{"id":2010,"date":"2006-12-16T09:43:42","date_gmt":"2006-12-16T16:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2010"},"modified":"2020-12-14T00:59:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T07:59:35","slug":"kirlian-witness-the-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2010","title":{"rendered":"Kirlian Witness, The (1979)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;My plants sense that he is a bad person!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Poster-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-28512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Poster-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Poster.jpg 236w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA photographer (Nancy Snyder) investigates the mysterious death of her plant-loving sister (Nancy Boykin).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Amateur Sleuths<\/li>\n<li>Killer Plants<\/li>\n<li>Lawrence Tierney Films<\/li>\n<li>Murder Mystery<\/li>\n<li>Photographers<\/li>\n<li>Supernatural Powers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn 1968, Clyde Baxter published an article called &#8220;Evidence of a Primary Perception in Plant Life&#8221;, claiming that when he hooked a plant up to a polygraph machine, the plant reacted to thoughts and threats. It&#8217;s an intriguing idea &#8212; after all, plants <em>are <\/em>alive, so isn&#8217;t it possible that we&#8217;re underestimating their potential for sentience? &#8212; but Baxter&#8217;s &#8220;experiment&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/skepdic.com\/plants.html\">has since been roundly debunked<\/a>. Back in the day, however, the &#8220;secret life of plants&#8221; was apparently ripe with dramatic possibility &#8212; and, combined with the equally new-agey concepts of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.answers.com\/topic\/kirlian-photography\">Kirlian photography<\/a>, auras, and psychic transmission, formed the basis of this minor cult flick by independent writer\/director Jonathan Sarno.  <\/p>\n<p><em>The Kirlian Witness<\/em> (also known as <em>The Plants Are Watching<\/em>) was marketed as a horror film upon its release &#8212; indeed, my local video store inexplicably continues to file it in the horror section under &#8220;When Plants Attack&#8221; (!?) &#8212; but, as pointed out by Shane Burridge in his review, it&#8217;s actually more of a crime thriller than a horror flick, with amateur sleuth Nancy Snyder attempting to find out the identity of the killer while placing her own life in danger. As such, it&#8217;s a reasonably well-done, albeit unevenly paced, independent feature &#8212; and though there are only two primary suspects, Sarno manages to pull a nifty plot twist at the end.  Nonetheless, all the nonsense about psychic plants and auras ruined my overall enjoyment of the film, and ultimately elicited more groans than chills. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An unusual premise for a murder mystery<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2-1024x572.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-57771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2-1536x858.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2-483x270.png 483w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kirlian-Witness-Still2.png 1649w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo. Though it developed a small cult during the time of its release, I don&#8217;t think this curio remains must-see viewing today. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0077808\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1979\/06\/14\/archives\/film-kirlian-witness-parapsychology-in-sohoonly-the-plants-know.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;My plants sense that he is a bad person!&#8221; Synopsis: A photographer (Nancy Snyder) investigates the mysterious death of her plant-loving sister (Nancy Boykin). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Amateur Sleuths Killer Plants Lawrence Tierney Films Murder Mystery Photographers Supernatural Powers Review: In 1968, Clyde Baxter published an article called &#8220;Evidence of a Primary Perception in Plant Life&#8221;, claiming that when he hooked a plant up to a polygraph machine, the plant reacted to thoughts and threats. It&#8217;s an intriguing&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2010\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2010"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57772,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions\/57772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}