Lindsey Vickers’ The Appointment is the rare case of a Twilight Zone concept working perfectly well as a movie. Although Vickers’ story all but shouts how his story will end, he manages to tease suspense and turn the inevitable into a bravura sequence that literally turns things on its head.
Family man Ian (Edward Woodward, The Wicker Man) has to go out of town for a work obligation. This means he’ll miss the violin recital of his 14-year-old daughter, Joanne (Samantha Weysom, The Ritz). He and Joanne are bonded like Loctite Super Glue, so the news doesn’t sit well with her. Like, at all. Joanne’s growing petulance eats away at his empathy.
Thanks to a shocking prologue viewers should discover on their own, a discomfiting sense of dread pervades The Appointment. We know something irreversibly awful will happen, leaving us gripped for every bump of the ride. At once influencing Final Destination while recalling the expertise of Duel, Ian is pursued by what the rearview mirror cannot reveal: fate. How something this sure-handed remains Vickers’ lone feature is perhaps the only mystery any larger. —Rod Lott