Hochhaus des Schreckens (1987)

Hochhaus des Schreckens: Directed by Freddie Francis, Ken Wiederhorn. With Michael Moriarty, Jenny Agutter, Carol Lynley, Theodore Bikel. A partially under construction office tower is being haunted by a deadly presence which seems to target the building’s architect.

“Oscar winning cinematographer Freddie Francis and writer Ken Wiederhorn share the blame for this dull supernatural high-rise horror; given that the film displays very little in the way of Francisu0026#39;s visual acumen, but everything one might expect from Wiederhorn—the man who gave us the shoddy Return of the Living Dead II—one has to wonder just how much Francis had contributed before being replaced as director. Iu0026#39;m willing to give Francis the benefit of the doubt and say u0026#39;not muchu0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWeiderhornu0026#39;s script revolves around the construction of a Barcelona high-rise, designed by renowned architect Carolyn Page (Jenny Agutter), which has been plagued by mysterious deaths. Detective Dennis Randall (Michael Moriarty) investigates and, after coming to the conclusion that the building is haunted, calls in help from para-psychologist Dr. Max Gold (Theodore Bikel) and his pal Sergie (Kevin McCarthy) to cleanse the building of the restless spirit.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith its solid cast, and the many possibilities for gory spectacle offered by a haunted semi-built office building, one might reasonably expect Dark Tower to be a cheesy piece of late 80s nonsense, packed with outrageously daft death sequences—indeed, the first scene, in which a window cleaner falls from his cradle onto a passing company exec, shows much promise. Unfortunately, nearly everything that follows proves to be extremely disappointing: long periods pass with nothing of note happening; too much of the film is focused in and around the buildingu0026#39;s elevator, resulting in extremely repetitive shots from inside the shaft; and there is very little in the way of satisfying splatter. The filmu0026#39;s silly finale provides unintentional laughs in the form of a manky looking corpse that looks like a reject from Wiederhornu0026#39;s earlier zombie movies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt 37, star Agutter has obviously decided that she is no longer young enough to do nude scenes (although we do get some cheeky shots of her in a camisole)—such a shame, u0026#39;cos I reckon she still looks great and some naked Agutter action would have certainly helped alleviate some of the pain (as would my Dark Tower drinking game: have a drink every time someone gets in an elevator or when there is a shot from the bottom of the elevator shaft. Hic!).”