Apparently "The Sender" is quite popular and highly acclaimed among the rest of my fellow reviewers here, but I can't say it made the same powerful impression on me. Undeniably this film plays in a much more sophisticated league than the majority of early 80's horror efforts, but in my humble opinion it's still a little too flawed to label it as an undiscovered gem. "The Sender" is actually more of a psychological thriller instead of a horror flick, in spite of some genuinely repulsive special effects, with the emphasis primarily lying on suspense and an extremely convoluted screenplay. I'll be the first to admit that it's a pleasant surprise to encounter a story-driven thriller amidst all the brainless slasher efforts of the early 80's, but the plot can't hold your attention long enough and there isn't enough empathy with the main characters. "The Sender" opens wondrously atmospheric and mysterious, with the attempted suicide of a drifting and clearly disorientated young man who simply walks into a recreational lake with stones in his pockets. The man is taken to the state mental hospital, where he's baptized with the name John Doe 83 and gets put under the custody of the caring female psychiatrist Dr. Gail Farmer. In her attempts to safeguard John Doe 83 from undergoing electroshock-therapy, Dr. Farmer builds up a liaison with him and involuntarily gets drawn into his world of nightmares. As some sort of telepathy, John Doe is able to "broadcast" his dreams to certain receivers. Dr. Farmer has all sorts of visions and she even receives visits from a creepy woman who claims to be the boy's mothers, but she can't be sure what's real and what's not.
"The Sender" contains a highly satisfying amount of grisly images and truly nightmarish scenery, like for example mirrors that break and start bleeding, rats crawling out of people's mouth and mentally unbalanced patients strangling themselves. The absolute highlight of macabre is undoubtedly the sequences in which an entire operating room shatters as soon as the ETC machine is connected to John Doe's persona. My personal main issue with the film, however, is that these sequences are merely just isolated highlights in an overall confusing and not-compelling-enough thriller. The interactions between Dr. Farmer and her patient are overlong and sometimes redundant, while there are so many other potentially fascinating elements to elaborate on, like for example a more detailed background of John Doe's fellow mental patients. Also, a story like this also needs an evil and greedy doctor who wants to exploit John Doe's extraordinary psychic powers. Some kind of anti pole to Dr. Farmer's character. But enough with the complaints because, let there be no mistake, "The Sender" is definitely worth a peek if you're looking for an unconventional and stylishly put together 80's shocker. Director Roger Christian, almost 20 years before making the abysmal "Battlefield Earth", does a professional job maintaining a slow and unsettling pace and the acting performances are far above average. Particularly Shirley Knight is creepy as hell as John Doe's mysterious mother in black.
"The Sender" contains a highly satisfying amount of grisly images and truly nightmarish scenery, like for example mirrors that break and start bleeding, rats crawling out of people's mouth and mentally unbalanced patients strangling themselves. The absolute highlight of macabre is undoubtedly the sequences in which an entire operating room shatters as soon as the ETC machine is connected to John Doe's persona. My personal main issue with the film, however, is that these sequences are merely just isolated highlights in an overall confusing and not-compelling-enough thriller. The interactions between Dr. Farmer and her patient are overlong and sometimes redundant, while there are so many other potentially fascinating elements to elaborate on, like for example a more detailed background of John Doe's fellow mental patients. Also, a story like this also needs an evil and greedy doctor who wants to exploit John Doe's extraordinary psychic powers. Some kind of anti pole to Dr. Farmer's character. But enough with the complaints because, let there be no mistake, "The Sender" is definitely worth a peek if you're looking for an unconventional and stylishly put together 80's shocker. Director Roger Christian, almost 20 years before making the abysmal "Battlefield Earth", does a professional job maintaining a slow and unsettling pace and the acting performances are far above average. Particularly Shirley Knight is creepy as hell as John Doe's mysterious mother in black.