Harlequin

Pick a lane, man! Very interesting Ozploitation but the story is an afterthought of various genres. The effects are cool. Fav scene: performing party tricks like lifting pianos and exploding doves.

They don't make movies like this anymore.

Almost taking the story of Rasputin as its template - with a mystic (Robert Powell) entering the lives of a politician and his wife by healing their son - and adding a bit more political intrigue, it had the potential to be an interesting Australian genre film but has not got enough to it to work. Powell is a highlight, but there is nothing in this that has not been done better in other films.

Rasputin Neuromancer - Peter Riviera

Very strange indeed.

Yes it is partly a remake of Rasputin, but it is also sci-fi, and corruption and murder in Australian politics. In fact so different from other kinds of films that this makes it worth the watch alone.

OK thriller about a Rasputin style stranger who invites himself into a politician's family’s life. It’s usually clubbed together with Ozploitation films, but it’s quite restrained and closer to a 70’s studio thriller. Although it has elements of horror, suspense and fantasy/sci-fi, it hardly utilizes those aspects which is a bit of a missed opportunity. It would have been interesting to see the stranger "helping" the politician’s career for example. Solid cinematography and use of Ozzie vistas.