Karen Black

Marshall Uzzle's 2002 direct-to-video horror picture A Light in the Darkness concerns Taylor Melnick (Matt Terzian), a former mental patient who is discharged after four years in a sanitarium. He returns to his hometown and runs head-first into his own psychoses, then decides to seek violent revenge against the town for the treatment he received, axe-in-hand. Geoffrey Lewis, Troy Beyer and the legendary Karen Black co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

In the wake of the 45-million-dollar gross of the original Airport (1970), Universal was all but required by an act of Congress to produce Airport '75. Charlton Heston heads the all-star cast as Alan Murdock, the former test pilot who must keep a disabled 747 from crashing in flames. The crisis begins when a businessman (Dana Andrews), flying his small private plane, suffers a fatal heart attack and the plane smashes into the cockpit of the 747. Following Murdock's radioed instructions, stewardess Nancy Pryor (Karen Black) takes over the controls. The special-guest passenger lineup includes Helen Reddy as a singing nun (a character wickedly satirized in the 1980 parody Airplane!), Myrna Loy as an alcoholic, and Sid Caesar as a garrulous passenger. While Airport '75 yielded only 25 million dollars at the box office, the franchise continued, spawning Airport '77 a few years later and Airport '79 two years after that. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Remember when Karen Black used to be in A-list pictures like Nashville and The Great Gatsby? If you're a diehard Black fan, keep those earlier triumphs in mind while watching Auntie Lee's Meat Pies. Borrowing elements from Sweeney Todd and Motel Hell, the film casts Black as a resourceful baking entrepreneur. Just what gives her meat pies that special flavor? With the help of a quartet of former Playboy Playmates, our heroine "collects" handsome young men to feed into the grinder. If the star, title and premise doesn't whet your appetite, consider that Auntie Lee's Meat Pies also stars two comedy icons of yesteryear: Pat Paulsen and Huntz Hall! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Because He's My Friend was directed for Australian television by American TV veteran Ralph Nelson. Karen Black and Keir Dullea play the parents of a mentally retarded teenager (superbly played by Warwick Poulson). The boy's condition effects the marriage both adversely and positively. The film takes on a happier aura when a normal teenager becomes the handicapped boy's close friend. Because He's My Friend is an effective companion piece to the like-vintage Australian TV movie Tim, as well as the 1977 ABC Afterschool Special presentation Hewitt's Just Different. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Born to Win is the grimly ironic title of this jet-black comedy about heroin addicts. George Segal plays Jay Jay, an ex-hairdresser who struggles to support his expensive drug habit. To avoid arrest, Jay Jay turns "narc," informing on his fellow junkies. Eventually Jay Jay's sense of self-hatred threatens to overwhelm him. Also released as Born to Lose and Addict, Born to Win was the first American film for Czech director Ivan Passer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dan Curtis, director of TV's Dark Shadows series, directed this eerie haunted-house thriller about a house which draws energy from its inhabitants and selects its own "keeper" from the family of Ben and Marian Rolf (Oliver Reed & Karen Black), who rent the strangely-affordable house one fateful summer then find themselves slowly succumbing to its creepy powers. The photography is suitably moody, and many of the standard haunted-house cliches are used to decent effect -- particularly a violent scene in which the surrounding woods form a barrier to prevent the family station wagon from escaping the area -- but the pace is too leisurely overall, climaxing with the type of grim ending employed by nearly every mainstream horror film in the late 70's. Black's spooky looks are used to maximum effect, but are never quite as chilling as the final shot of Curtis's TV movie Trilogy of Terror from the previous year. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

After a man (Michael Emil) and a woman (Karen Black) meet and begin to become romantically involved, his confirmed bachelorhood and her post-divorce trauma start to clash. As their interactions become more complex, and they move from one scenario to the next, they begin to learn more about one another. Director and writer Henry Jaglom used his non-tradtional filmmaking approach on this feature: set up the scene, let the actors improvise, and edit the result. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

An ambitious Parisian fashion designer finds romance and great career success in this story about the life and loves of the legendary couturier, Coco (Gabrielle) Chanel. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This stylish chiller tells the grim tale of a sleeping vampire, Czakyr, who is inadvertently awakened when his ancient crypt beneath a church is flooded. At the same time, Cindy and Lucy, two teenage girls, prepare to go to college. Cindy is only visiting the town while Lucy is a local. Just before they go, the girls must go for a late night dip in the flooded crypt as this is a local rite of passage. Unfortunately, Lucy's cross falls from her neck and the blood-thirsty Czakyr attacks her while Lucy escapes. Later Father Frank Aldin informs his pal Mark Garnener, a teacher, that Cindy has become a vampire and has made her mother Karen a bloodsucker too. Frank has captured the two and locked them in a room. He feeds them on blooded leeches. Mark decides to investigate this wild claim and with Lucy returns to her home town and finds that most of the residents have become Czakyr's minions. They capture the two invaders, but the two manage to get away. The town drunk, piloting a religious van, picks up the fleeing couple and takes them to an abandoned lumber mill. That night Cindy visits Lucy and asks her to help destroy Czakyr. Lucy has already killed her mother. The next morning Mark and the drunk find that Lucy has disappeared. They race to town to save her and embark upon their final confrontation with the evil bat man and in the end, good does indeed triumph over evil but not before much blood is spilled. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The FBI wants to shut down a luxurious minimum-security prison, so a high-placed official (Joseph Campanella) sends an undercover agent (Lance Kinsey) to root out any sign of crime. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In 1980 the U.S. Department of Defense named the Ada programming language in honor of Lord Byron's daughter, the mathematician Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), credited as the "first computer programmer" because of her plan for calculating Bernoulli numbers. Lady Ada was 18 when she met Charles Babbage and learned about his Analytical Engine. She expanded his concepts into an 1843 article on the subject, and she also predicted the sound and graphics possibilities of computers. This science-fiction film features Ada Byron King as the central figure. Directed by video artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, the co-director of Shooting Script: A Transatlantic Love Story (1992), it also includes a few cast members known for cyber-communications, such as Timothy Leary (filmed nine days before his death) and John Perry Barlow (Grateful Dead lyricist and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder), plus "electronic Victorian" music by The Residents (who moved from pure sonic explorations to CD-ROM virtual experiences).

Artificial intelligence researcher Amy Coer (Francesca Faridany) uses cybertechnology tactics to probe the past in hopes of locating Ada Byron King (Tilda Swinton), her spiritual mentor. Receiving input, time-tracking tips, and guidance from cyber-guru Sims (Timothy Leary), Amy is successful, and the two women communicate over the centuries, although Ada is initially puzzled. Comparing notes, they find gender is a setback, since Charles Babbage (John O'Keefe) receives recognition while Ada's ideas are forgotten. Amy's research encounters roadblocks set up by her boyfriend Nicholas Clayton (J.D. Wolfe). Amy is pregnant and plans to name her child Ada, hoping that she can overcome the long-standing gender barriers. Shown at 1997 film festivals (Sundance, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

After a terrible hurricane ravages a tropical island, a young doctor discovers an autistic child wandering about. This touching drama follows the doctor's attempts to help her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide