RETRO REVIEW: THE SEDUCTION ☆
By Albert Lanier
The Seduction is the textbook definition of a bad movie: A film that completely takes itself seriously but is so poorly made that it can only be seen in humorous terms.
Clumsily constructed, shot like a bland TV movie of the week and only worth viewing to point out its numerous faults, The Seduction wastes the talents of its two leads as well as the audience's time.
The movie's main protagonist is local Los Angeles Television Anchor Jaime Douglas. Jaime apparently has it all: success as a broadcast personality, a comfortable relationship with her boyfriend Brandon and a pleasant home with a swimming pool that she takes full advantage of.
Unfortunately, Jaime's neighbor Darek Sanford is a big fan of the gorgeous TV anchor. He such a devoted fan that he constantly takes photos of Jaime all throughout the house and of course while she is doing laps in the pool.
The real term for Darek is stalker. The average fan of a celebrity doesn't fill the walls of their house with photos of their favorite star like Darek does.
One of the oddities about The Seduction is why Darek is so obsessed with Jaime in the first place. The guy is a handsome professional photographer who runs his own business. His assistant clearly has the hots for him yet he is fixated on Jaime Douglas.
Beyond being spellbound by Jaime's beauty, no real motivation is given to Darek by the film's screenplay. He's simply smitten with Jaime and won't back off.
To that end, Darek makes the typical trademark silent phone calls to Jaime's house, sends her gifts and even meets and talks with her at one point.
Jaime begins to find out that Darek won't take no for answer. This begins to take a toll on her life. For a start, her relationship with her boyfriend Brandon who is beginning to get fed up with creepy Darek.
Brandon talks to a hard nosed cop named Maxwell who tells him that there is isn't much he can do unless Darek breaks the law in some way. Otherwise his hands are tied.
Then there is Jaime's friend Robin Dunlap, a professional model who's a sarcastic wiseass. At first she thinks Darek's interest in Jaime is simply a harmless crush but his insistence as well as Darek's paying an unexpected visit to her at a photo shoot she's working at soon convinces her that something isn't right with this guy.
Darek continues his obsessive pursuit of Jaime, making her jumpy, nervous, terrified. She even agrees to have a shotgun in the house even though she is anti- gun in her orientation. The comfortable life she used to have now seems to be eroding rapidly.
The Seduction eventually arrives at its inevitable confrontation between Jaime and Darek.
This climax and the ending is one of the most laughable and ridiculous that I've come across in an erotic thriller.
In fact, I was aghast and incredulous at the way The Seduction ended in between my howls of laughter.
It's a shame really. The Seduction released in 1982 was probably TV star Morgan Fairchild's best shot at a movie career. Frankly, I think Fairchild had the talent to be a movie star but her film career was clearly ruined by this picture.
Fairchild does her level best here as Jaime Douglas but she is let down by David Schmoeller's piss poor script which basically is a compendium of poorly drawn characters, stock tropes and bad plot points as well as specious speeches.
Take Vince Edwards performance as Maxwell, the police officer. In one scene, he gives a speech in a diner to Brandon about the state of society that is so hammy and cheesy that I'm surprised it wasn't served to him on a plate.
Andrew Stevens who plays Darek is also screwed over by the script which basically allows him to be a good looking Cypher, a thinly drawn caricature motivated only by the mechanics of the plot.
Colleen Camp does scene stealing work as Robin in what clearly is the best performance in the film while Michael Sarazin is utterly underwhelming in his lifeless turn as Brandon.
Director David Schmoeller who's previous film was the entertaining, solid horror film Tourist Trap fails completely with this follow up feature. It's almost like he went through the motions and simply had his actors invest in every cliche imaginable.
The Seduction should really be called The Reduction because all you have in the end is very little to like or enjoy in this movie.
Albert Lanier is a film analyst and former film critic. He has previously written for the website Ain't It Cool News and magazine Hawaii Film and Video.