Synopsis
From the dark of everlasting damnation comes evil - to walk among the living!
An occult criminologist investigates a businessman who dabbles in the black arts while trying to survive against a powerful demon and an evil cult.
Spectre
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Alternative Titles
Espectro, 幽灵
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Theatrical
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USA
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USA
21 May 1977
- Theatrical
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Gene Roddenberry's contribution to the occult detective TV movie as pilot craze - of Night Stalker style supernatural dicks that didn't get a series order. Spectre sees Robert Culp & Gig Young act as a Holmes & Watson demonologist variant, investigating a well connected British family. There are a few nice set pieces, substantial production values, really solid cast, atmospheric moments - but there is a smugness in the humour and general sexism that rubbed me the wrong way. As a buddy dynamic, this is Young at the end of his career, and Culp overcompensating in the hope of I Spy lightning striking his return to the small screen. My peeps on LB had a substantially better time, so it may just…
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A Gene Roddenberry authored pilot-turned-TV movie. Culp and Young are criminologists who become demon hunters. The set-up is great fun and we jump from intrigue to intrigue so quickly that I thought I might fall completely in love with this one. But things slow down once we arrive at the Cyon mansion, where the pair of investigators must determine which of three wealthy siblings is actually just a husk housing a sexually rapacious demon lord. John Hurt is on hand to provide some fun, and Jenny Runacre appears in a tiny thankless role as a chauffeur. She's so instantly recognizable and iconic, I would have liked much more of her. The climax is satisfyingly perverse and echos Devil Rides Out, The Witches (1966) and the rest of that ilk. As a whole it's a joy even though it loses momentum along the way.
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Back in the Sixties and Seventies, I was a stone-cold Star Trek fanatic, so whenever Gene Roddenberry put out a new television pilot, it went right to the top of my pre-digital streaming watchlist (i.e. yellow highlighted entry in TV Guide). By 1977, Roddenberry had already put out The Questor Tapes and three iterations of Genesis II that were never picked up by NBC, so in '77, he decided to ditch Sci-Fi and try riffing on the occult, hence Spectre was born (and please don't conflate this with the Daniel Craig extended episode of The Venture Brothers).
For my money, this is the pilot that should've sold and made Gene a Metric Buttload of Simoleans, because it's essentially a Hammer…
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Strong showing from Donner and Gene Roddenberry, who sadly failed to get this one to series. Robert Culp plays a wincing criminologist who dabbled a bit too deeply into the occult (he has a gaping wound from a voodoo doll near his heart!), and has a live-in witch for a housekeeper. Gig Young is his trusted doctor pal. Together, they would have traveled the world, banishing ghouls back to hell. Alas, here we only get the one adventure, but it’s a good one: to help a woman who claims her brother has fallen under sway of the demon Asmodeus. John Hurt plays a concerned family member and we also get the incomparable Jenny Runacre as a chauffeur with a strong…
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British New Wave director Clive Donner helms this Roddenberry-written telepic in the burgeoning "occult detective" sweepstakes, starring a game cast featuring Robert Culp (I Spy, The Greatest American Hero) and Gig Young (Come Fill the Cup, Game of Death) as a sort of Holmes and Watson, witchcraft variant, and supported by the likes of John Hurt (I Claudius, The Elephant Man), James Villiers (Blood From the Mummy's Tomb, Asylum), Gordon Jackson (The Great Escape, The Ipcress File), and Mrs. Roddenberry herself, Majel Barrett, as housekeeping spellcaster, Lilith.
The world's greatest criminologist/occult authority, Sebastian (Culp) calls on his old partner, forensic pathologist Dr. "Ham" Hamilton (Young), to get the band back together for a mysterious case in dear old Blighty, on… -
Rock Me Asmodeus
Making allowances for this being a somewhat sluggish and padded-for-time 70s TV movie (written by Gene Roddenberry!), this is pretty awesome. The great Robert Culp stars as William Sebastian, Holmesian paranormal investigator who has dare I say it a somewhat Spock/Bones dynamic with his alcoholic Dr. Watson figure played by Gig Young. In a just world this would have gone to series and we'd have a big screen franchise based on it by now.
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Surprisingly ace TV pilot from Gene Roddenberry dives into the deep end of an occult detective show, basically does everything right and it still doesn’t get picked up. Robert Culp and Gig Young ham it up as a hip Holmes and Watson. They decant to England to face demons as well as a decadent aristocratic family whose household doubles as a sex club. The excellent supporting cast of British thespians involved in the shenanigans includes John Hurt, Gordon Jackson, Ann Bell and, lording over all, James Villers. It all ends magnificently with hellfire and a sacrificial orgy (+ dwarfs and were-cats) — apparently it was released in the UK with additional nudity, which is not the cut I watched, sadly. Gene still had Star Trek, of course, but this witty and sexy alternative demonstrates he was more than a one cult pony.
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This is another pilot from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Written by Roddenberry and Trek writer Samuel A. Peeples (Where No Man Has Gone Before and the Animated Series' Beyond the Farthest Star). Robert Culp and Gig Young star as an occultist and a doctor respectively. Majel Barrett (the original number one and Nurse Chapel) is William Sebastian's (Culp) secretary who is possibly psychic. They are hired to see what is going on in the Cyon family (John Hurt, Gordon Jackson, Ann Bell). Off to England they go and investigations reveal someone is knee deep in the worship of Asmodeus. There is a lot of exposition but the last 20 minutes is a wonderful clash between out protagonists and the full cult of Asmodeus.
108 of 100 for the 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days Challenge
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Long before it was Daniel Craig's weakest mission, it was a borderline incomprehensible, extremely dull, and cheap TV movie horror. From the creator of Star Trek. Sorry, Gene, but maybe you can't boldly go somewhere, sometimes. Although tweaked heavily, this could have been a much better ep of the original series.
Dug John Hurt's hair-do though. Looking like a member of The Beatles. As well as the groovy music that sounded like the tunes you'd hear in a porno back in the day. Surprised to see some boobage at the end. This wasn't from cable. Was it meant to go theatrical, before being dumped on the (sorry) boob tube?
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A Gene Roddenberry penned occult TV show pilot that falls somewhere between Star Trek and The Outer Limits and almost ends up a prototype X-Files with a redirected focus on the supernatural rather than the paranormal. This was bonkers enough with Robert Culp killing succubi by shoving holy books onto their breasts and satanic Gorns that I'm a little disappointed it wasn't picked up for a series. The relationship between Sebastian and Dr. Hamilton recalls future TV pairings of the rationalist and the believer, and carries with it the familiar charm of the 60's Enterprise trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy that I'd love to have seen the continuing adventures of - especially if they doubled down on that delicious 70's weirdness.
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A failed TV pilot turned TV movie co-written and produced by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. His wife, Majel Barrett, has a small role in it too as a witch assistant to our Holmes-like protagonist portrayed by Robert Culp. You also get John Hurt to class things up, and the result is a fairly good story of demons and possession. It’s a little hokey, but worse perhaps is its derivative feel. It’s understandable why it wasn’t picked up and made into a series, but as its own thing, it ain’t too bad,
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• 1977 Horror — D Edward Ranks (21 / 25) -
I'm assuming that Gene Roddenberry watched The Devil rides out and decided that he could make something similar for tv. He couldn't. He really had no idea how to make horror, instead churning out something that feels like a poor mish-mash of Dennis Wheatley and Sherlock Holmes but failing miserably. The matching of Robert Culp as a master criminologist and Gig Young as the doctor in tow is poor at best, mostly for the fact that Young's performance isn't exactly stable, most likely for the fact that he was suffering from alcoholism (something that the story actually adresses as Youngs character has the same affliction but jokes away by putting a spell on him). The horror parts are even worse,…