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| Film vitals |
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· Year: 1997
· Director: D.J. MacHale
· Writer: D.J. MacHale
· Cast: Steve Guttenberg, Kirstin Dunst
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| Series info |
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· Based on the Tower of Terror ride in Disney-MGM Studios.
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| Information |
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· I saw a DVD of Tower of Terror for sale in several stores in Disneyworld, but neither Amazon nor Disney sell it online.
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| If you liked this, try |
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Amazon.com
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| Synopsis |
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A tabloid journalist and his neice try to help five ghosts trapped in the abandoned Hollywood Tower Hotel.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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42
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| 2.0 -ATMOSPHERE |
| 0.5 -GORE |
| 1.5 -HUMOR |
| 0.25 -SCARES |
| 2.0 -TENSION |
The Tower of Terror ride at Disney-MGM Studios theme park, upon which this TV movie is based, possesses so much atmosphere that it's doubly sad so little of it was transferred into the film. Tower, the movie, was apparently partially shot on the grounds of the ride, so director D.J. MacHale has no excuse for not capturing the creepiness that the ride's "hotel lobby" alone has in spades.
The backstory of Tower of Terror will be familiar to those who took the ride: five people were in one of the Hollywood Tower Hotel's elevators in 1939 when it was struck by lightning. They disappeared, and their spirits haunt the now long-abandoned edifice. The storyline is a tried-and-true haunted house plot: ghost(s) died decades ago as a result of someone's wrongdoing and want people in the present to help them gain rest. Along the way, of course, the (corporeal) people are menaced by problems from this world and the next. Tower has a couple of twists that kids may find interesting--even if they don't bear up under examination--but those twists don't elevate the film above its retread status.
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