"The Fury" - UK BD review

Brian DePalma’s “The Fury” is out now on UK Blu-Ray courtesy of Arrow films, who were nice enough to send me a review copy to take a look at.

 

The film stars Kirk Douglass as Peter Sandza, who works for some unspecified US Govt Agency. Currently residing in the Middle East, he is preparing to relocate back to the US with his Son Robin, when the resort they are staying at is attacked by terrorists.

 

However, during the attack he discovers the whole thing was a set up by his partner Ben, (played by the “Dirty Dozen’s” John Cassavetes), who wanted him out of the way, because his son has special abilities, which the agency wants to exploit.

 

Forced to go on the run, Peter heads back to the states and attempts to find out where the agency are holding his son, which proves to be no easy task as their agents seem to be right behind him at every turn. Seems that Peter’s son had psychic abilities and Ben is using him as he wishes to turn him into some sort of psychic assassin (with predictably disastrous results as he misuses his powers at every opportunity).

 

But when Peter discovers a girl who also has Psychic abilities (played by Amy Irving), he and his girlfriend Hester (Carrie Snodgrass), are able to use her to track Robin down. But owing to the cruel experiments Ben has been performing on  him, will this be the happy family re-union he envisaged?

 

Based on the book of the same name by John Farris, who also wrote the screenplay, this was a bit of a weird one, which seems to be a film of two halves. On the one hand there’s the plot thread showing the lead character trying to outwit enemy agents at every turn, like in a James Bond movie . Whilst on the other, you have these Psychics who the agency is trying to exploit by using their abilities to kill people telepathically, rather like in Scanners, so it’s a bit of a difficult one to categorise.

 

The film is an interesting one though, which features a good supporting cast including Charles Durning (Dark Night of the Scarecrow) and a young Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue) who plays a police officer. Not to mention future soft porn actor Andrew Stevens (the Night Eyes films) who plays Peter’s son Robin. Sharper eyed viewers might also spot a very young Daryl Hannah, who has a brief role in the film.

 

Extras on the disc include

 

-Blood on the lens (27mins) - Cinemtographer Richard H Kline shares his stories about working on the picture

 

-Spinning Tales (13mins) - Interview with Fiona Lewis on her acting career and her role in the film as Dr Susan Charles

 

-A Location Journal (50mins) - Former Cinefastique correspondant Sam Irvin, who worked on the film as an intern talks about his time on set.

 

-Archive interviews with Director Brian DePalma, Producer Frank Yablans and stars Amy Irving and Carrie Snodgrass

 

-Double Negative – Short Film. An 18 minute Short film that Sam Irvin put together using cast and crew members he met on the set of various Brian DePalma films.

 

-Photo Gallery – A selection of rare behind the scenes pictures.

 

-And lastly theres the original theatrical trailer.

 

The case also contains a collectors booklet, containing linear notes on the film by Chris Dumas, illustrated throughout with original stills and posters and the sleeve has reversible artwork.

 

A nice selection of extras. As for the film itself though, if the prospect of a horror film crossed with a Bond movie sounds like your idea of fun, then you should like this.

 

Buy the UK Blu-Ray at Amazon.co.uk