Today’s review is for one of my favorite movies of all time. (I know, I know… I’ve said this before, but in my defense I’m old and I love a LOT of movies.) COMMUNION stars Christopher Walken as Whitley Strieber, Lindsay Crouse as Anne Strieber, Frances Sternhagen as Dr. Janet Duffy, Andreas Katsulas as Alex, and Joel Carlson as Andrew Strieber. It was directed by Phillipe Mora based on Whitley Strieber’s best-selling nonfiction book of the same name. Now, perhaps I’m completely in the wrong here, but I am legitimately baffled as to why this movie isn’t more popular. It is FAR superior and FAR scarier than the similar FIRE IN THE SKY, which is usually what people bring up when they’re talking about terrifying alien abduction films. Now, I know what you’re thinking. If I like it so much then why am I reviewing it on BAD MOVIE MONDAY? Well, because for some insane reason it’s considered a bad movie. Most critics at the time dismissed it and audiences have been ignoring it for over thirty years. So I suppose this review is my attempt to remedy that.
Quick Recap! When COVID shut down everything in early 2020, I started an online bad movie night get-together with some friends that we eventually dubbed “Bad Movie Monday”. The premise was simple: We’d torture each other every Monday with the worst trash we could find, tell a few jokes, cheer each other up, and in the process maybe discover some weird obscure cinema that we might never have seen any other way. This series of reviews will feature highlights of those night so you can all share in the fun and maybe get some ideas for your own movie night.
COMMUNION is a very loose cinematic adaptation of Whitley Strieber’s novel detailing his experiences with otherworldly, perhaps alien, Visitors. Whether or not you believe this sort of thing, the book is an excellent read. I would go so far as to say that it’s probably the best “non-fiction” account of a UFO abduction ever written. Strieber IS a novelist, a very good one, after all. You should go read his other books too while you’re at it. The man knows how to tell a compelling story.
The film has some blood chilling moments. I remember not sleeping well the whole summer after I first watched it. I kept having jittery dreams about aliens with big black eyes every night and was utterly terrified to go to sleep. The special effects aren’t great, the aliens look very rubbery, but they’re damned effective anyway because they’re so surreal and strange. Beyond the scares, the film also really works as an engrossing family drama. Christopher Walken and Lindsay Crouse are absolutely wonderful together. Their dialogue and interactions are so funny and warm and genuine that you become invested what happens to them. I honestly think this is one of Walken’s best performances.
I don’t think I can over-emphasize how much COMMUNION “inspired” later movies and TV shows, not the least of which was a little program on FOX called The X-Files. You might have heard of it. Before the book came out aliens in UFO abduction accounts were just as likely to be described as tall Nordic men or hairy Bigfoot-like creatures. The true life Betty and Barney Hill Abductions and Steven Spielberg’s fictional Close Encounters of the Third Kind did portray extra-terrestrials as having big weird eyes and small thin bodies, but those were the exceptions from what I recall. The “grey visitor” didn’t become the almost exclusive portrayal of aliens until after Communion was released.
So what’s the story? Let’s look at the back of the VHS:
On December 26, 1985, at a secluded mountain cabin in New York, Whitley Strieber and his family began the greatest adventure of their lives.
After finishing dinner and retiring early, Whitley found himself suddenly awakened from a shocking dream. He would never be the same again.
This is one man’s riveting story of his unparalleled encounter with the Unknown – visitors whom he now recalls did ‘not appear to be human’
You may believe his story or not, but you must see it. Millions are already fascinated by the mystery of what happened to Whitley Strieber – who are the visitors, why did they come and are they still here?
This is a good synopsis, right on the money. I mean, yeah, it might as well be copied word-for-word off the book’s jacket, but it’s still accurate to the film. It also doesn’t spoil anything or misrepresent anything. The word “adventure” is a bit much, but other than that this is pretty balls on.
Alright! Now onto my favorite part of the review where I list ten thoughts I had during the film:
#1 This is peak Christopher Walken. So get ready.
#2 Despite the extremely fake looking aliens this has some legit “shit-your-pants” scary bits. There WILL be poop.
#3 The onscreen relationship between Lindsay Crouse and Christopher Walken feels so warm and genuine that you’d be fooled into thinking they were a real couple.
#4 Because the aliens were so fake looking a lot of scenes are lit like the second coming of Christ to hide the puppet strings, and it’s kind of hilarious. At the same time it also kind of works.
#5 You will be quoting Walken’s lines from this movie for years to come. I still say “I’M COOKING! BOOM!!!” when I write something and really get into it.
#6 Usually, in low budget movies, the child actors are so-so. Here the kid has a LOT of complicated dialogue and he really nails a lot of it.
#7 Christopher Walken will play the most “New Yawk” Texan you’ve ever seen in a movie.
#8 I think the fakeness of the aliens and the weirdness of the encounters makes the film feel oddly realistic. By the end of this film you will too.
#9 There are some genuine moments of deep philosophical thought in this movie AND I LOVE IT.
#10 Eric Clapton played the guitar bits in the soundtrack, so you’ll occasionally expect Mel Gibson and Danny Glover to appear and fight bad guys.
