Accidents (1989)
Article 6096 by David Sindelar
Directed by Gideon Amir
Featuring Edward Albert, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jon Cypher
Country: South Africa, USA, France
What it is: Conspiracy thriller

A scientist discovers that his work intended to help humanity has been converted to finding a way to kill people. Then, one by one, everyone involved with the project begin dying in mysterious “accidents”

It’s question time!

• Why is it that, even thought there are some excellent ones out there, I find when a movie is described as a “conspiracy thriller” I brace myself for the worst?
• Will the healing/killing miniature flying saucer that serves as the fantastic content in the movie be used elsewhere in the movie but the opening scenes, or will it pine away as a mere Gizmo Maguffin? (I’ll answer this one. It’s used again before the movie ends, to the movie’s credit.)
• Is the movie’s slow pace due to the complexity of the conspiracy, or is it due to the fact they only had 20 minutes of script and had to pad the movie out with walking and driving scenes? (If you dare to watch, you’ll figure this out on your own.)
• If you know you’re on the conspiracy hit list and want to protect your daughter, would you leave her with one of the other people on the hit list for protection?
• Why did it take three countries to make this movie? And which one was responsible for the script?
• How is it that everyone (especially the hundreds of gunmen who appear near the end) can tell the good guys from the bad guys when they hadn’t a clue earlier?

There are a few other questions, but I’ve already spent way too much time on this one to make it worth the effort.

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Accumulator 1 (1994)
akd Akumulator 1
Article 6095 by David Sindelar
Directed by Jan Sverak
Featuring Petr Forman, Edita Brychta, Zdenek Sverak
Country: Czech Republic
What it is: TVs as blood-sucking vampires

A man is taken to the hospital for having been unconscious for several days. At first, no cause for the illness can be found, but the patient discovers that his television is sucking the life out of him.

This science fiction satire on the virulent effects of TV is a lot of fun. It posits a situation where people accosted in “Man in the street” interviews find that their TV appearance results in an alternate version of themselves which need sustenance, which they achieve by sucking the life from their original. I found this one fresh and entertaining. especially when it sends up action movie tropes in which TV remotes are substituted for guns. Zdenek Sverak steals the movie as a healer (but not a doctor) who tries to help the main character with his crisis. I quite liked this one.

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