RETRIBUTION (1987)

A manic depressive artist named George Miller commits suicide from the rooftop of his apartment-hotel at the precise moment when another man is burnt to death by a mob force consisting of a woman and three men, each of whom stand leering as the man writhes in agony and indescribable pain. This man is a mobster who has been lynched because he has been unable to pay up his gambling debts.

As a miracle, Miller survives his suicidal jump, but the vengeful spirit of the mobster takes hold of his body and uses the same as a medium in order to avenge his murder. Thus at times when the artist is fully conscious, he is pre-disposed to gentleness and mildness in demeanour, but when the host body is in slumber the murderous soul makes him commit gruesome crimes against his tormentors.

Thus the first murder we witness is of the woman who had been leering and laughing, who in fact was his mistress and had ultimately betrayed him. Miller (played to perfection by actor Dennis Lipscomb as a troubled artist torn between guilt and confusion as to his purported role in the murders) goes to an unknown bar where he is picked up by the woman and taken to her apartment for a sexual encounter. As she is about to prepare drinks in the kitchen, all windows and doors inexplicably fly open, glass is shattered from cabinets and window panes; and in the doorway is framed Miller with a hardly human countenance, green eye-balls with flashing points of light and a chilling laugh. He utters the strange lines-“Santa Maria, mother of god, help me”- as the woman screams “Not you, can’t be you”, before she runs herself in with a huge kitchen knife she had held for her protection. At this scene, the gore is highlighted by vivid imagery of blood and guts spilling out of the woman’s stomach.

The next day, Miller has a bad headache and a strange feeling about his involvement in the horrific crime, which is confirmed by a newspaper report. He hurriedly rushes to his psychiatric counselor Dr. Curtis (who has been helping him cope up after his failed suicide) and details to her the memories of the murder and especially his presence in the scene. His doctor however refuses to believe him and instead puts down his hysteria to severe delusions brought forth by his suppressed guilt of having attempted suicide and she tries to assure Miller that he could have nothing to do with the murder.

The other two tormentors are similarly killed by Miller in gory fashions- one is cut up my a mincing machine in his own meat-packing factory while wrapped inside a buffalo carcass, and the other one has his skull crushed inside a warehouse by the rings of a raised animal cage.

In each of these instances, Miller is convinced that he had something to do with the killings but is unable to impress the point upon his doctor who continues to find him delusional and obviously distraught. However the accurate details of the crime as narrated by Miller reach the ears of a police office, the lover of Dr. Curtis, who in turn is led to believe that Miller is really the culprit.

As the movie reaches its climax, Miller is confronted by the malevolent spirit which communicates with him through a typewriter and tells him that he has to commit the murder of the fourth tormentor. As Miller resists the spirit and its intentions, his room lights up in different hues-red, green and blue, and one of his paintings starts duplicating itself by piling up in front of him. At this juncture, his psychiatrist rushes into his room in order to save Miller but is confronted by the spirit. The spirit holds her back and begins to throw her around before suffocating her. Miller watches helplessly but as Curtis loses strength, he rushes forward and throws himself out of the window along with the spirit. In the last eerie scene though, the spirit transfers itself to another person who opens his eyes and screams the same line- -“Santa Maria, mother of god, help me”. As Curtis screams, the screen goes blank and the credits start rolling.

As the title suggests, Retribution is the supernatural revenge story of a man, a man wronged by persons whom he trusted, and at whose instance he suffered a cruel agonizing death. The atmosphere of the film is strangely unsettling, the sense of dread and doom never dimming for a moment throughout its 107 minutes length. It is in a way a good example of what a good horror movie should look like, because it never lightens up with comic interludes or feel-good moments, instead it keeps spiraling down into an abyss of hopelessness. Even in the moments when Miller is seen recuperating from his suicide attempt and even attempting romance with a neighbor, the feeling of doom and death surrounds him and leaves the viewer certain of a gloomy ending. The somber music score adds to the atmosphere of foreboding and dread. This is a real gem for viewers who wish to appreciate the stuff horror movies are made of.