Linda Blair has the unique distinction of being associated with various kinds of horror films. She's been possessed ("The Exorcist" and "Witchery") repossessed ("Repossessed" and "Exorcist II: The Heretic") and stalked by a slasher ("Hell Night"); she's battled a witch ("Summer of Fear") played a witch ("Sorceress") fought zombies ("The Chilling") and, with "Grotesque", she visits the territory of Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" and Meir Zarchi's "I Spit On Your Grave", low-budget revenge classics that went for ultra-realistic terror with utterly terrifying results. (Linda is to horror films what Dame Judi Dench is to period melodramas; she's practically turned horror film acting into an Olympic event. Her tireless efforts spent making horror films cause Jamie Lee Curtis to look like a slouch.) But here, she steps away from the monsters and ghouls of her career, and faces the ultimate terror: man himself, out of control and violent. With this film she has the chance to play her character's horror with total realism. Her performance is up there with "The Exorcist" as her ultimate victim role. She plays Lisa Krueger, a young woman traveling into the Big Bear mountains with her friend (Donna Wilkes) to visit her family. Her father (Guy Stockwell) is a Hollywood make-up effects man, and her mother a loving and supportive partner to him. On their way up to the house, the young women encounter a band of punks looking for trouble - in particular (and unknown to Lisa) they are planning to ambush and violate the Krueger home. They've heard rumors of a 'secret' up at the family's secluded mountain place, and are convinced that drugs and money must be involved (While the acting of the gang members is of uneven quality, they are eerily reminiscent of the Manson clan, and some of them even manage to rise above the clichés of the script and deliver something terrifying.) That same night the group storms the house and assembles the family, then begins murdering them one by one, leaving poor Lisa to witness it all. (Donna Wilkes, along with Blair, is a terribly underrated actress. She is terrific here - especially her death scene - and was also great in "Jaws 2" and "Angel".) At a moment when the villains are arguing among themselves, Lisa sees her chance and flees, but is cornered in a hallway and has no other option but to jump out the window. From there Lisa frantically runs into the snowy night, clad only in her nightclothes, with a couple of punks hot on her trail. Lisa's cousin Patrick, previously mentioned in the script but unseen, lives behind a bookcase in a hidden room. He is the 'secret' that the punks had heard about. He is hideously misshapen, and mentally handicapped. While he is a hulking, scary man, he has the mind and innocence of a child. He witnesses the atrocities against his family, and vows to exact bloody revenge. So he is a tortured killer, and we get to see his remorse over his own actions. Yet, he cannot stop himself. The loss of his family is too great for him to bear. He kills all of the attackers within reach, and goes out into the night to finish off the rest. Meanwhile, after running until dawn, Lisa is finally caught by one of the killers and strangled. Patrick catches up and kills the guy, but Lisa is unconscious and nearly frozen. Patrick is chasing the remaining two punks when the police finally arrive, and they assume that he murdered Blair's family. Patrick is shot and killed, and Lisa is taken to the hospital, where she must have a risky surgery in order to survive. Enter Lisa's plastic-surgeon uncle (Tab Hunter). As Patrick's biological father, he is outraged by the crimes and the killing of Patrick. The two surviving punks are taken into custody, and they claim that Patrick did all the killing. Uncle knows better; but only Lisa, who may or may not survive her surgery, can save Patrick's reputation, and put the two remaining killers behind bars. When Lisa dies during surgery, Uncle takes matters into his own hands. He kidnaps the two remaining killers and returns them to the house, where he uses surgery to permanently disfigure their faces, and locks them away in Patrick's old room behind the bookcase. Uncle also reveals that he too hides a horribly disfigured face, and therefore understands the true torture of his chosen method of revenge. This is a philosophical and ironic horror film; I can't think of another horror movie that tries to approach themes such as the remorse of the monster, the superficiality of 'beauty', and societal neglect of the handicapped. This movie works on a deeper level than I ever suspected it would, or could: it shows both terrible violence and the power of familial love, and it beautifully renders (thanks to Tab Hunter's touching performance) the fine line between sanity and insanity when an individual is blinded by a need for vengeance. The film has a very unique feel about it. The chase scenes during the cold, snowy night are absolutely realistic, and hauntingly beautiful, and quite reminiscent of Kubrick's "The Shining". Linda's jump out of the window is classic horror, devoid of any camp aspect, and, while brief, the overhead shot of her fall is pure, chilling brilliance. Her hospital scenes are evocative of her work as troubled Regan MacNeil in the "Exorcist" films. She is surrounded by many good players, but it is Blair who single-handedly keeps "Grotesque" together. Her work here is so intense that you feel her character's presence even when she isn't on-screen, and she remains a key character throughout most of the movie. She's the heart and soul of "Grotesque", and as such makes this micro-budget terror flick worth a look.
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