Meg Foster Movies

A man who fails to make the grade as a Los Angeles cop goes on a killing spree as the dangerous "Sunset Killer," to show the dupes who wouldn't hire him. He uses all his cop smarts to try to elude all who dare try capture him. ~ All Movie Guide

A passable sequel to the excellent sleeper hit that preceded it, this film steers its story in a cartoonish, less horrific direction. Terry O'Quinn returns as the nameless family man who butchered one nuclear unit and was on his way to dispatching another when he was (seemingly) fatally stabbed. It turns out that he wasn't killed after all but was captured and sent to the loony bin. Now the deranged control freak has murdered his jailers and escaped from the institution. Establishing himself in a small, idyllic town as a family counselor, he thinks that he's found the perfect candidate for a family in Carol (Meg Foster), the real estate agent who lives across the street, and her son, Todd (Jonathan Brandis), who adores his mom's new boyfriend. Unfortunately, Carol's irresponsible husband shows up unexpectedly after abandoning his family -- and nosy neighbors and a variety of others stand as obstacles in the stepfather's path to perfection. The first film, The Stepfather (1987), by writer Donald E. Westlake was very loosely based on the real-life story of long-time fugitive John List, lending the film an eerie, skin-crawling air of psychological authenticity that this sequel entirely lacks. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

John Carpenter wrote and directed this science fiction thriller about a group of aliens who try to take over the world by disguising themselves as Young Republicans. Wrestler Roddy Piper stars as John Nada, a drifted who makes his way into an immense encampment for the homeless. There he stumbles upon a conspiracy concerning aliens who have hypnotized the populace through subliminal messages transmitted through television, magazines, posters, and movies. When Nada looks through special Ray-Bans developed by the resistance leaders, the aliens lose their clean-cut "Dan Quayle" looks and resemble crusty-looking reptiles. Nada joins the underground, teaming up with rebel-leader Frank (Keith David) to eradicate the lizard-like aliens from the body politic. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

John Savage stars as a troubled man with a checkered past in the made-for-TV Desperate. Born into wealth, Savage turns his back on his heritage by heading for the high seas as skipper of an excursion ship. In Lord Jim fashion, he betrays his customers' trust by jumping ship during a storm. Years later, he settles down as a charter boat captain in Key West, where he hopes to make amends for his past sins. He partially realizes that goal by scuttling a gang of gun-runners. Meg Foster costars as Savage's lady friend, while Christopher Burke, the Down Syndrome-afflicted young actor who later starred in TV's Life Goes On, plays Foster's mentally handicapped son. Conceived as the pilot for a weekly series, Desperate debuted September 19, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young widow realizes that the memories of her deceased husband is interfering in her new relationship with a motorcycle racer. ~ All Movie Guide

The Emerald Forest is based on a true story, as related by Los Angeles Times correspondent Leonard Greenwood. Powers Boothe stars as Bill Markham, a US engineer working on a dam project in the Amazonian jungles. Bill's young son, Tomme (played by director John Boorman's son Charley Boorman) is kidnapped in the rain forest by a tribe called "The Invisible People" because of their skills at camouflage - a group that has reportedly never experienced contact with Caucasians. The authorities give up the boy for lost, but Bill perseveres in searching for his son, for over 10 years. While fleeing for his life from The Fierce People - enemies of The Invisible People - he's rescued at the last minute by Tomme, now an adoptee of The Invisible People's chief. To Bill's frustration, Tomme initially refuses to join his biological dad and return to civilization, but when The Fierce People swing in and abduct all of the women in the Invisible People tribe, Tomme seeks his dad's help in rescuing them. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reckless is the word for rebellious teenaged Johnny Rourke (Aidan Quinn). With a drunken dad and a police-blotter rap sheet as long as his arm, Quinn pursues an "impossible" romance with Tracey Prescott (Daryl Hannah), a girl from a wealthy, highly respected family. Tracey is thrilled at the prospect of kicking over the traces with Johnny, and soon proves to be as big a hellraiser as he is....if not more so. Reckless was written by Chris Columbus, just before he hit pay dirt with Gremlins and The Goonies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A man discovers that his best friends are actually spies -- or are they? -- in this thriller based on Robert Ludlum's best-selling novel. John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) is the host of a television news show who once a year spends a long weekend with three of his best friends from college, Bernard Osterman (Craig T. Nelson), Joseph Cardone (Chris Sarandon), and Richard Tremayne (Dennis Hopper). Tanner is approached by Lawrence Fassett (John Hurt), a CIA agent who has evidence proving that his three pals are actually agents working with the Soviet Union. With Tanner's reluctant approval, his house is wired with video surveillance equipment so that the CIA can monitor what Osterman, Cardone, and Tremayne say and do over their weekend together in hopes of putting the traitors behind bars. However, Tanner soon realizes that Fassett's agenda is not all that it appears to be. The Osterman Weekend was directed by Sam Peckinpah; it proved to be his last film, as he died a year after its release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The "Moonie" cult of the 1970s and '80s has been cited as the principal inspiration for the 1981 Canadian production Ticket to Heaven. Nick Mancuso plays impressionable youth David Kappel, who, after breaking up with his girlfriend, tries to find an emotional balm by joining a religious sect. The first portion of the film details David's indoctrination into the group. The remaining portion concerns the efforts made by his parents to locate their thoroughly brainwashed son. R.H. Thomson dominates the final scenes as a "deprogrammer" hired to shake David out of his religious euphoria. Ticket to Heaven was based on Moonwebs, a novel by Josh Freed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This two-part TV movie was, of course, sparked by the November 1978 mass suicide of 913 people at the South American religious "colony" of Jonestown. The catalyst for this tragedy was cult-leader Reverend Jim Jones (played by Powers Boothe, who won an Emmy for his performance), head of the so-called People's Temple. The film traces the life of Jones from his days as an idealistic 1960s activist. He drifts into penny-ante confidence scams and bed-hops from woman to woman, before electing to pass himself off as a modern messiah--eventually believing his own feverish sermons. The climactic scenes are chillingly staged in a near-documentary fashion, with Puerto Rico and Georgia substituting for Guyana. Ned Beatty plays the ill-fated Representative Leo Ryan, while James Earl Jones has a cameo as 1930s religious-leader Father Divine; most of the other main characters are composites of real people. Originally broadcast April 15 and 16, 1980, The Guyana Tragedy was adapted by Ernest Tidyman from the Washington Post and Charles A. Krause's Guyana Massacre: An Eyewitness Account. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This production closely follows Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter. In Boston, shortly after its founding in 1630, the Puritan citizenry order Hester Prynne (Meg Foster), a beautiful young woman, to wear a scarlet letter "A" (signifying "adulteress") on her dress for life after she bears a child in the absence of her husband, who has delayed his trip to the New World to conclude business. Despite intense questioning, Hester refuses to identify the father, Arthur Dimmesdale (John Heard), a respected minister who cannot muster the courage to acknowledge his sin in public. After Hester's husband (Kevin Conway) arrives unrecognized by anyone but Hester, he, too, fails to extract the name from her. So he assumes another identity, calling himself Roger Chillingworth, in order to ferret out the wrongdoer and gain revenge. Meanwhile, Hester, a seamstress, bears up with dignity even though she and her child, Pearl (Elisa Erali), suffer continual ridicule. Dimmesdale, on the other hand, suffers gnawing guilt, and his health declines. Chillingworth, a scholar familiar with medicinal remedies, provides potions to Dimmesdale while gathering clues that evenutally implicate the reverend as the culprit. All the while, Chillingworth, monomanical in his quest for revenge, becomes corrupt, and Dimmesdale, distraught with remorse, develops heart problems. But Hester, stronger and wiser for her experience, carries on and earns the respect of the people. When Hester and Dimmesdale meet alone, they agree to set sail together and begin anew. But after Dimmesdale delivers a rousing sermon on a holiday, his guilt causes him to mount a scaffold to speak to the people Viewers then learn whether he has finally gathered the courage to reveal himself as Pearl's father. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a widower takes his adopted daughter for an old-fashioned Texas-style Christmas at his parent's house. While back home, the father meets his childhood love and romance ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide