Meridian 1990

 Picture an adult version of Beauty and the Beast.  OK, now make it a little bit creepy and add just a touch of perversion.  Now you have a good idea of what Meridian is all about.  Meridian is a Full Moon Entertainment film so you know Charles Band in involved somehow.  In fact he wrote, directed, and executive produced the film.  Charles Band is of course responsible for the Puppet Master and Demonic Toys horror series.  He is also the son of Albert Band who directed one of my favorite horror movies, I Bury the Living.  It is one of my favorites right up to those last ten minutes at least.  The movie is nearly perfect and the ending almost ruins everything that happens before.  If you think I'm kidding about the ending of the movie or mistaken well just ask Stephen King he feels the same way I do about it.  But I digress as that is a story for another day and this review is about Meridian after all.

Sherliyn Fenn stars as Catherine, who along with her friend Gina, go to a carnival while in Italy.  At the carnival the two meet a handsome magician named Lawrence who they invite back to the castle for dinner.  He shows up to the castle (that Catherine just inherited from her dead father BTW) with some of the other carnies in tow. Phil Fondacaro (probably the second or third most famous dwarf actor today) who also works at the circus drugs the girls drinks so Lawrence and his twin brother Oliver can have their way with them.  Turns out it's all a part of a mystical curse placed upon the brothers that can only be removed by true love.   

This isn't one for the kiddies folks as it is an erotic thriller so there are some serious nude scenes.  It's not porn but Sherilynn Fenn and Charlie (who plays Gina) serve up some serious eye candy.  The morning after hits Catherine and Gina hard as Gina does the walk of shame and goes back home for work reasons and is pretty absent from the rest of the film.  Catherine stays in her newly acquired castle and experiences some weird goings on.  Will she fall in love with Lawrence or maybe it will be Oliver she fancies?  Will she be able to lift the curse?  And what's the deal with the painting Gina is supposed to be restoring?  And where's the talking teapot and clock?  

I originally saw this movie back in 1991 shortly after it was first released and unfortunately it doesn't hold up well over time.  It's kind of difficult in this day to find a way to explain why using a date rape drug isn't a bad thing if it's done for a good cause.  I mean I guess it would be how things would be if Bill Cosby worked for Disney.  Ouch!  Hey, what?  Too soon?  2 Roofies out of 5.  The Horror Honey Denise agrees and also gives it 2 Roofies maybe two and a half if she stretched it.  Exactly what she's stretching I may never know.  So there we go only two movies into the month and we got our first clunker.  I promise some really good ones are in store.