Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Summer of Fear Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 19, 2017

The untimely passing of Wes Craven in 2015 deprived the film world of one of its most unique voices in the annals of horror, and especially in the annals of horror tinged with a certain amount of black comedy. Craven was still a relative newcomer when he helmed Summer of Fear in 1978 for television (it was evidently originally broadcast under the title Stranger in Our House). As Linda Blair mentions (repeatedly) in the new interview included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, the bean counters behind the project thought that the “combo platter” of Craven and Blair would be enough to spark interest, which it apparently did, though probably even ardent fans of the director and/or the actress would be hard pressed to assess Summer of Fear as anything other than a middling made for tv movie. While an archival commentary with Craven, also included on this release, alludes to some cinematic inspirations, I think most objective viewers would be similarly hard pressed to find the same sort of subtle paranoia that, say, Roman Polanski offered in Rosemary's Baby, despite the same general premise of an “innocent bystander” getting swept up in the throes of someone practicing that dreaded old black magic. Part of the problem with Summer of Fear is that it pretty much gives away the entire conceit with imagery (as hazy as it is) underneath the opening credits, which seems to clearly show a woman possessed by something demonic.

Perhaps unexpectedly, Blair does not play the girl “hosting” a demon in Summer of Fear. Instead, she’s sweet, unassuming Rachel Bryant, who awakens one morning at her family’s beautiful ranch to find her mother Leslie (Carol Lawrence) crying because Leslie’s sister and her sister’s husband have been killed in a car accident. There’s already a bit of wobbly plotting going on, since Rachel’s family seems spectacularly under informed about these relatives, despite Leslie’s near hysteria about the deaths. Things get even wobblier when it’s mentioned that Leslie’s sister and her husband had a daughter named Julia, who was not in the car and who presumably didn’t perish. That sets up the central conceit of the film, when Julia (Lee Purcell) is brought back to live with the Bryant family.

Unsurprisingly, bad things start happening in droves once Julia arrives, and the film attempts to gin up a little suspense in terms of whether Julia is the cause of the misfortunes or if it’s simply a case of bad luck (guess which it turns out to be). Unfortunately, Summer of Fear waits too long to have anything seriously untoward happen, instead doling out relatively minor mishaps like Rachel getting a serious rash which keeps her nascent romance with boyfriend Mike Gallagher (Jeff McCracken) from blossoming. The film is a little edgier in its treatment of the relationship between Julia and Leslie’s father Tom (Jeremy Slate), and in fact Craven mentions in the commentary how he had to fight the censors to even keep the fairly tame and discursive allusions concerning Julia seducing Tom as vague as possible.

The film does try to evoke a kind of Rosemary’s Baby ambience at times, including having the increasingly suspicious Rachel utilizing the help of kindly Professor Jarvis (Macdonald Carey), who serves as this film’s analog to Maurice Evans’ Hutch in the Polanski film, down to getting “cursed” by Julia, who of course turns out to be casting nefarious spells right and left. Of course, Rachel's suspicions are pooh-poohed by everybody, including her best friend (played by a young Fran Drescher). Even the supposed “surprise” revelation about Julia’s identity offered late in the film is overly predictable, due to a not very artful setup (with similarly botched misdirection) presented early in the film.

This is one of those bizarrely hyperbolic made for television affairs where all sorts of ludicrous shenanigans accrue, only to be solved in the final couple of minutes, at which point everyone (or at least the survivors) simply go back to their peaceful suburban lives as if nothing (or at least not much) has happened. Performances are generally fine in this effort, but there’s simply not much suspense here, let alone any real moments of angst. The one possible exception may come courtesy of Rachel’s love of horses, a plot element evidently added to this adaptation of Lois Duncan’s source novel because Blair is something of a horse nut herself.

Summer of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Summer of Fear is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Doppelganger Films, Music Box Films' horror imprint, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.36:1. While I'm sure fans of this made for television film will be generally thrilled with its upgrade to high definition, it's evident that no real restoration was done here, and there is an above average amount of flecks, specks, scratches and the like. While I suspect that this had to do with edits that were imposed on the film, there are also a few moments that look sourced from decidedly inferior and secondary elements. One notable one occurs at around the 32 minute mark, where suddenly contrast goes wonky, the picture is markedly more fuzzy and grain also spikes (see screenshot 19), and there's noticeable frame wobble and warping. Why this particular snippet was excised at some point is kind of a head scratcher, but one way or the other there's a bit of a heterogeneous appearance here that more demanding videophiles may find occasionally problematic. In the brightly lit outdoor moments (which are plentiful), the palette pops reasonably well (though it seems a bit faded, skewing toward brown), and detail levels are generally very good. Grain looks natural and there are no real compression issues.

Summer of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Summer of Fear features a serviceable DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track which supports this made for television effort's pretty limited sonic ambitions. Aside from a few effects like car crashes or horses going berserk, the bulk of the film is simply made up of dialogue scenes, which this track renders cleanly and clearly. There's no sign of any age related wear and tear, and while somewhat shallow and narrow sounding, the track delivers all elements without any problems whatsoever.

Summer of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director Feature Commentary with Wes Craven also features co-Executive Producer Max Keller, whom Craven mentions was one of his chief mentors in his early career.


• Exclusive Interview with Linda Blair (1080p; 13:13) is new to this release and offers the actress reminiscing about the production.


• Image Gallery (1080p)


• Original Trailer (1080p; 1:51)

Summer of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Summer of Fear is pretty minor Craven by any standard, but completists may well want to check out this release. It's all kind of silly, and it hinges on one spectacularly illogical conceit (without spoiling anything, did no one know the deceased victims and their family?). It's fun to see Blair playing the "normal" one for a change, but the story is kind of listless and nothing ever becomes overly suspenseful or scary. Video encounters a few hurdles, but audio is fine for those considering a purchase.