack. The father massages it.
“You have such a gentle touch,” Purcell says.
East better get his game on if he wants to make mutant babies with Purcell. Otherwise, his father is going to beat him to the punch.
Summer of Fearmongering
The family gathers in the den that night. East plays guitar. Blair makes a dress with the mother to wear to the festival. Purcell plays chess with the father. He complains about a sore shoulder.
“Let me help,” Purcell says and gives him a back rub.
“Oh yes, that’s fantastic.”
And yet another little part of our innocence dies in the process.
Blair tries on the dress she made. It looks terrible. She looks like she wrapped herself in a bath towel. She is one step away from showing up in a “People of Wal-Mart” slideshow.
Blair wakes up the next morning. Her bikini picture is missing. She finds a red marker laying on the floor, and she is covered with hives. All of this is very mysterious. Plus, it puts the kibosh on her plans to attend the festival.
East enters the room. Purcell won’t go to the festival is Blair stays home, and East wants Purcell to see him play guitar at said festival. East asks Blair to let her boyfriend, Matt, take Purcell to the festival. Blair grudgingly agrees to prostitute her boyfriend.
Purcell ends up wearing the ill-fitting dress Blair made. Blair is short and tending toward buxom. The dress fit her like a bag. Purcell is seven inches taller and slim. The dress fits her like a fresh coat of paint. Suddenly, “eww, cousin luvin” is replaced with “tell me more…”
“How do I look?” Purcell asked.
“Beautiful,” the father says.
Leap Year of Fear
Blair wakes up that night and finds odd things around the bedroom she shares with Purcell: burned matches and burned hair in the garbage. Blair searches Purcell’s dresser and finds….it is difficult to describe. Perhaps it is the most malformed Gumby ever made…with hair.
East returns from the festival. He is mad. Blair’s boyfriend wouldn’t let anyone near Purcell all night. They were so wrapped up in each other, they didn’t know anyone else was even there. Then Purcell and Blair’s boyfriend left together.
Blair confronts her boyfriend at the horse show the next day. He isn’t sure what happened at the festival. Him and Purcell simply clicked. Sorry. On the plus side, “he still wants to be friends.”
Man, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that phrase, I could nearly pay for all of the therapy I needed from hearing that phrase…
Huffed, Blair takes her horse through its paces in the most boring horse show ever. First, the horse needs to traverse a series of tires laid out on the ground. One thinks, wow, is the horse going to stick its hooves in each one like a football player?
No, the horse simply walks through the middle of the tires. Next, it steps over a one-foot obstacle. Finally, it comes to the most challenging obstacle of them all…a gate!
Truly, the gate proves to be the ultimate equine challenge. The horse bolts and beats the heck out of the stunt person. First, the horse runs the stunt person through the roof of a confession stand. Next, the horse falls down a slope and actually rolls over the stunt person.
That did not look safe at all. Did Summer of Fear just turn into Faces of Death?
Summer of Fear & Loathing
Purcell continues to be loved by all. The father kisses her goodbye when he leaves for work. Purcell polishes silver with the mom. She does cartwheels with the little brother. And then, after all of this wholesome stuff, Purcell makes out with Blair’s boyfriend while Blair looks on.
This leaves Blair with only one choice. She must speak to the professor who happened to study the people and superstitions of the land Purcell hails from!
Blair is cagey. She tells the professor she is writing a short story. She wants to know if a person can control another person’s mind? And, is it possible to make events occur?
“We all make events occur every day of our lives,” the professor says. “For example, we dial a phone number and make a call. Why is a young liberated woman interested in such things?”
That’s a valid question. Blair should be out complaining about her paycheck and explaining that babies aren’t alive until they can vacuum. Regardless, the professor gives Blair some books to read. He happens to have the books in the trunk of his car. Take note, that is how you make a movie. Craven just eliminated the need for a set that included a bookcase.
Blair returns home and finds her missing bikini picture, which has magically reappeared for plot purposes. Red splotches are drawn all over her skin. Her hives were the result of a spell! We also learn that the…thing…she found in Purcell’s dresser was actually a wax effigy of Blair’s horse and not a malformed Gumby…with hair.
Here is another horse joke: A horse walks into a bar. The barman confuses idioms with jokes and offers him a glass of water, but can’t make him drink…
Summer of Fear Street
Blair confronts Purcell about possibly being a witch. Purcell is nonplussed.
“No one will believe you. They love me. You shouldn’t count on your professor friend either.” She adds more salt to the wound later on by adding, “Your dress doesn’t fit you. It looks perfect on me. I like my hair like this, don’t you? Makes my face look softer. Your boyfriend likes it, too. So does your father…”
By this point, the plot goes a bit awry, as Summer of Fear doesn’t quite know what to do with itself. It attempts to course correct by having a mailman come out of nowhere and hand Blair a mysterious letter for Purcell. The letter is from a Boston woman named Mary.
Eventually, Blair reads the letter to discover that Purcell was…I’m honestly not sure. The letter also has a phone number in it. Blair calls it, and the woman on the other end offers no real information other than the fact that Purcell was in a glee club at college or something.
The screenplay has become a serious of loose suggestions, it seems.
Regardless, some stuff happens, and Blair eventually learns that a true witch cannot be photographed. Why? Because they can’t reflect light.
Uhm…pretty sure that about the only reason we see any object is because it reflects light. Then again, I am not a scientist. I once answered a question on a science quiz like this:
Question: How do you take care of your cuticle?
Answer: I take good care of it.
Another glimpse at the fine minds behind the curtain at The Last Movie Outpost. You’re welcome.
Summer of Cape Fear
Eventually, runtime pushes us to the end of the movie. Highlights include: Purcell and the father feeding each other grapes by the romantic light of an open refrigerator door, a wrestling match between Blair and Purcell in a darkroom and a high-speed car chase that ends in fiery doom for Purcell. Or does it?
When all is said and done, what does the father have to say for himself so that his wife doesn’t take half of his stuff for dallying with Purcell?
“I don’t remember a thing about what happened. I just woke up in the basement.”
Well played, playa…
I likely won’t remember Summer of Fear for too long either. It was fun, and Purcell is a cutie, kind of a cross between Bernadette Peters and Mary Hart. Yet, the plot never generates any real momentum. Revelations are delivered via convenience. Purcell leaves all of her spell material in the garbage for Blair to repeatedly find. In between, the professor drops answers into Blair’s lap.
The movie was based on a novel by Lois Duncan. Duncan was a pioneer of YA fiction and dabbled in the realm of horror/suspense. She was maybe part of the trunk that the Goosebumps books grew from.
Duncan’s writing changed later in her life due to a personal tragedy. Her daughter was murdered, so Duncan no longer wanted to write about young women in peril. She founded a research center to investigate cold cases, which became the nonprofit Resource Center for Victims of Violent Deaths.
As for Craven’s part in the process, Summer of Fear was the first project he took on after relocating from New York to California. It was his first time working with a star, Blair, 35-mm film, a crane and a dolly, so it was more of an education than a chance to flex his muscles.
Summary of Fear
Summer of Fear is fluff. It is entertaining to see familiar faces in their salad days, though. Purcell could have been bigger but was simply one of those actresses that got lost in the shuffle and never hit on a project that propelled her into an upper bracket. Summer of Fear is not great, but it is a fun distraction from our winter of discontent…
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