1977, USA
Curiously, I watched this back to back with Dan Curtis’s Trilogy of Terror, and not only does it have the feel of a Curtis production, but it also employs his staple scriptwriter (Richard Matheson) and stars Karen Black in a dichotomous ‘hair up/hair down’ dual role not unlike the one she played in Trilogy of Terror‘s ‘Millicent and Therese’ segment, as well as Curtis’s theatrical feature Burnt Offerings.
While traces of camp follow her from one film to the next, she is a diverse actress, and these ‘role-within-a-role’ parts certainly give her a lot of room to play.
Black stars as Miriam, the stuffy, uptight wife of a self-absorbed lawyer (George Hamilton) who pressures her to stay at home and prepare for motherhood.
Things that would be subtext in other films are laid right out on the table from the opening scenes; after a dream in which she witnesses her own funeral, Miriam verbalizes her feelings of being ‘trapped’ and accuses her husband of controlling her by not letting her have a job, go to school or even do volunteer work.
“I thought we agreed…” he begins every sentence, as though Miriam is not allowed to change her mind or have inconsistent feelings.
Of course, he’s a lawyer, and he treats his wife like he has her under contract
One day at the mall, she spies a low-cut red sweater and a blonde wig, and is drawn to try them on.
She glows as she stares at herself in the mirror, transformed.
“You look like a new woman!” exclaims the shop girl, which seems to be some sort of trigger for Miriam to put everything back and deny herself these frivolous pleasures.
But the shopkeeper convinces her to at least buy the sweater, and the next day, Miriam can’t resist – she returns to the shop for the wig, some lipstick and a pair of large hoop earrings.
When she surprises her husband with her new get-up, he is horrified.
“It’s just not you”, he explains.
But Miriam seems to be having some sort of identity crisis – compelled to change her appearance while assuring her husband that she’s “the same woman you always approved of.”
Freewheeling fashions aren’t Miriam’s only compulsion; she suddenly rents a beach-house (against her husband’s wishes) where she goes when she wants to wear her new clothes.
Like Cathryn in Images or Anna in Possession she has another house where she explores forbidden aspects of her personality.
But when people in the seaside village start to recognize her as a woman named ‘Sandy’, Miriam starts to panic.
Why does she keep seeing images of a burning house? How is it connected to her dreams, and is she possessed by a dead woman? Is she a dead woman?
Somehow for a film that’s been so obvious about its psychology, the twist still comes as a surprise, with another quick expository wrap up for anyone who couldn’t put the Freudian two-and-two together from the flashbacks.
hexafu 