Yvonne DeCarlo's death a few days ago brings to mind her varied career. She may be best known for playing Lily on the comic-horror TV series "The Munsters", but in the movie "American Gothic", she went for straight horror. The movie portrays some young people flying out over the Puget Sound - on either a sunny or overcast day; the setting kept changing - and having to land on an island when their plane conks out. The island turns out to be inhabited by a family. Ma (DeCarlo) and Pa (Rod Steiger) are practically Amish, their daughter Fanny looks only a little younger, and sons Woody (Michael J. Pollard) and Teddy don't do much. But this family isn't what they seem. Every member seems like s/he has some nasty plans, and the outsiders had better not trespass.
There were some pretty gross scenes here, but I liked how they played everything out. Especially what Cynthia did at the end. I couldn't have predicted that even if I'd tried! So, it's mostly your average slasher flick, but still quite enjoyable. I wonder what Grant Wood would have thought had he known that the name of his famous painting would one day get used for this sort of movie.
There were some pretty gross scenes here, but I liked how they played everything out. Especially what Cynthia did at the end. I couldn't have predicted that even if I'd tried! So, it's mostly your average slasher flick, but still quite enjoyable. I wonder what Grant Wood would have thought had he known that the name of his famous painting would one day get used for this sort of movie.