The Oracle (1985) * (out of 4)Jennifer (Caroline Capers Powers) and her husband move into a new building where one night they mess around with a Ouija board. Pretty soon Jennifer feels that someone is trying to contact her but everyone else believes she is simply going crazy.Roberta Findlay has said quite a few things about THE ORACLE and none of them were good. The director has pretty much called this film horrid and it's really hard to disagree with her. I thought Findlay did a good job at at least delivering a professional looking movie but at the same time it's obvious that her heart wasn't into the project as there's simply no life or energy to the picture.The film wants to be something like ROSEMARY'S BABY but obviously it falls well short. There were a number of horror movies dealing with possession inside of an apartment complex and this here really doesn't offer up anything new. There are a couple nice shots via the cinematography but that's about it. The performances are pretty much weak and the screenplay lacks any real imagination. Even the death scenes aren't all that memorable, although I will say that the opening sequence with the hooker appears to have been influenced by MANIAC.With that said, THE ORACLE is a pretty boring film and its 93-minute really drag at a very slow pace.

Sweet, fragile young lady Jennifer (decently played by fetching brunette Caroline Capers Powers) and her insensitive jerk husband Ray (a supremely irritating portrayal by Roger Neil) move into an apartment that was previously inhabited by an old gypsy medium. Jennifer uses the old gypsy medium's leftover Ouija board to contact the unrestful and vindictive spirit of a murdered businessman; said angry and deadly spirit uses Jennifer as a means to an end to exact a harsh revenge on his killers. Boy, does this gloriously ghastly nickel'n'dime bilge possess all the essential so-utterly-wrong-they're-paradoxically-right ingredients to rate highly as a definite four-star stinkeroonie: the hopelessly ham-fisted (mis)direction by notorious Grade Z grindhouse maestro Roberta Findlay, the meandering narrative, a generic hum'n'shiver ooga-booga synthesizer score by Walter E. Sear and Michael Litovsky, shoddy, but excessive gore, mostly dreadful acting from a lame no-name cast (Pam La Testa easily cops the top thespic dishonors with her delightfully overblown performance as hostile, ugly, nasty fat lesbian psychopath Farkas), rubbery make-up f/x, crude cinematography, hilariously bungled murder set pieces (one guy stabs himself to death with a knife while imagining that he's covered with laughably fake-looking giant bugs!), ragged editing, R. Allen Leider's talky and plodding script, a total lack of tension and creepy atmosphere, and the uproariously fumbled climax all add up to create a choice chunk of wonderfully rancid and wretched 80's cheese that's entertaining for all the wrong reasons. The flavorsome yuletide setting and authentically grimy New York City locations that include the once infamous 42nd Street in all its former scuzzy neon slime urban splendor further enhance this clunker's considerable shabby charm. An amusingly awful hoot.

A young newly married woman, Jennifer, stumbles across a writing tool called the Oracle, which is an Ouija device that was used by the previous occupant of their apartment. For some entertainment with her friends she brings out the device for a séance, where she unwillingly gets in contact with a revengeful spirit who was murdered. No one believes her that the spiritual connection with the medium is real and to make matters worse the mystery gets more dangerous when she calls the number the spirit gave her. It leads her to his wife and now the killers of her husband are now tracking down Jennifer.The curse of the 80s horror cheese (that's extremely cheesy by the way) strikes again in this ridiculously dumb and cheaply done bungle of lightweight schlock. Despite being a rather ghastly piece, it's oddly watchable and to a certain degree enjoyable junk. Honestly the premise is quite unique and there are inventive ideas cooked up, on the other hand the budget and the execution doesn't entirely complement the vision. But then who am I to complain when it didn't cop out on the splatter. It's grisly, outlandish and terribly campy stuff! Watch the blood fly across the screen. An ominously brooding atmosphere with a murky colour scheme and jittery sound effects adds to the fun. A blunt synthesizer packed score springs into action and the shoddy special effects (like the rotting corpse and a green floating skull) are unintentionally funny.The direction by Roberta Findlay is simply clumsy, but her no-bars approach means there's a certain randomness that makes those clammy and plodding moments move on in a hurry. Well, some moments do feel like they're trapped in slow motion. They are basically those chase scenes. It might be light on suspense, but there are oddball thrills in minor spurts that have meagre potency. The cruddy performances are pretty dry. The constant squealing from the lead Caroline Capers Powers can get somewhat frustrating, but overall she was fair. Pam La Testa makes quite an impression as the bulky butch killer with a deep, no-nonsense attitude."The Oracle" is a corn-filled slice of 80s low-budget horror that's craptastic.

The Oracle, directed by Roberta Findlay wasn´t THAT bad after all. Ok, it was a bit dull at times but I´ve seen worse films, in fact many of them.The film itself was never really scary but it had its share of gore, so if you´re looking for that you´ll probably be satisfied with what you see.The production company (Laurel Films,Inc) for the film was also interesting, since the same company is the one behind George A. Romero´s zombie movies if I´m not mistaking.The version I saw myself was the Dutch release by New York Video. Comparing to the pictures on the back cover, this release seems to be cut since many shots were never to be seen in the movie, as the killing of the lady in the elevator-I didn´t see any blood in the film itself but on the back cover there was a still picture of it.I´ll give this film **½ of *****. An ok way to waste 94 minutes.