Young American sculptor Catherine (Sherilyn Fenn) returns to her family castle in Italy where she meets up with her pal, artist Gina (Charlie Spradling). After enjoying the sights of a travelling sideshow, the girls invite the performers to the castle for dinner. During the evening, the friends are drugged and raped by twins Lawrence and Oliver (both played by Malcolm Jamieson), one of whom is evil, and the other cursed to turn into a beast whenever he gets the horn!
Those who watch Meridian in order to see Twin Peaks babe Sherilyn Fenn in the altogether will no doubt be more than happy by the actress's frequent unclothing, but they may be amazed to find that Fenn isn't the fittest bird in the film: outshining Sherilyn is Charlie Spradling, who only has the one nude scene, but what a scene it is! If only the roles had been reversed, giving us more opportunity to fully appreciate her incredible physical attributes.
In addition to the impressive forms of both of its leading ladies, Meridian also benefits from excellent special make-up effects courtesy of Greg Cannom (channeling his inner Rick Baker for a cool transformation scene), a lush score from Pino Donaggio, and sumptuous cinematography from Mac Ahlberg. It's a shame that the story isn't really worthy of such talent - a weak 'beauty and the beast' style fantasy horror yarn spiced up with erotica, that director Charles Band is unable to bring any magic to: his attempts at style and classiness (slow motion, red light and smoke) amount to tedium for the most part, while the script conveniently glosses over certain plot elements with fairytale 'anything goes' dream-logic (thereby avoiding addressing such questions as 'Why does the painting being restored by Gina depict events that are about to happen?',' Why is there is a glowing red portal in the castle walls?', and 'Why do the sideshow ghosts enter and leave through the mouth of a statue?').
4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb. Recommended to fans of Fenn and Spradling for obvious reasons, but the slow pace and trite gothic romanticism makes it a bit of a bore at times.
Those who watch Meridian in order to see Twin Peaks babe Sherilyn Fenn in the altogether will no doubt be more than happy by the actress's frequent unclothing, but they may be amazed to find that Fenn isn't the fittest bird in the film: outshining Sherilyn is Charlie Spradling, who only has the one nude scene, but what a scene it is! If only the roles had been reversed, giving us more opportunity to fully appreciate her incredible physical attributes.
In addition to the impressive forms of both of its leading ladies, Meridian also benefits from excellent special make-up effects courtesy of Greg Cannom (channeling his inner Rick Baker for a cool transformation scene), a lush score from Pino Donaggio, and sumptuous cinematography from Mac Ahlberg. It's a shame that the story isn't really worthy of such talent - a weak 'beauty and the beast' style fantasy horror yarn spiced up with erotica, that director Charles Band is unable to bring any magic to: his attempts at style and classiness (slow motion, red light and smoke) amount to tedium for the most part, while the script conveniently glosses over certain plot elements with fairytale 'anything goes' dream-logic (thereby avoiding addressing such questions as 'Why does the painting being restored by Gina depict events that are about to happen?',' Why is there is a glowing red portal in the castle walls?', and 'Why do the sideshow ghosts enter and leave through the mouth of a statue?').
4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb. Recommended to fans of Fenn and Spradling for obvious reasons, but the slow pace and trite gothic romanticism makes it a bit of a bore at times.