October Movie Challenge: Dark Tower (1987)

 Tonight’s movie is not based on Stephen King. 

It does have a haunted tower, though. More importantly, it has Jenny Agutter, who has long been a favorite of mine.  It is also an "Attack of Opportunity" movie of sorts. I mean it has been on my list, just not the one I was planning for this Challenge. So it almost fits my time frame. Plus it has Jenny Agutter (I know, I have said this twice, expect it again), so there is that.

Dark Tower (1987)

Carolyn Page (Agutter) is an architect of some success. She has been put in charge of an enormous new office tower in Barcelona, a modern and costly edifice that is almost ready for its opening. Headed to her office, she sees a window washer outside, and suddenly he is fighting with something outside, and he falls 28 stories to his death.

Then more strange deaths start to happen. It becomes clear, at least to the cast, that it is a supernatural element and not, say, just a series of malfunctions. 

Dennis Randall (Michael Moriarty), a security consultant, is on hand to look into it. He starts by seeking out the practical side of things, but the body count soon tells him otherwise. Well, that and seeing ghosts. He enlists the aid of Max Gold (Theodore Bikel, who is actually not all that bad here), a paranormal investigator, and he sets about examining the history of the tower and its designer. That would be Carolyn’s late husband. Oh, Kevin McCarthy is in it as a drunk psychic playing pretty much to type. 

So Agutter is good, but not up to the standards I have for her. Michael Moriarty is ok, but like Agutter, he is not given a lot to work with here. Neither lives up to their acting chops.

So yeah, the building is haunted. Haunted houses are good, haunted castles are better, so a 28-story haunted high-rise is the best of all, right? Well...not in this case.  Note: this movie came out a year before Poltergeist III, which also features a haunted high-rise. 

I did want to like this one more; the cast is good. Some of the acting is good, others less so. The idea is good. It just never came together.

Jackson, IL Connections

I said before that you don't always need a haunted castle, or in Jackson's case, a haunted abandoned hospital (seriously, what the hell is up with my town?), a brand new building can have ghosts too.

It does give some ideas on what to do with my psychics, though. But that will have to wait a bit more.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
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