Director – Michael Anderson (Orca)
Starring – Cliff Robertson (Spider-Man), Jean Simmons (Dark Shadows), and Jenny Agutter (The Avengers)
Release Date – 1979
Rating – 1.5/5
Tagline(s) – “Or is she?” “She’s back!” and “A story of the macabre… with a different twist”
Title and cover art are pivotal when making and marketing a movie. No one wants to see a movie with a lame ass title and artwork. Hence the movie Dominique, aka Dominique is Dead. There is nothing appealing about that title.
After watching 13 of the 15 films in one of my horror sets I decided it was time to finish that set and suffer on through. DiD was indeed that next film but I honestly did not want to watch it. If the brains behind this one could not come up with a title any better than that then I highly doubted that they could craft an entertaining story. Regardless, I threw it in and sat through the entire film with only the desire to review it for you poor guys and gals.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows David Ballard (Robertson) and his wife Dominique (Simmons). David is a greedy asshole that wants to drive his wife insane so he can take all her money. He succeeds and Dominique hangs herself. However, she just does not stay dead. David keeps seeing her when he least expects it. Is he too going crazy or did someone still a page from his book?**Spoiler Alert**
When people today complain and say Hollywood is no longer producing original films clearly have not watched any of the movies in these giant horror movie box sets. Big budget films have a history of “borrowing” from other films often rehashing similar ideas and applying what they think are clever twists. This particular film falls prey to just that.
The acting is what you would expect from a film of this caliber. For back in the day it did have a somewhat rather large budget which allowed them to buy some decent actors. Though, none are truly A-listers but they did do a great job at portraying their roles. Sadly, this is the only praise I can give this one. The story was almost word for word as another film I reviewed not that long ago from this same box set. That film, Nightmare Castle, was also about a greedy asshole that attempts to drive his wife insane only to be haunted by ghosts. This one is done in a different manner with some changes but really does not offer up anything fun or entertaining. If the movie wanted to borrow the same plot it could have done it a different way or at least made some major changes to keep the audience intrigued.
Finally, those of you looking for special effects and on screen kills will definitely miss out when watching this one. No deaths nor special effects can be seen in this boring rip off. In fact, this movie can hardly be called a horror film other than the classic gothic atmosphere reminiscent of classic films such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Overall, this film fails to be original or entertaining and for the most part is nothing but a huge waste of time. I do not recommend this one.
