Dee Wallace Movies
Kansan Dee Wallace rose out of the ashes of an extremely difficult childhood that included paternal abuse and a suicide to establish a resonantly successful movie career as a character actress. Born Deanna Bowers, Wallace attended the University of Kansas in the late '60s as an education major, then turned to dancing and drama, at least partially as an escape from her torturous familial history. Radiating a cornflower-wholesome, Middle-American goodness, Wallace often played against that image, tackling parts and films that exposed a darker side of domestic life. On that note, she began to specialize in horror roles, and landed one of the most memorable for quite some time: that of Lynne Wood, the mother of an itinerant family that falls prey to a band of mutant desert-dwelling cannibals, in Wes Craven's controversial gore-fest The Hills Have Eyes (1977).Another lurid role, albeit a much less extreme one -- Wallace's portrayal of a prostitute in a 1978 episode of Lou Grant -- caught the attention of white-hot director Steven Spielberg, who would eventually seek an actress to portray Mary, the colorful divorcée mother of Elliott (Henry Thomas) in his box-office phenomenon E.T. (1982). In the meantime, however, Wallace achieved fame independently of Spielberg and his team with another legendary part: that of Karen White, a sexy blonde TV newscaster who gets more than she bargained for when she heads off to a California retreat, in Joe Dante's ghoulish, werewolf-themed horror comedy The Howling. After E.T., Wallace's popularity soared; she followed it up with a contribution to the Stephen King horror vehicle Cujo (1983), as a mother terrorized relentlessly by a monstrous, rabid Saint Bernard.
Unfortunately -- and for unknown reasons -- Wallace's career languished for much of the 1980s and '90s, in forgettable potboilers and programmers ranging from Critters (1986) to Popcorn (1990) to Alligator 2: The Mutation (1990). Occasionally, she signed to work with directors who wanted to trade on her status as a terror icon, such as Peter Jackson, with his 1996 horror comedy The Frighteners. In fact, this is exactly what happened when Rob Zombie tapped Wallace to play Laurie Strode's mother in his violent 2007 remake of Halloween.
Wallace is also occasionally billed as Dee Wallace-Stone; she took the "Stone" from the surname of her first husband, Christopher Stone (The Howling), who died of a heart attack in 1995. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2009
- R
A coed struggling to pay her rent ends up taking the wrong part-time job in writer-director Ti West's old-school 1980s-set horror flick, The House of the Devil. Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is a sweet-natured and retiring young woman, unlike her rambunctious, loud, and self-assured best buddy, Megan (mumblecore stalwart Greta Gerwig). After moving into a new apartment, Samantha is desperate for a way to make a few more bucks. When Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) comes on campus looking for a babysitter, Samantha jumps at the opportunity. Once she convinces Megan to give her a ride to the creepy old Ulman house, Samantha learns that the job is not quite what was advertised. Ulman and his wife (Mary Woronov) don't even have a child. He tells Samantha that she just has to stay in the house with his elderly mother-in-law while he and the missus go out to celebrate the lunar eclipse. When she balks at the change of plans, he offers her more money. As the night goes on, it becomes clear that Samantha is a much bigger part of the Ulmans' plans for the evening than she would ever want to be. West established his genre credentials with low-budget cult favorites The Roost (which also starred Noonan) and Trigger Man. The House of the Devil also stars A.J. Bowen and Dee Wallace. The movie had its world premiere in the Midnight section of the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, (more)
- 2008
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A man in search of his missing sister discovers that there may be some truth to the terrifying legend of a woman who drown her old children in this dark tale of horror featuring Dee Wallace and Diana Bracho. Could the disappearance of George's sister have something to do with the murderous spirit who wanders the countryside in search of young victims? As the race intensifies to find his sister before she's lost forever, he crosses paths with an entity that has stalked the nightmares of young children for generations. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Parker, Ana Patricia Rojo, (more)
- 2008
A six year old matchmaker who uses puppies to form love connections between lonely adults faces her biggest challenge to date when her parents begin drifting apart. After getting an "A" on her sixth grade final exam, proud student Mary (Katherine McNamara) holds her parents to the promise of getting her a puppy for all of her hard work. Overjoyed by her new four-legged companion, Mary sees that the adults in her life could use a dose of the same happiness she feels. But Mary can't do it all by herself, and in order to ensure success she enlists the aid of her loving Aunt Karen (Dee Wallace) and their friend Cameron Banks (Jeff Fahey). Before long, Mary, Karen, and Cameron are bona fide matchmakers, and Karen and Cameron have formed a love connection of their own. But all is not well in Mary's household; her parents are constantly at odds, and the family is falling apart. Determined to keep her family together with the help of three adorable puppies, young Mary hatches her most ambitious romantic scheme to date. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Fahey, Dee Wallace, (more)
Luke Goss and Lance Henrikson star in first time writer/producer/director Brett A. Hart's unforgiving tale of a vengeance pitting a mysterious man with a dark past against a sadistic tormentor intent on pushing his prey to the limits of human endurance. Eddie (Goss) is a family man who had just pulled off the highway for a quick cup of coffee when he was confronted by master manipulator Jimmy (Henrikson). Armed with a high-powered sniper rifle and a pair of walkie-talkies, Jimmy will now force Eddie to take the longest walk of his life. The setting is the Mojave Desert, and Eddie must walk north. Should Eddie turn in any other direction, Jimmy will put a bullet in his brain without hesitation. But this is no ordinary stroll in the sand, because along the way Eddie will be confronted with a series of ambushes and traps designed to wear away at both his dehydrated flesh and increasingly fragile psyche. Later, as the pair confront one another at their final destination - an open grave - it becomes painfully obvious that the men who once seemed polar opposites share more in common than appearances may suggest. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lance Henriksen, Luke Goss, (more)
- 2007
The revelation that Izzie (Katherine Heigl) once gave up a daughter for adoption is a challenge which George (T. R. Knight) is willing to face, or so he thinks. Down in the dumps over her vacillating relationship with Derek (Patrick Dempsey), Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) must also contend with her stepmother Susan (Mare Willingham). Cristina (Sandra Oh) and Burke (Isaiah Washington) have trouble summoning enthusiasm over their impending marriage as long as Colin (Roger Rees) remains on the scene. Alex (Justin Chambers) is convinced that he has found the family of the beleagured "Jane Doe" (Elizabeth Reaser). And in a lighter moment, Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) teaches an old dog--namely Dr. Webber (James Pickens Jr.)--a few new tricks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A charismatic psycho suspected of killing two innocent campers in a cold-blooded double homicide grows increasingly unstable as his suburban empire starts to crack at the foundations in director Chris Sivertson's adaptation of author Jack Ketchum's chilling take on the 1960s-era Charles Schmid murders. Ray Pye (Chris Senter) may be well out of high school, but the kids in his sleepy town are strangely drawn to the drug-dealing outsider who stuffs cans in his boots to boost his stature and sports pancake make-up to cast a rock-star aura. But Ray Pye isn't just eccentric, he's downright dangerous. It was during a weekend camping excursion with his sometime-girlfriend Jennifer Fitch (Shay Astar) and best pal Tim Best (Alex Frost) that Ray shot a pair of pretty campers simply to satisfy his own morbid curiosity, and after bullying his friends into silence, the case would go strangely unsolved. Despite the fact that one of the girls eventually managed to escape, she lay comatose in the hospital for months on end before eventually succumbing to her wounds. Local detective Charlie Schilling (Michael Bowen) suspected Ray of the crime from the very beginning, and now that the girl has died without being able to identify her killer, Schilling is determined to ensure that justice is served. These days the womanizing Pye has turned his attentions away from Jennifer and toward newly arrived rich girl Katherine Wallace (Robin Sydney) and innocent Sally Richmond (Megan Henning) -- a recent high-school graduate who, unbeknownst to Ray, is involved in a tender May-December romance with retired cop Ed Anderson (Ed Lauter). Now, as Katherine and Sally reject Ray's advances, and Tim and Jennifer's once undying loyalty begins to slip, the increasingly unstable pied piper's fragile ego spirals into an explosive tailspin. With the rage that's bubbling up in Ray threatening to send him on a murderous rampage, Detective Schilling and Ed Anderson desperately attempt to gather the evidence needed to arrest the swaggering psychopath before more lives are lost. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marc Senter, Shay Astar, (more)
- 2006
Debuting with two back-to-back episodes on March 8, 2006, the half-hour ABC sitcom Sons & Daughters was clearly influenced by Fox's Arrested Development in its depiction of a large, extended, and extremely dysfunctional American family. Series co-creator Fred Goss headed the cast as human-resources rep Cameron Walker, who lived with his second wife, Liz (Gillian Vigman), and their two children, eight-year-old Ezra (Noah Matthews) and four-year-old Marni (Lexi Gold Jourden). The "spoiler" in the Walker household was Henry Walker (Trevor Einhorn), Cameron's profoundly embittered 14-year-old son from his previous marriage to the bipolar Paige (Melinda Allen). Elsewhere, Cameron's sister, Sharon (Alison Quinn), was mired in a sexless marriage with Don Fenton (Jerry Lambert), an auto-parts salesman and frustrated actor. Sharon's stepsister, Jenna (Amanda Walsh), a single mom struggling to make ends meet as a waitress, seemed to have a gift for invariably choosing the proverbial wrong guy. Rounding out this family group were Cameron and Sharon's high-strung and highly judgmental parents, Colleen (Dee Wallace Stone) and Wendal (Max Gail), and their outspokenly anti-Semitic aunt Rae (Lois Hall). To maintain a semblance of spontaneity, each episode was only partially scripted, allowing the actors to ad-lib and improvise within the framework of the story (Fred Goss had previously employed this technique on his Bravo network series Significant Others). Sons & Daughters was executive produced by Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Goss, Gillian Vigman, (more)
- 2005
A trio of lifelong friends returns to their hometown of Kalamazoo, MI, for their ten-year high-school reunion, only to discover that their graduation time capsule contains embarrassingly unmet goals for all of them in director David P. O'Malley's affectionate comedy. For Carol Cavanaugh (Josie Davis), Maggie Goldman (Mayim Bialik), and Joan Branson (Joanna Clare Scott), life hasn't necessarily been as fruitful and as glamorous as they may have hoped in the idealistic days of their carefree youth. Though still relatively young and hopeful about the road that lies ahead, the prospect of having all of their unfulfilled dreams trumpeted before every member of their graduating class is much too humiliating to take lying down. Now, as the three lifelong friends attempt to recover the capsule before it can be read aloud, the spirits of their deceased grandmothers appear to offer solace and consolation in an uncertain time of progress and transition. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mayim Bialik, Josie Davis, (more)
A twenty-five year old man whose chance encounter with a mysterious stranger has found his intellect rapidly expanding finds himself at the center of a gruesome murder case in an award-winning horror thriller starring Olivia Hussey, Sean Young, Dee Wallace Stone, and Udo Kier. Alex Borden is rapidly becoming a genius, but as the power of his mind grows so does the mystery of a brutal series of murders. Now, as the killer seems to set his sights on Alex, the frightened genius must use his newfound brain power to put an end to the mayhem once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Denham
A haunted hospital harbors a deadly secret, and when a group of college students check in for a cheap Halloween thrill they're in for the fright of their life in this seasonal shocker starring genre veteran Dee Wallace Stone and directed by Anthony C. Ferrante. For years rumors of ghosts stalking the dark corridors of the abandoned Santa Mira Hospital have kept a frightened community at a safe distance. Determined to milk the legend for all its worth, a group of five mischievous college students sneak into the hospital on Halloween night only to discover that the rumors of a bloodthirsty entity who claims the life of all who dare enter the cursed hallways are true. These teens aren't the only ones trapped by the murderous ghost though, and with each passing hour their hope of seeing another sunrise gives way to the screaming terror of a ghost whose hunger for death is only surpassed by his hunger for life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Trish Coren, M. Steven Felty, (more)
- 2004
- PG13
On December 24, 2002, a woman named Laci Peterson, eight months pregnant at the time, was reported missing to police in a suburban California community. Laci's husband, Scott Peterson, initially joined police in their investigation of his wife's disappearance, which was soon presumed to be the result of foul play; however, many details of what Scott was doing the night Laci vanished didn't add up, and a woman soon stepped forward to announce that she had been having an affair with Scott. As the case of the missing woman began to attract worldwide attention, many people began to speculate that Scott may have been involved in Laci's disappearance. When her body was finally recovered, Scott found himself behind bars, charged with the murder of his spouse. The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story is a made-for-cable movie that stars Dean Cain as Scott Peterson, following the story from Laci's disappearance to Scott being charged with homicide. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Cain, Sarah Joy Brown, (more)
A family faces new crises while trying to resolve an old one in this drama. After the death of Cal Malby (Miles O'Keefe), a miner who died in an accident that eventually leveled the economy of a small Pennsylvania community, his sons Patrick (Jason Widener) and Cole (Tyler Christopher) have been trying to find out what caused the disaster while also caring for their mother Elizabeth (Sally Kirkland), who is now bedridden. As Patrick and Cole try to uncover the truth, they have to struggle to hold on to the family's home as Penny Hart (Dee Wallace Stone), a widow who owns the farm the family has long called home, attempts to sell the property out from under them. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyler Christopher, Sally Kirkland, (more)
Perrysburg, PA, is just a dot on the map, but the town's major employer, a somewhat profitable factory run by a board of directors headed by Jennings Wilhite (Corbin Bernsen), is ripe for sale. The representative of a prospective suitor, Sarah Fairchild (Dee Wallace Stone), is denied an opportunity to buy it, so she does some investigating and learns some startling history regarding the business. Cut to a busload of randy young adults, including industrious Wendy (Paige Moss), attempting to spend the night at the abandoned mental hospital. The youths find that the building has an alarming history of its own -- a history they don't discover until the body count reaches epidemic proportions as they are beheaded, drowned in acid, and otherwise mauled to death by a hidden psychopath. Somehow the two stories -- the mental asylum massacre and the factory's history -- converge, and it's up to Wendy to figure out how, and why, before it's too late. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
A young boy with a habit of daydreaming discovers that reality has caught up with his imagination -- with a vengence -- in this comedy-adventure for the whole family. Bobby (Seth Adkins) is an eight-year-old boy growing up on a remote community in the rural Midwest with his mother (Dee Wallace Stone) and grandfather (Charles Napier), who are struggling to keep the family farm afloat. With few friends and not much to do besides his chores, Bobby entertains himself by retreating into a world of fantasy, where he battles cowboys and spacemen and can always outsmart the bad guys. One day, the town looks as if it's about to be hit with a freak storm, as dark red clouds fill the sky, but it turns out that a portal in time has appeared in the atmosphere, and who should drop through but Jezebel Jack (Tim Curry), a swaggering pirate (or, as Jack prefers to put it, "an adventurer of independent means") from the 17th century. Bobby rescues Jack and gives him a place to stay in their house; the boy is happy to have an interesting new friend. However, where pirates go, trouble follows, and it's not long before the ship of a gang of rival pirates follows Jack through the window in time, and Bobby must join forces with Jack as they defend Bobby's home against a pirate ship sailing through the wheatfields. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Curry, Dee Wallace, (more)
- 1998
Dwayne Adway portrays Dennis Rodman in this biographical drama that begins with Rodman as a Dallas teen, follows him to college where he confronts racism, and then traces his NBA ascendancy (Detroit Pistons to San Antonio Spurs), ending with his 1995 leap to the Chicago Bulls. Rodman himself is intercut between scenes to comment on plot highlights. The screenplay was adapted by John Miglis and Gar Anthony Haywood from the book Badd As I Wanna Be by Rodman and Tim Keown. Filmed in Toronto, this drama premiered February 8, 1998 on ABC. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dwayne Adway, John Terry, (more)
- 1998
- PG
A young orphan is adopted into a somewhat bizarre family, primarily due to the fact that his new mom has a tendency to vanish from sight. When the child's cousins show up to get a bit of the youngster's fortune, his new mom saves the day. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1997
- R
An ambitious prostitute displays a keen grasp on the concept of supply and demand when she helps a low-level office guy win a high paying job, so he'll become a regular customer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Grieco, Christopher Atkins, (more)
- 1997
- 1997
A woman fleeing the man in her life discovers a city of women in this revisionist western. Chrysty (Amy Brenneman) is passing through the Nevada desert when she happens upon the small town of Silver, currently populated entirely by women and children, while the men in the community are gone -- working on a dam building project. When Chrysty discovers June (Bridgette Wilson) alone and in labor, she helps her as she gives birth; Chrysty opts to stay around, and she takes a job delivering milk. Silver is ruled by McGill (Kirstie Alley), the village's self-appointed sheriff who doesn't trust Chrysty; McGill discovers that Chrysty is actually an Idaho housewife running away from her husband, West (Angus MacFadyen). However, June's husband Rip (James Wilder), back in town after the birth of a child that may not be his and troubled by his wife's chronic infidelity, has fallen in love with Chrysty, and when West arrives to Silver to retrieve his spouse, Rip opts to fight for her hand. Nevada also features Saffron Burrows as June's sister-in-law, and Dee Wallace Stone and Kathy Najimy as a rough-and-tumble lesbian couple. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
In this teen-oriented horror movie, Kyle (Scott Bairstow) is a high school swimming champion who sinks into a depression after the accidental death of his best friend. When his parents, Ken (Bruce Burkhartsmeier) and Barbara (Dee Wallace-Stone), move the family from California to Washington State, Kyle falls in with a group of kids led by the mysterious Shane (Eric Mabius). Eric and his friends wear lots of black clothing, take drugs, and listen to loud Goth-metal music, but the full extent of their "rebellious" streak doesn't become evident to Kyle until he discovers that Eric's clique is actually a Satanic cult. Music fans may want to keep an eye on the supporting cast, which includes former X leader John Doe, singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb, and one-time New Kids on the Block heartthrob Donnie Wahlberg as a drug dealer. Black Circle Boys appeared on home video at roughly the same time as the mass murder at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1997
- R
In this grim and suspenseful thriller, a news journalist and his family exchange life in grimy, hectic New York for that in a peaceful Maine village. Unfortunately, the burg they chose is ruled by a harsh, ultraconservative preacher who hates all outsiders. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Silver, Christopher Plummer, (more)
Charlatan Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) has genuine psychic powers, but he doesn't use them to help people. Rather, he generates cases for his supernatural private-eye firm by harassing a group of hapless ghosts (including a dearly departed Wild West outlaw and an undead judge played by John Astin) into staging hauntings and poltergeists in the homes of likely marks. Bannister's world turns on its head when he starts noticing real hauntings around town -- ghostly assassinations that seem to be tied to the execution 20 years earlier of a brutal serial killer. Lucy Lunskey (Trini Alvarado), the wife of one unlucky victim, teams up with Bannister to get to the bottom of the killings and find out what shut-in Patricia Bradley (Dee Wallace Stone) and her witchy mother (Julia McCarthy) have to do with the sinister spree. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, (more)
