Six vacationing young adults who include the troubled Cynthia (well played by Sarah Torgov) are forced to land their plane on a remote sylvan island. They not only encounter the strict Pa (a gloriously hammy performance by Rod Steiger) and the equally stern Ma (a delightfully batty, yet understated portrayal by Yvonne De Carlo),but also the oddball religious fanatics' deranged and murderous "adult" children: infantile Fanny (the extremely unnerving Janet Wright),brutish Teddy (an excellent William Hootkins),and whiny Woody (the ever-weird Michael J. Pollard). Capably directed by John Hough, with crisp cinematography by Harvey Harrison, a creepy tone, an eerie, harmonic down-home score by Alan Parker, a chilling conclusion, and such dark themes as incest, infanticide and necrophilia, this genuinely twisted little number really hits the pleasingly warped spot. Better still, the sharp script by Burt Wetanson and Michael Vines offers a wickedly nasty satire on traditional conservative old-fashioned family values. Steiger and De Carlo have a field day with their colorfully kooky roles; Wright, Hootkins and Pollard are all likewise marvelously grotesque as their crazed offspring. Quirky and often quite funny in an admittedly off-center sort of way, this nifty little rural psycho romp is well worth checking out.

This film reminded me of the 1974 Australian film "Inn of the Damned" which only has any redeeming value by the presence of Dame Judith Anderson. That film dealt with a series of gruesome murders at a country inn, and this is pretty much the same excepting the fact that the island home this group of young people are staying at on the Pacific north coast is a home, not an inn for guests. It's owned by the strange Rod Steiger and Yvonne de Carlo in the midnight of their careers, playing the old fashioned value stomping couple who allow for the young people to stay until their plane can be fixed. Strange things begin to happen, usually arranged by each of their three "children", grown adults who act like adolescents.

The story focuses on the problems of Sarah Torgov, a woman with severe mental problems that aren't going to be helped by her current location. The gruesome deaths are subtle in nature, not graphic to the point of other 1980's horror films, and yet the script seems like it was written through the mind of the childlike Michael J. Pollard, Jenny Wright (an Edie McClurg lookalike) and William Hootkins who have inventive ways of killing.

I wasn't able to suppress my cry of "Wee!" when one of the young men flew off a swing over the cliff, later found on the rocks below with his brains visible. The silly mood this put me in watching this was based on the absurdity of the script, from the montage of the intrusive visitors invading Steiger's closets and listening to their 1920's records to the unstable Torgov holding the absurd looking Wright hostage.

Poor Fiona Hutchinson only had one life to live here, not finding a guiding light, as the pretty smoker whom Wright overhears insulting here. This little Pacific island instantly had a bomb dropped on it when the critics saw it, and 30+ years later looks three times as bad. Steiger's ridiculous overacting can't be topped, and de Carlo needed another line added on to her "True Blue Vamp, "Someone's mother, then you're camp" lyric from "I'm Still Here!" to describe this fiasco.

Yvonne DeCarlo's death a few days ago brings to mind her varied career. She may be best known for playing Lily on the comic-horror TV series "The Munsters", but in the movie "American Gothic", she went for straight horror. The movie portrays some young people flying out over the Puget Sound - on either a sunny or overcast day; the setting kept changing - and having to land on an island when their plane conks out. The island turns out to be inhabited by a family. Ma (DeCarlo) and Pa (Rod Steiger) are practically Amish, their daughter Fanny looks only a little younger, and sons Woody (Michael J. Pollard) and Teddy don't do much. But this family isn't what they seem. Every member seems like s/he has some nasty plans, and the outsiders had better not trespass.

There were some pretty gross scenes here, but I liked how they played everything out. Especially what Cynthia did at the end. I couldn't have predicted that even if I'd tried! So, it's mostly your average slasher flick, but still quite enjoyable. I wonder what Grant Wood would have thought had he known that the name of his famous painting would one day get used for this sort of movie.