Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

PimpinAinttEasy Dear Philip Leacock, you made a good film alright. Here, have a beer. Or how about an orange soda? Or a grape soda? You deserve it.Dying Room Only starts off with beautiful shots of a deserted road in Arizona. It preceded Long Weekend, the Australian film by five years. Like the Long Weekend, the TV film has a squabbling and seemingly miserable middle class couple driving across the desert in a car as protagonists. Clois Leachman does the irritating and nagging wife really well. She nails the role and the mood of the couple in the first few minutes itself.The couple stops for drinks and food at a roadside café and after this the film wears its genre credentials on its sleeve. The roadside café with the bright red sign reading "Beer" is a nice set piece. The happenings inside the café with the hostile locals are very tense and entertaining. The proceedings do have a play like quality. Ned Beatty is great as one of the hostile locals. This man played so many diverse roles in the 70s.The ending and the plot resolutions were a bit of a disappointment. The revelations at the end does call into question the behavior of the locals at the beginning of the film.There were quite a few films with the rural folk vs urban values in the 70s. While it is not as good as Deliverance or Wake in Fright, Dying Room Only is pretty tense and intriguing for the most part.The background score reminded me of Morricone's noisy and jarring music for Ecce Homo (1968).The final scene was very interesting. Duel, which came out a couple of years before Dying Room Only had a similar scene at the beginning of the film.I hope to check out more films by you, Philip Leacock.Best Regards, Pimpin.

poe426 No other writer was ever able to take an ordinary setting and turn it on its head the way Richard Matheson could. DYING ROOM ONLY is about as perfect an example as I can offer: a roadside diner in the middle of nowhere, a couple who stop for directions- let the games begin. Cloris Leachman is at her harried best, here, and her slowly dawning realization that something's not quite right is 100% believable- as is her subsequent fury and then abject fear when she understands exactly just how FAR from the beaten path she really is. Ross Martin was never slimier. The third act is about as logical as it gets, in this context. If you want to see just how bad it COULD'VE been, I refer you to the Big Screen rip-off BREAKDOWN, with Kurt Russell. DYING ROOM ONLY isn't Richard Matheson's BEST- far from it- but evidence enough that he was a Master Storyteller.

S_Craig_Zahler Exact rating 6.5.I spent some time going through the supposed classics of television horror, most of which were relatively mediocre (eg. Dark Night of the Scarecrow, The Norliss Tapes, Trilogy of Terror, which is 1/3 good) or weak (Gargoyles, Devil Dog, Don't be Afraid of the Dark). Certainly many folks have some sentimental attachment to these movies, but I don't.Although I like the idea of atmospheric low budget seventies TV horror, I did not stumble upon anything nearly as good as Tobe Hooper's second best movie, Salem's Lot or Spielberg's Duel or the first Nightstalker movie.Amongst the best of the bunch is Dying Room Only, a sharply written and well paced piece of rural paranoia, written by Richard Matheson, with an excellent and natural performance by Cloris Leachman in the center, giving gravity to the weird goings on.This is very simple persecution horror, along the lines of Spielberg's Duel, which it thematically resembles (both were written by Matheson), and for a 75 minute movie experience and nice 1970s flavor, I can recommend this engaging and taut little piece over the many better known television films of this era.

Tony Rome Some of the best made for TV movies were made in the 1970's. This film has the great Ross Martin playing a role that is a far cry from that of Artemus Gordon. Here he plays a mysterious cook in a filthy dinner somewhere in the middle of the desert. Cloris Leachman is excellent as the terrorized woman. This film contains an early performance by Dabney Coleman as her husband. The supporting cast is great, Ned Beatty straight of his role in "Deliverance," and three years before his Oscar win in "Network," Dana Elcar is equally as good as the policeman. Dana Elcar starred in many TV shows, films and Made for TV movies, and seemed to have always been underrated. I give this film **** and highly recommend it.