Robert MacDonald Movies

Having suffered a fatal heart attack on the eve of her adoring granddaughter's eleventh birthday, a devoted grandmother wages a valiant fight in heaven to return to Earth one last time and celebrate alongside the little girl she loves most. Sarah Miller (Florence Henderson) adores her ten year old granddaughter Katie (Stephanie Patton), and the feeling is most certainly mutual. At the moment Katie is planning her eleventh birthday party, an event that Sarah claims she wouldn't miss for the world. But when Sarah drops dead of a heart attack just before the party and finds herself ascending to heaven, her only thought is how disappointed her granddaughter will be if her "Nanny" isn't there to share in the delicious cake and memorable moments. Sarah isn't particularly religious, though her heavenly guide Ashley (Yanni King) vows to do everything within her power to help secure the skeptical newcomer a short reprieve from death so she can attend the upcoming party. Meanwhile, down on Earth, Katie has an unexpectedly severe reaction to the news of her grandmother's passing. As the day of the party arrives, Sarah is still in a bureaucratic nightmare of cosmic proportions. The paperwork required for her return to Earth is taking forever to fill out, and as she races to ensure that every signature is in place Katie collapses in agony. Just as Katie is being rushed to the hospital, however, Sarah secures her passage to Earth and makes good on her promise to attend at the party. Upon returning to heaven, however, Sarah witnesses a sight that prompts her to pray as never before. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The Frightening is a horror film set in a high school. Not long after Corey Patterson (Matt Twining) and his mother (Brinke Stevens) move into a new town, he is involved in a school rivalry between the popular kids and the outsiders. Soon they all have a deeper problem to deal with. Jack Carlisle III, Robert Donavan, and Tanya Dempsey round out the cast of this film that was directed by David DeCoteau (Final Stab, The Brotherhood, Retro Puppet Master). ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

No one would have guessed that Mrs. Albright, the seemingly sweet, elderly proprietor of a New England boarding home, was actually a demon hiding beneath a facade of stitched-on human skin. Her mission, capturing boarders and imprisoning their souls within a book of paper dolls, seems impossible to stop. Stitches is directed by Neal Stevens, who co-wrote the screenplay for 2001's Thirteen Ghosts, and features Elizabeth Ince, Debra Mayer, and Lindy Bryant. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

A group of low-budget filmmakers find the plot of their horror movie coming true as they're besieged by the undead in this goofy, gory fright flick. David Poe (Eric Clawson), a first-time film director, breaks into an abandoned hospital with his cast and crew to film a cheap zombie picture. David's bossy sister, Nina (Kimberly Pullis), is bankrolling the effort; his other sister, Shelly (Wendy Speake), is starring opposite would-be matinee idol Eric (Benjamin Morris). In one scene, the pair play a female pathologist and the ghoul who kills and then makes love to her on an autopsy table. Unfortunately, such footage has to be scrapped when Nina shows up and decides she's starring in the film herself. As the crew scrambles to accommodate this casting change, unpaid production assistant Topaz (Jamie Donahue) stumbles upon a mysterious, deserted laboratory that contains a very theatrical-looking coffin. David decides to incorporate the sarcophagus into his film -- even after he opens it and a dead body pops out. But when the filmmakers activate the machinery hooked up to the coffin in hopes of making it look even cooler on film, zombies begin to pour forth from an interdimensional vortex. Soon, the hospital becomes a scene of carnage and horror as the cast and crew try to figure out how to defeat head ghoul Eibon (Matt Stephens) and his minions. Filmed in ten days for a reported 150,000 dollars, The Dead Hate the Living marked the debut of writer/director Dave Parker. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

What do you get when you combine a Western with a Science Fiction film? You might get this shoot'em up in space. It is set in the distant town of Oblivion (it was actually filmed in Romania). Though it's a high tech town, it has the feel of an old fashioned Western outpost from the 1800's. The town is being terrorized by the snakelike, power-mad Redeye who is also out for the contents of local mines. He shoots the sheriff and disarms Stell Barr, his cyborg deputy. Enter Zack Stone, son of the late Sheriff Stone. Zack is of a rare breed, the empaths. Because he feels the pain of others, he walks a path of non-violence. Can he remain pacifistic in the face of Redeye's terrifying reign? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When a super elixir (capable of either curing all diseases or being used as an all-powerful destructive weapon) is discovered in eastern Europe, a scientist (Curt Lowens) tries to hijack the formula. To prevent the elixir's safe return, he invents an android controlled by the use of thought-power alone. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

This third entry in the sci-fi Trancers series involves a futuristic L.A. cop/detective who time-travels to battle more Trancers from a 23rd-century totalitarian government that maintains control by injecting victims with trance-inducing drugs, causing them to become virtual puppets. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

When a woman murdered over fifteen years ago is again found dead, a small-town Arizona policeman (John Beck) must solve the case without stepping on the tender toes of procedure, courtesy of a federal agent from Phoenix (Steven Bauer). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

One of the early direct-to-video horror films from Charles Band's Full Moon Entertainment, this good-looking entry stars 21 Jump Street's Michael Benedetti as Corey Thornton, who inherits a mansion in the Louisiana bayou from his late father. Corey wonders why his father, who abandoned him, would leave him such an expansive estate, and also wonders exactly what the brothel across the way has to do with any of it. The fact that Edgar Winter is part of the brothel's house band should have given him a clue, and when stone hands start embedding themselves in people's heads it is obvious to everyone but Corey that the brothel is a front for a coven of witches. It turns out that Corey's father was heavily involved in black magic and wants to rise from the grave to possess his son's body, and must consign Corey's soul to the netherworld (hence the title) to do so. Denise Gentile plays a tempting hooker, Holly Floria is the love interest, and Anjanette Comer from The Loved One and The Baby is her mother, the mansion's housekeeper. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

A disparate pair of vampiric brothers tussle for the possession of their father's powerful bloodstone in this violent horror outing that was shot on location in Transylvania. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Andrei Konchalovsky's examination of totalitarianism, and the self-deluded mind-set that allows it to happen, is based on Konchalovsky's meeting with a bureaucratic flunky of Stalin's -- his personal projectionist -- during his early days as a filmmaker. Set during the height of Stalin's rule (1939 through 1953), the story concerns Ivan Sanchin (Tom Hulce), a motion picture projectionist who worships the Soviet leader like a god. He lives in a tiny apartment, sharing his space with a Jewish family. One day, the KGB bursts into the apartment of his Jewish neighbors and carts them away. Later that night, there is a loud banging on his door and standing before him are two KGB agents, who drag him off into the night. While at first Ivan can't understand what he did wrong, it seems the news is good -- Stalin wants Ivan to take over as his official motion picture projectionist. But since his job is high security, he can't tell his wife Anastasia (Lolita Davidovich) what he does for a living. When Anastasia takes an interest in the orphaned child of his former Jewish neighbors, Ivan begins to worry that Anastasia's visits to the state orphanage might have political repercussions against him. When he gets his wife a job serving Stalin's cabinet, he thinks he's solved his political worries. Unfortunately, Anastasia catches the amorous eye of KGB chief Beria (Bob Hoskins), and Ivan's unquestioning faith in the Soviet leaders is sorely tested. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this sci-fi film, researchers at an underground NASA research station are studying the effect of long periods of deep sleep on human beings. However, when the study participants begin dying, military man Captain Hickock (David Beecroft) is sent in to discover the cause. Once there, he discovers that the deep sleep results in a dimensional rift that has trapped a deadly, shape-shifting creature in the lab. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Director Andrei Konchalovsky comes a cropper with this mawkish road movie starring Whoopi Goldberg and James Belushi. Goldberg plays Edwina, an escaped mental patient with a brain tumor and only a month to live. Belushi is Homer, a retarded man abandoned by his parents when he was a child after a smack with a baseball bat rendered him an idiot. The two team-up when Homer takes off to Oregon to visit his parents and catch up on old times. Edwina agrees to drive him there to recover the $87 that Homer has stolen from her. As they drive down the American roadways, they bond, and Edwina is granted the shining love of Homer as she lapses into a coma. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide