Diabolique * (1996, Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri, Kathy Bates) – Classic Movie Review 2355

Director Jeremiah S Chechik’s 1996 thriller is an awful, boring, suspense-free American remake of the 1955 classic French spine-tingler, Les Diaboliques, using that film’s American title of Diabolique. It completely wastes the ingenious story by Vertigo authors Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac and three excellent stars.

Sharon Stone is lost as Nicole Horner, the mistress of the cruel headmaster in a tatty small school, Guy Baran (Chazz Palminteri), who is married to Mia (Isabelle Adjani). Soon, Baran seems to have been bumped off by his plotting wife and mistress, but, with the corpse having vanished, who knows what’s going on?

Everybody concerned seems to be just going through the motions, and the film’s surprises and climaxes are all hideously botched. The admirable Kathy Bates has virtually nothing to do as Shirley Vogel, the police detective snooping around, so then she must be the lucky one.

Also in the cast are Spalding Gray, Shirley Knight, Allen Garfield, Adam Hann-Byrd, Donal Logue, Diana Bellamy, Clea Lewis, Jeffrey Abrams and O’Neal Compton.

As an updated American remake of French classic movie, it’s bad. There’s no other word for it.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2355

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