Communion (1989)

• Year: 1989
• Released: 10 Nov 1989
• Country: United States, United Kingdom
• Adwords: 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097100/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/communion
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/communion
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Biography, Drama, Horror
• Runtime: 107 min
• Writer: Whitley Strieber
• Director: Philippe Mora
• Cast: Christopher Walken, Lindsay Crouse, Frances Sternhagen
• Keywords: based on novel or book, christmas, new york city, alien, halloween,

	5.5/10
	33% – Critics
	46% – Audience

Communion Storyline

A writer who has a family of 3 goes on holiday with friends to their very upscale log home outside of town in mainland USA. As they all settle in for the night an unexpected series of events unfolds. Lights that are so bright it’s like the noonday sun at midnight blast through the windows waking everyone. The next morning their friends are so unnerved, they persuade the writer’s family to take them back to town immediately. After the experience with their friends in October, the writer’s family goes back out to their log vacation home for Christmas holidays and experience unusual lights during the night again. It’s difficult to ascertain exactly what happened. The writer’s family and friends dig deep trying to understand what they’ve all experienced. Is a group dream? Hallucination? Or real? Who are the little blue Dr’s? Are they helping humanity in some way?

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Communion Movie Reviews

Had potential, but misfires pretty badly

In 1985, sci-fi novelist Whitney Striber had a dream which led to a close encounter. It became the subject for his book ‘Communion’ which became a best-seller. Four years later he gives us this. True story though it may be, it is clearly too personal for Striber to manipulate (even just a little bit) to make it the right shape and form for a movie. Instead it remains too abstract, and subsequently clumsy. But that is only half the problem.

Communion wins my award for biggest miscast in cinema history. Christopher Walken does everything wrong, starting with the way he delivers his dialogue. He is not even remotely engaged in the story, he is emotionally dead. Walken is portraying somebody who went though what must’ve been the most traumatic experience that a person could have. The only time he comes close to showing signs of trauma is his ability to make himself cry (a little) at the end of one scene.

Next, there is the matter of visual effects. If you were to walk into a room where this was on TV, and up to the part when we meet the ‘little blue doctors’ and their slightly taller, skinnier red-skinned cousins, you might think you were watching an Ed Wood flick, or something from that decade. Looking at these creatures, one is more likely to think they are cute rather than creepy or surreal. Anything that looks like rubber on strings belongs in a puppet theatre, not in a sci-fi thriller.

I guess the only crew member who did a competent job in their field is Eric Clapton, who wrote a good theme for an otherwise mediocre score. Communion has much potential, but sadly it ends up being one of those films that you are glad when it is over.

Laughable…

COMMUNION is well known as one of the weirdest films of the 1980s, an adaptation of the supposed true-life story by author Whitley Streiber which explores his lifelong interactions with alien “greys” busy abducting him and experimenting on him since childhood. That this laboured, openly ridiculous film is entertaining at all is solely down to Christopher Walken, whose all-out-weirdo performance is a thing of delight. Walken basically goes crazy as the film progresses and proceeds to make his wife’s life a misery, and his overacting is always amusing. Sadly, the rest is a laughable mess, with plasticky aliens, cheap set design, and a climax which features Walken boogeying and laughing with his alien captors. You’ll never have seen anything like it, and I can’t quite believe they filmed it…

Some eerie moments in forgettable sci-fi thriller

Novelist Whitley Strieber adapted his own book to the screen, a “non-fiction” account of his encounter with aliens. Occasionally intense and haunting piece about alien-abduction which doesn’t hold back on the probing details and bug-eyed little green men. Christopher Walken plays Strieber as an unassuming family man who suffers the alien encounter while vacationing in the country. First-half of the film is quite intriguing, but it begins to unravel from there, becoming ‘surreal’ in the worst sense. The director, Philippe Mora, has a good eye, but he drops the ball, letting the project become murky and disjointed, and ultimately unabsorbing for the audience. Certainly worth a look for Walken’s fans (he’s solid, as usual). Lindsey Crouse is also fine as Strieber’s wife and it’s always nice to see Frances Sternhagen’s work, here playing another in her stable of medical professionals. ** from ****