Irene Miracle Movies

Shattered Dreams is a "based on a true story" TV movie starring Lindsay Wagner and Michael Nouri. Wagner is a Washington DC attorney; Nouri is her husband, also an attorney, but one with a profound violent streak. Suffering constant beatings, Wagner tries to keep up appearances, but after seventeen years of this treatment she can stand no more. Despite public opinion favoring her husband, now a powerful government official, Wagner successfully brings the facts of her miserable marriage out in the open, then sets about to reassemble her own fragmented life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

From Hollywood to Deadwood is an agreeable private-eye yarn, at once a spoof and a tribute to the film noir output of the 1940s. Detectives Savage and Haines (Scott Paulin, Jim Haynes) are hired to locate Lana Dark (Barbara Schock), a movie actress whose absence is costing her studio tons of money. The two Sherlocks follow the evidence trail to Deadwood, South Dakota. Here, Savage begins a one-sided romance with the restless Lana. He learns that her disappearance was all part of an insurance scam. He further learns that now that he knows all, his life, not to mention the lives of Haines and Lana, aren't worth a plug nickel. Though the film wastes no time with inessentials, we learn a lot more about the emotional and psychological makeup of the three protagonists than is customary for films of this nature. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this tense horror outing Toulon, a puppet maker, discovers an ancient Egyptian potion and uses it to bring his creations to life. Unfortunately, he is a rather twisted fellow and his puppets become murderous little demons who escape. Distraught, the master takes his life. Years later, psychics tune into the existence of the monstrous marionettes and set off to stop them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This animal thriller at times verges on becoming a horror film, with gory scenes of mangled heads and torn limbs, but it is intended to be a serious tale of baboons gone berserk. The story takes place in a drought-ridden animal preserve in Kenya where ranger Jack Ringtree (Timothy Bottoms) advises both government officials and Chris Tucker (John Rhys-Davies), the manager of a local mine, that all the people in the region have to be evacuated. Jack is convinced thousands of baboons in the preserve will soon go on a rampage caused by a lack of food and water. As might be expected, the authorities ignore his advice, with the usual slow build-up of menacing hairy creatures arguing for the accuracy of Jack's warnings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A combination of alchemy, architecture, and horror, director Dario Argento's Inferno is a pulsing thriller filled with murder and supernatural mayhem. The peculiar proceedings are set into motion in both New York and Rome when two young women, Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) and Rose (Irene Miracle), find a book called The Three Mothers, a tome of alchemy written by an architect named Varelli. According to the book, Varelli built a trio of resting places for the Three Mothers, an evil trio whose identities remain at the core of the film's mystery. Rose's brother and Sara's boyfriend is Mark (Leigh McCloskey), a music student in Rome who jets to New York after Sara is murdered and Rose disappears. He follows up Rose's research on The Three Mothers and, with the help of his sister's neighbor, Elise (Daria Nicolodi), comes to the realization that the building they are in is one of Varelli's. Along the way, Mark encounters a variety of quirky characters including Elise's butler (Leopoldo Mastelloni), the building's maid (Alida Valli), a cat-hating bookseller named Kazanian (Sacha Pitoeff), and the infirm Professor Arnold (Feodor Chaliapin) and his nurse (Veronica Lazar). After a series of murders and a revelation that the butler and the maid have been plotting to steal Elise's jewels, Mark discovers a secret series of passages within the building. They lead him to its core where he finds the wheelchair-bound Professor Arnold, who explains that he is really the architect Varelli. After a violent struggle, the dying old man confesses to Mark that he is merely a servant to the Mothers. The building begins to burn out of control, but before Mark can escape, he discovers the shocking identity of the Three Mothers. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi

The Last House on the Left was a morally bankrupt but highly profitable film about rape, murder, and revenge. The 1978 sequel, The New House on the Left, may even be more reprehensible than the original. Whereas the murder site of the first film was a remote house, the scene of the crime in the sequel is a train (thereby negating the title). This film includes more rapes, more murders, and more revenge than the original --and, undoubtedly, more cash lining the pockets of the producers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi