Talisman (1998)

The plot of Talisman is culled from a few sources, the most evident of which are Narciso Serrador's La Residencia and the Prophecy movies. The setting is La Residencia, but with all the genders swapped. It takes place in a strict boarding school for older boys/young men, where the obviously lesbian headmistress keeps her daughter from having contact with any of the boys. Enter new boy Elias Storm, who begins to notice strange things happening. As he investigates, he learns more about a mysterious talisman and it's role in opening the gateway to hell that will cause the end of the world.

If you've seen La Residencia, you can already guess who the villain is. It's just got a supernatural twist this time. Also if you've seen La Residencia, you can already smell the gender-related themes. I sometimes take cheap shots at subtextual criticism, but this is a case where it applies very well. The sexual tensions amongst the boys are just bubbling and the only girl in the school is dangled before them and, yep, killing them. (That's not a spoiler.) One of the boys, the most homoerotic of them all, is so vocal and obsessive about his desire to have sex with her that he becomes the least believable, like he has to constantly remind himself he wants her. Only the hero doesn't show any interest in her.

You often hear of a great idea with poor execution. Well this is a pretty wretched and typical late-90s supernatural horror idea given execution far better than it deserves. The interests and personality of Elias Storm are built up sufficiently for the climax to pay off and have a certain fluidity. The worldview of the villain, which she expresses at that point, is rather fascinating and totally amoral. I also liked the character of the head mistress, who says things like, "You're the worthless son of a wealthy family; and if one is going to be worthless, it is always a good idea to be wealthy." That is one well-phrased barb and Oana Stefanescu, whoever that is, delivers the line perfectly.

(I do have one complaint, and that's with the arithmetic of the scriptwriter. One character is supposed to be about two years older than another, who is 18. But the age of the older character is given as 16. So there's a mistake of four years there. It's not important, it just bugged me and I'm sort of proud of myself for catching it.)

Overall, this is a fairly mediocre late-90s supernatural horror and pretty much what you'd expect coming from Full Moon. I think of Full Moon as not unlike Hammer: you're assured a certain level of production quality when you watch their films, even if the ideas are often vapid. As to DeCoteau, he does give some of what he's become famous for: boys in their underwear. I wouldn't mind if the young men were better-looking--it's always nice to see beautiful things--but these men are callow and unappealing, save for one or two. So it's an average but decent b-movie.