Stars: Nancy McKeon (TV's "The Facts of Life," Where the Day Takes You, Poison Ivy), Polly Bergen (Cape Fear, War and Remembrance). TV star Nancy McKeon plays Martha Townsend, a Santa Fe sculptor whose pregnancy is plagued by nightmares about a lizard-worshipping cult in Central America. What Martha doesn't realize is that another woman, one of the cult members, is having a "sympathetic" pregnancy (during labor, she feels Martha's contractions, etc.) and she plans on stealing the real baby after she's finished with her own fake pregnancy. Got it? Fortunately, for Martha, a psychologist steps in and guides her through hypnosis sessions during which she hones her telekinetic powers to throw lightning around. At the same time, Martha's mother (Bergen) is having massive headaches (because the lizard people are roughly massaging a voodoo doll) and acting pretty crazy because she was once a scientist working in Central America who--get this--administered to the locals a drug which just happened to be radioactive. This resulted in both sterility and a bloodthirst for revenge, and some kind of ancient prophecy, and... I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. The acting is turgid-to-annoying (particularly with McKeon saying "my baby!" at least once every five minutes during the second half of the program), the plot is strictly ozone, and the dialogue is lackluster (and occasionally laughable). Lightning, hell. This wouldn't light a 20-watt bulb. Audience: Horror fans will be disappointed, as will anyone else.
The Lightning Incident
Thriller, Paramount Home Video, 1991, Color, 90 min. $79.95, rated: R (violence, though it still should have been PG or PG-13), Made-for-Cable: USA Video Movies
The Lightning Incident
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