The Reincarnate (1971)

ridiculous rating

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

As one reviewer has said it's full of pretentious people. The film is just overly long and boring. It's trying to be a mysterious occult horror-thriller but it fails miserably to be what it wants to be . Such a shame, I was looking forward to watching a really good film on the occult and the topic of reincarnation. "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud" seems to be the only really good movie on the subject of reincarnation.Jack Creley really got on my nerves in this film for some reason. I was okay with the film and then he would show up an really irritate me. I can't place my finger on why though - mainly his voice kept bothering me and it should not have but it did. Why I'll never know.2/10

Mr. Julian, a wealthy "laudator temporis acti" and patron of the arts, is diagnosed terminal. He quickly puts into motion the ritual which has kept him alive for many centuries...alive, at least, in a manner of speaking. His memory, you see, is a continuum which has been passed down through generations of recipients. This metamorphosis occurs during an ages-old rite which requires two things...a suitable successor, and a virgin sacrifice.THE REINCARNATE is a film of interest only to those with a fondness for the more cerebral elements in horror. Nearly devoid of action and bloodletting, emphasis is instead placed on the eeriness of harbingers in the storyline, and the slow buildup to an unforeseeable conclusion.The cast does a marvelous job here, especially Jack Creley as the mysterious Mr. Julian, and Jay Reynolds as David, the headstrong young sculptor who has been selected as a worthy link in the chain of lives which have kept an ancient memory "living".All things considered, THE REINCARNATE is a minor, yet thoughtful and oddly compelling item. If you can overlook some forgivable deficiencies, you may well find that this film has been rather unfairly dismissed. 6/10

Yep, here it is.. the worst movie I've ever reviewed on this site. I will give an opinion on Practical Magic one day, but not in the near future. Anyhoo, what is this film about? That my friend is a complete mystery, and not one I care to unravel. Looking at the front cover, it obviously fancies itself as a horror flick. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unless the prospect of 90 minutes of boring, meaningless talk fills you with dread, in which case it is absolutely terrifying.The plot, something about a bloke with a month to live, a promising young sculptor and his virgin girlfriend he is being forced to sacrifice is utter piffle and does not make one jot of sense. At least in most bad 'scary' movies like this, there are some cheesy special effects to laugh at or extremely fake blood and guts spilt. Not a bit of that here though.. just tedious characters flitting from one droning conversation to another, with no break for scares, killings or anything else that even resembles fun. Wait a sec.. occasionally we do get a sight of a rather loud moggy (SPOOKY!), but his role in the final production is quite arbitrarily. In fact, he looks like he has been edited in from another film.What is the director's game here? Did he start out with a ton of gory scenes, but then cut them out because he was aiming for a PG? Could the inexplicable 18 rating this has in the UK be for that never-been-seen-before version? Who cares, the missing footage isn't really going to go down with the ones from 'The Magnificent Ambersons' in national importance. Either way, the fact remains that someone actually financed this tripe after reading the script, actors thought it was worth reciting this awful dialogue and somebody had the brains to release it on video when the negative should have been quietly thrown in a nearby dumpster. The mind boggles.Anyway, I repeat: this is by some distance the most snoozeworthy, waste of space of a film I have seen in many a moon.. so take advantage of it's rarity by steering clear of it like a landmine on the motorway. Thank you, and good night.. 0/10 (DUH)

(There are Spoilers) Strange movie about reincarnation and the transfer of one's memory to another at the moment of death. All of this coming from the philosophy of the ancient Sakana religious cult that corporate lawyer Everet Julian, Jack Creley,belongs to. Being told by no less then three different doctors that he doesn't have long to live Julian looks up a person that he dealt with in a court case a while ago artist David Payne, Jay Reynolds, who greatly impressed him. Payne a stubborn and bull headed individual is just the free spirit that Julian wan't to transfer his memory to after he dies. Seeing Payne at his studio Julian at first is not direct about his reasons for being there, having Payne accept his proposition of brain-transportation, but tries to impress him by lauding over his works. Going so far as to later rent the prestigious Ormsby Gallery to have an exposition of his art has the some-what befuddled Payne start to listen to Julian's theories about reincarnation and mind transfers which he starting telling him about as soon as he felt that Payne was ready to except them. Payne who at first thought that Julian was some kind of rich and eccentric nut slowly starts to feel that there's something to all the BS he's been telling him. Thats when his lover Ann's, Terry Tweed, husband gets killed in a car crash making it possible or him to marry her. His suspicions are even more confirmed about Julian's theories when he suddenly comes into a large inheritance of over $200,000,00 in stocks and a 170 acre piece of real-estate outside of the city with only a church on it! A Sakana church.What Payne doesn't know is that all this, the stocks the land the church, belonged to a professor John Louella, who got Julian involved with Sakana, who's memory was transfered to Julian years ago just after he passed away. Meanwhile Payne who had trouble producing great works of art starts knocking them out as if he were the reincarnation of Leonaro Da Vinci. As the day of his art exhibit arrived October 31,Halloween,all of Payne's works are sold out at huge prices as he became the newest and possibly greatest genius, in the world of art, of the 20th century. That day was also the day that Julia expected to die.As the time came for Julian demise there had to be a price to be paid by Payne for everything that Julian gave him beside him receiving Julian's memory; a young virgin Ruthie Monese, Trudy Young, was to be sacrificed at the altar of the Sakana Church with Payne being the master of ceremonies.Jay Reynolds as David Payne was by far the best and most interesting person in the movie going from a skeptic to a believer in all the stories that Juian told him about the occult. In the end Payne did everything that was expected of him even offering up as a burnt offering Ruthie to the God of Sakana. Jack Creley as Everet Julian was so clam during the entire movie that he seemed to know exactly what the outcome would be as if he saw it hundreds of times before, like he must have in all his past lives. Trudy Young as Ruthie was just a typical 1970's hippie-type teenage girl looking for a Guru to tell her what's the meaning of life and for what reason was she put on earth for, Ruthie found out soon enough. And the high priest of the Church of Sakana Stedley, Gene Tybrun, was so immersed in his practice of Sakana that if a bomb landed and exploded on top of his head he never would have noticed it. Since even though his body was here on earth his mind was in another different realm of existence. P.S Ruthie's end was not as tragic and gruesome as you, and I,would have expected it to be it actually gave her a new start in life as you see when the movie is ending.