The Sender (1982, Roger Christian)

"He has the power to make you live his nightmares... And he's dreaming about you."

3 REASONS TO SEEK OUT THIS FILM: 

1. THE RECOMMENDATIONS

I first heard word of this film on the epic DVD commentary of Hot Fuzz, where directors Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino are trying to out-geek each other on their film knowledge. Here Tarantino stated The Sender was his favourite film of the year... sold.  Then recently, I heard the film mentioned yet again, now on my favourite film podcast Pure Cinema by Brian Saur. He'd mentioned this in his Horror triple choice episode (no 22) titled 'In Your Mind', paring it with the The Dead Zone and Bad Dreams.

2. THE ATMOSPHERE

The film's incredibly atmospheric, dealing with a highly disturbed character who has telekinetic powers and does pretty much exactly what the tagline states, only he doesn't even seem to have grasp on how to handle his powers. You begin to question what's real and what's in his mind (and/or yours). There's a great scene in particular involving a shock therapy session (great mix with telekinetic power), it's probably the best scene in the film with Paul Freeman (the villain from Raiders of the Lost Ark) as the doctor.

3. UNDER-RATED QUALITY

For an obscure 1980s horror film that pretty much fell off the radar for the most part, it's incredibly well made. It has an early Cronenberg vibe to it which oddly enough came out the year before The Dead Zone and features some decent cinematography.  It's also been cited by many critics to be a major influence on Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street, and even more so on the 3rd entry of the series (which like in this film is set mostly in a mental hospital).

Check out the awesome re-release on Arrow