Directed by Philippe Mora
Screenplay adapted by Whitley Strieber from his own book
Cinematography by Louis Irving
Production Design by Linda Pearl
Costume Design by Malissa Daniel
Art Direction by Dena Roth
Photographic Effects Supervision by Dave Gregory
Special Effects by Richard Ratliff
Alien Effects by A.J. Workman
Edited by Lee Smith
Music by Eric Clapton and Allan Zavod
Produced by Philippe Mora, Dan Allingham, and Whitley Strieber
Starring
Christopher Walken as Whitley Strieber (midlist horror novelist, married to Anne)
Lindsay Crouse as Anne Strieber (author, educator, married to Whitley)
Joel Carlson as Andrew Strieber (Whitley and Anne's son)
Andreas Katsulas as Alex (friend of the Strieber family, partner of Sarah, talks about kobolds)
Terry Hanauer as Sarah (friend of the Strieber family, partner of Alex)
Frances Sternhagen as Dr. Janet Duffy (hypnotherapist, has an immaculately art-directed office)
. . .
"Was there an owl in here last night?"
. . .
Review by William D. Tucker.
Whitley is a Manhattan-based horror novelist struggling to complete his latest manuscript. His big-ass mid 1980s word processor crashes, deleting a day or more of his toils, so he has to start writing longhand. Whitley has quirky habits: he's constantly videotaping himself so as to keep him on task as a writer; he likes to dress up in chic Swing Revival-esque clothing when he writes; he's a bit of a mischievous imp who enjoys startling his wife, Anne, and son, Andrew. Whitley is played by the actor Christopher Walken, and so he is prone to break out into spontaneous tap dance routines, stare with opaque intensity directly into camera, and relate off-kilter jokes and anecdotes in tones which are both fascinatingly precise yet emotionally cryptic. Whitley's affection for his family seems genuine, even though he is also defined all around the edges by that ineffable Walkeny strangeness.
Whitley, in the depths of writer's block, decides to pack up the fam, and-along with another couple Alex and Sarah-spend a weekend out at a cabin in the woods. The cabin is outfitted with an expensive pain-in-the-ass security system that is prone to false alarms which trigger bright flood lights. One night, Whitley can't fall asleep, and he senses an intrusive presence. He sits up in bed, staring at a door frame until a strange, peachy-colored bug-eyed face peeks at him from just around the frame. Bright white light floods the cabin, which is seemingly that pain-in-the-ass security system, but the memories of that night are weirdly vague and incomplete for Whitley. The next morning, Alex insists that Whitley and Anne drive him and Sarah home because he's freaked out by the white light. Later, Whitley undergoes hypnosis to unearth troubling visions from that abortive weekend at the cabin.
Communion is a movie which depicts a mysterious power invading the lives of a happy, prosperous artistic family unit-the Striebers-living in Manhattan in the 1980s. And I do mean mysterious. At first, the invading power seems like it could be ghostly or psychological in nature. The bizarre creatures bedeviling the family unit could-in the early going-equally come from Hell or the Land of Faerie as they behave in ways alternately sinister and mischievous. Or these beings could be the creatures of insanity born from a broken mind. A savvy audience will pick up on the invaders' modus operandi as coming from the Alien Abduction playbook-anal probes and all-but, strictly speaking, Communion refuses to give definitive answers as to who or what the inexplicable intruders are and why they've targeted the Striebers.
The mysterious forces seem to be focused on the midlist horror novelist Whitley Strieber, author of books such as The Wolfen-a modern take on werewolves-and The Hunger-a modern take on vampires-both of which were made into Hollywood movies, by the way, despite Strieber not being named Stephen King. In this movie, however, no explicit reference is made to Strieber's previous titles or the fairly well-regarded movies derived from them. Another interesting book Strieber had a hand in was Warday, co-authored with historian James Kunetka, in which the authors not only imagined what it would be like to survive in a post-nuclear USofA, but they also wrote themselves into the book as protagonists. Like I said, none of this is mentioned in any detail in the movie itself, but I think it's worth mentioning that the real life Strieber was known for horror novels, a couple of movie adaptations of two of those horror novels, and the one post-apocalyptic novel into which he wrote himself as a fictional character. And then he wrote the book Communion, in which the author is once again also the protagonist, sort of like in Warday, except that Warday was explicitly fictional whereas Communion was marketed as nonfiction. The movie derived from the book is therefore one of those "Based on a true story" or "Inspired by true events" type of deals. Could it be that Strieber is a man who had a burning need to burrow ever deeper into his novels until he became one with his fiction?
Whitley's journey to uncover the truth about the mysterious forces interdicting his life spawns memorable visions and hallucinations. While riding a city bus the other passengers spontaneously manifest praying mantis heads. During a community Halloween haunted house party, Whitley and his son walk down a long hallway at the end of which is both a jack o'lantern and a surprise. Under hypnosis, Whitley recalls being abducted by small hooded humanoids which he later refers to as "little blue fuckers" who may be fresh off a bender at the Star Wars cantina. And, of course, there's the scene where Whitley is stripped nude and anally probed by his hooded captors. Right before the probe is inserted, Whitley asks if they're all gonna sing "White Christmas." I've only laughed harder at Redd Foxx's line about what would make a man "change gods" in Harlem Nights, but it's a close call.
Eventually, Whitley discovers through hypnosis that the strange beings have always been in his life from age ten onwards. Or, if he is re-authoring himself as a fictional entity, maybe this is the writer doing a flashback chapter to fill in some crucial backstory. It also makes me think of the recursive storytelling of DC and Marvel comics wherein characters would be introduced without clear origins so as to keep the action moving, but then their backgrounds would be revisited/revised to suit continuity in later issues. I could see Communion being incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. James Gunn could definitely write a great scene of Star Lord getting anally probed. I'd be there opening weekend wearing nothing but bells.
Communion, whether you buy it as a "True Story" or not does indeed attempt to wrestle with intriguing dilemmas appropriate to speculative fiction. If you beheld a being from another reality, how would you know for sure? Would that being allow itself to be seen as itself? Would it be in disguise? If you saw it, would you even be able to make sense of it? If it's a traveler from a distant star, it would have to have overcome massive gulfs of space/time by means beyond all our plausible physics and spaceflight technology-would such a being even have a physical form? Would there be any meats'n'juices to it? Would you only be able to describe it in the melodramatic terms of religion, of myth, of genre fiction, of conspiracy theories-It was the Devil, I say! Or perhaps an Angel of the Lord. In any event, we must sterilize all surfaces contaminated by the alien intruder. No doubt it was trying to infect us with demonic possession to steal our souls and/or Illuminati nanomachines in order to convert us to a cashless society paradigm. Even now, an extraterrestrial/extradimensional fetus could be gestating inside our Collective Abdomen! Cower in terror! Or rejoice in same!
If you were confronted by something genuinely inexplicable, how would you define it? If you were able to explain it beyond that word-inexplicable-wouldn't it become explicable to some degree?
And how-oh-how would you make a movie depicting such mysteries? Do you evoke the laser light abstractions and cryptic visions of death and rebirth from 2001: A Space Odyssey? Do you structure it as a mystery with a dogged protagonist piecing together clues culminating in a tidy resolution? Maybe it's about confronting the mystery in the form of a terrifying monster to be dispatched with violence like in Alien, Aliens, and Predator. Communion offers mystery, and violence is briefly explored as a possible solution, but then the film turns towards acceptance of the unknown as opposed to a War on the Unknown. Whitley, in the depths of his fear, loads up a shotgun, goes after a phantom enemy, and ends up nearly obliterating his wife Anne. Fortunately, Whitley lays down his arms and is forgiven by his long-suffering wife. Anne ends up being the one to push Whitley towards hypnotherapy, which is the beginnings of a constructive solution.
Whitley's climatic meeting with the mysterious beings involves him making a choice to intrude upon their domain, thus reversing the roles of invader and invaded. But the writer does this with a video camera in hand as opposed to a gun. What transpires is a combination dance party/doppelganger magic show in which Whitley begins to see the various weird creatures as aspects of himself. The onslaught of the Unknown, of what lies around each twist and turn of the labyrinth of one's life, becomes something to be met with playfulness, understanding, and openness to new experiences. Forget the Alien Abduction mythologies. Communion is a little New Agey, a little bit too "perception dictates reality" for my taste, yes, but if taken more as metaphor and allegory it's an unexpectedly optimistic tale.
Compare and contrast the cinematic projection of Whitley Strieber with some other movie novelists: Jack Torrance, in Kubrick's The Shining never escapes the labyrinth of his murderous hatred of Black people, women, and children;Yukio Mishima in Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters ends up channeling his masterful wordcraft into the staging of a right-wing suicide fantasia; and William Lee-fictional avatar of William Burroughs-is forever trapped in cycles of addiction and guilt over an accidental killing in David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch. I make my little jokes about anal probes and the like, but Whitley used his writer's craft to fictionalize his way through a troubled passage of his existence. Good work if you can survive it.
PROTIP: If you are in a committed relationship with another person, try to avoid shooting at them with a shotgun. Even if you miss, this can create stress and conflict between yourself and your partner.
