Spectre (1977 film) - Revision history

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==Summary==


After a supernatural experiment leaves him with a serious heart condition, an occult criminologist recruits his skeptical friend to aid him with a new case. Their assignment: to investigate a wealthy British businessman and his family allegedly flirting with the dark arts. As the investigators learn more about the suspicious family, they have to fight to survive against a powerful demon and an evil cult.

==Details==
[[File:Spectre 1977film.png|thumb|200px|right|Scenes from ''Spectre (1977 film)''...]]

* Release Date: 1977
* Country/Language: UK, English
* Genres/Technical: Horror, Fantasy, Mystery, made-for-TV
* Setting: [[1970s]] [[UK]]
* Runtime: 1 hr 38 min
* Starring: Robert Culp, Gig Young, John Hurt
* Director: Clive Donner
* Writer: Samuel A. Peeples, Gene Roddenberry
* Producer/Production Co: Gene Roddenberry, 20th Century Fox Television, Norway Productions
* Wikipedia: ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(1977_film) link])
* IMDB Page: ([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076745/ link])


==Ratings==
===[http://www.mpaa.org/film-ratings/ MPAA Ratings]===

* Rated: not rated (mild Violence and Adult Content, brief Nudity)

Some scenes of brief nudity was hilariously filmed after completion and added to the TV pilot to sell it to the UK/European market as an adult horror movie; it looks rather out of place.

===Tentacle Ratings===

A rough [[Tentacle Ratings|measure]] of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
* SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; vaguely similar in tone, could be a very loose adaptation)

Effectively a lurid sort of pulp "Lovecraft lite" sort of story about the tomb of Asmodeus being unearthed in a standing-stone monument in the back yard of a wealthy businessman, allowing the demon to imitate and corrupt members of the family, and resurrect its cult; there's some minor mystery about which of the suspicious characters is really the demon, with a couple clever plot twists, and the whole thing really comes off like a second-rate but still quite entertaining ''[[Weird Tales]]'' submission by someone outside the "Lovecraft Circle"; many scenes seem to have even been staged in the style of old horror pulp cover art....

''Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of
how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.''

===Reviews===

Review Links:
* Review by Dave Sindelar at Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings ([http://www.scifilm.org/musing2135.html Link])
* Review by Richard Schieb at The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review (3/5 Stars) ([http://moria.co.nz/horror/spectre1977tv.htm Link]) - "With ''Spectre'' ... one thinks that Gene Roddenberry had the makings of a potentially worthwhile tv series had the pilot ever been picked up."

==Synopsis (SPOILERS)==

{{spoiler|
After a supernatural experiment leaves him with a serious heart condition, an occult criminologist recruits his skeptical friend to aid him with a new case. Their assignment: to investigate a wealthy British businessman and his family allegedly flirting with the dark arts. As the investigators learn more about the suspicious family, they have to fight to survive against a powerful demon and an evil cult.
}}

==Notes==

===Comments, Trivia, Dedication===

* Lead characters William Sebastian and Dr. "Ham" Hamilton were said to be modeled after Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson; the formula of pairing of a believer in the occult with a skeptic would reappear in ''The X-Files''.

===Associated Mythos Elements===

* tome: ''[[The Apocryphal Book of Tobit]]''
* deity: [[Demon#Asmodeus|Asmodeus]]
* race: [[Demon]]s (compare with a [[Voormi]] and [[Serpent People|Serpent Man]])
* race: [[Human Cultist]]s
* cult: [[Disciples of Asmodeus]] (appears to be a mostly human cult, dressed in red or black robes, corrupted by Asmodeus and given the power to shape-shift and a weakness for lust and the power to indulge it in exchange for service to the demon; services are performed in underground temples beneath Stonehenge-like standing stone circles....)

===Keeper Notes===



[[Category:Film:General]]
[[Category:Film:Film]]
[[Category:Film:CultsCultists]]
[[Category:Film:Witchcraft]]
[[Category:Film:HollowEarthLittlePeople]]
[[Category:Film:GothicHorror]]
[[Category:FIlm:SupernaturalDetective]]
[[Category:Film:Two-Tentacle Media]]

__NOTOC__

@@ Line 89: / Line 89: @@
 -->
 Review Links:
-* Review by Dave Sindelar at Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings ([https://fantasticmoviemusings.com/2017/08/19/spectre-1977/Link]) - "It’s not entirely successful; the story seems confused and a bit muddled, and it’s a little too low key for its own good, but it also has a unique feel to it that makes me wish it had made it to a series; I would like to have seen the directions it would have gone."
+* Review by Dave Sindelar at Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings ([https://fantasticmoviemusings.com/2017/08/19/spectre-1977/ Link]) - "It’s not entirely successful; the story seems confused and a bit muddled, and it’s a little too low key for its own good, but it also has a unique feel to it that makes me wish it had made it to a series; I would like to have seen the directions it would have gone."
 * Review by Richard Schieb at The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review (3/5 Stars) ([http://moria.co.nz/horror/spectre1977tv.htm Link]) - "With ''Spectre'' ... one thinks that Gene Roddenberry had the makings of a potentially worthwhile tv series had the pilot ever been picked up."

@@ Line 131: / Line 131: @@
 and the mysterious outer/astral dimension we might call the [[Other Side]]....)
 -->
-* tome:  ''[[The Apocryphal Book of Tobit]]''
+* tome:  ''[[Occult Books#The Apocryphal Book of Tobit|The Apocryphal Book of Tobit]]''
 * deity:  [[Demon#Asmodeus|Asmodeus]]
-* race:  [[Demon]]s (compare with a [[Voormi]] and [[Serpent People|Serpent Man]])
+* race:  "[[Demon]]s" (compare with a [[Voormi]] and [[Serpent People|Serpent Man]])
 * race:  [[Human Cultist]]s
 * cult:  [[Disciples of Asmodeus]] (appears to be a mostly human cult, dressed in red or black robes, corrupted by Asmodeus and given the power to shape-shift and a weakness for lust and the power to indulge it in exchange for service to the demon; services are performed in underground temples beneath Stonehenge-like standing stone circles....)

@@ Line 176: / Line 176: @@
 [[Category:Film:CultsCultists]]
 [[Category:Film:Witchcraft]]
 [[Category:Film:HollowEarthLittlePeople]]
 [[Category:Film:GothicHorror]]