Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
BA_Harrison
Pete Walker's The Comeback sees the director entering slasher/giallo territory with the story of a successful pop singer, Nick Cooper (Jack Jones), who moves into an old mansion to begin recording his first album in six years, only to be disturbed by a series of strange, nightmarish occurrences. Meanwhile, a crazed killer dressed as a granny (complete with old hag rubber mask) is busy bumping off his nearest and dearest.The film opens in great style with the gruesome murder of Nick's beautiful ex-wife Gail (Holly Palance), who is savagely hacked to death with a sickle by the movie's masked maniac; sadly, excessively bloody moments like this are few and far between (the only other gory murder being that of Nick's perverted pal Harry played by Peter Turner), the majority of the film being surprisingly uneventful and frustratingly repetitive, with Nick investigating strange sounds at night and romancing sexy blonde secretary Linda Everett (Not The Nine O'Clock News star Pamela Stephenson) during the day.After much hunting high and low in the creepy house, a little hanky panky with Linda in his Lotus Elite, and a brief stint in hospital for nervous fatigue (the result of finding his wife's decomposing head in a hat-box!), Nick finally finds out which of the film's suspects are responsible for his frightful experiences. Die-hard Walker fans shouldn't be too surprised by the revelation, although exactly why he is being tortured may not be so easy to guess.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.
HumanoidOfFlesh
"The Comeback" stars singer Jack Jones as a faded singer Nick Cooper,returning to Britain from the States to record a comeback album.Meanwhile,a transvestite maniac in a wig,fright mask and granny-dress has killed his ex-wife and starts knocking off everyone close to him.Typically gruesome Pete Walker's shocker filled with suspense and bloody murders.There is also an air of self-parody here plus a good deal of humour,still fans of Grand Guignol horror shouldn't be disappointed.I have only seen two other horror films made by Pete Walker "Schizo" and "Flesh and the Blood Show" and I'm highly impressed.So if you are a fan of British horror or slasher flicks in general give this one a look.
Coventry
After having unleashed no less than FOUR genuine cult-shockers upon the British horror market in collaboration with David McGillivray ("House of Whipcord", "Frightmare", "House of Mortal Sin" and "Schizo"), Pete Walker falls back on the writing skills of Murray Smith, with whom he made his very first horror film ("Die Screaming Marianne") as well as a couple of light-headed sex-comedies. Smith's imagination isn't as offensive or twisted as McGillivray's, and thus "The Comeback" is an overall politically correct horror effort. That DOESN'T mean it's bad or unmemorable, mind you! The story's subject matter is fairly original, the character drawings are morbidly eccentric and Walker masterfully alters long scenes of suspense with some of the grossest killings in 70's cinema I've ever seen. Real life singer Jack Jones stars as crooner Nick Cooper, working hard on making a comeback after he divorced his dominating wife Gail. His former record producer still believes in his qualities and even arranged for Nick to live in a large mansion, complete with two loyal – albeit oddly behaving – servants at his disposal. Troubles appear when the rotting corpse of Nick's ex-wife, who has been violently murdered in their former penthouse, begins to haunt him at night along with petrifying sobbing sounds of a small child. It soon begins to look like someone intends to boycott Nick's new career and even hurt him personally. Despite most of the red herrings and sub plots being implausible and far-fetched, the whodunit-element of "The Comeback" keeps you alert and interested up until the satisfying denouement (that I didn't see coming, I may add). The faster the ending approached, I began to fear that Murray Smith would make the same mistake as he did in "Die Screaming Marianne" – loose control and drown in all the deceptive plot twists -, but experienced director Walker neatly fits everything back together during the shlocky finale. He also makes great use of terrifically sinister set pieces, like the creepy penthouse and the totally uncanny rooms in the mansion. The film contains multiple homage references to classic films (although some people tend to call them rip-offs), such as "Psycho" and "Citizen Kane" and I wondrously even loved the corny song called "Traces of a long forgotten tune". The acting is adequate, although Sheila Keith's performance is a cut above the rest as usual. "The Comeback" was one of Pete Walker's last achievements, followed by only two more movies. His work may very well be an acquired taste, but I definitely consider him to be among the most talented horror filmmakers that were active in Europe.
world_of_weird
Jack Jones, the seventies MOR crooner, doesn't disgrace himself with his central performance in this memorably demented chiller. Jones plays a pop singer attempting to record a new album in the surroundings of an apparently haunted country retreat, but he's distracted by the creepy staff (Sheila Keith and Bill Owen), his smarmy, secretly cross-dressing manager, the brutal murders of his ex-wife and trusted colleague, and a burgeoning relationship with groupie Pamela Stephenson. Whilst not as gory as FRIGHTMARE nor as fast-paced or compelling as HOUSE OF WHIPCORD, THE COMEBACK has more than enough touches of eye-popping kinkiness, blood-spattered madness and hallucinatory menace to keep discerning genre fans entertained. Just be warned that Jones's music on the soundtrack isn't his best (it sounds like a particularly wayward Scott Walker solo album), and if you're expecting another nonthreatening pop star movie vehicle, you'd do better to avoid this completely.
