Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Cast: Lisa Banes, Richard Beymer, Maria Celedonio, Gary Graham, Kathy Ireland
Screenplay: William Bleich
90 mins. Rated PG.

Tommy Lee Wallace (It) has directed and written quite a bit across his career, so why is it that he never gets the chance to direct his own script? Why does he get saddled with underwhelming work like this failed-pilot-turned-TV-movie? Our boy deserves better.

When a coup begins on a tropical island, several people escape the chaos via air transport, but when they fly through a storm, the plane crashes and the survivors paddle to shore on a seemingly uninhabited island. They try to signal for help and hunt for food and safe water until rescue, but they are attacked by an underwater creature and also discover an American research station abandoned in the 1970s. Now, they have to contend with government experiments and the diminishing resources. Essentially, they’re LOST.

So yeah, this is Lost but bad. The screenplay has far too many empty space scenes where nothing is explained and nothing moves the story forward, and I’m not saying it sets up mysteries; it just doesn’t bother explaining simple things, like the “coup” or civil war or whatever is happening on the tropical island at the beginning. The scenes operate as a plot machination to get our characters on a plane, spend a meager amount of time introducing them before killing off a bunch of them in the crash. There are moments like this scattered about the film, and while some of them could be setups for the eventual TV series follow-up, but even if this was a pilot, it doesn’t make for a very dynamic episode.

The two standouts in the cast are Richard Beymer (Twin Peaks), who has nothing to do, and Gary Graham (Robot Jox), a frequent schlock actor who does a lot with his odd character arc. Based on this bit of character work, he seems to be the most interesting member of the cast, and he works with the material well. No one else in the cast has much to do, and no one is able to take the spotlight, waiting for any character development.

The mysterious research station adds a few new wrinkles, and I’m curious to see what they would have done with this part of the story in future episodes. The mutation stuff would be captivating if it were better written, but this is an 45-minute story stretched into feature length. Director Tommy Lee Wallace isn’t able to work with much here in television, which is showrunner- and writer-driven as opposed to film, which is heavily director-based. The shot composition is weak, there’s virtually no visual storytelling, and the whole affair looks cheap. This is the perfect encapsulation of what Lost could have been without a budget.

The Presence, also known as Danger Island, is a badly-titled pilot, but its biggest sins are that it’s a dull story without much forward momentum. Now, to be fair, most pilot episodes are terrible, or at least missing that spark that creates a lasting show. Those sparks take a little time, and it doesn’t appear here. As a TV movie, it’s boring and bland and lifeless.

2/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

• For more Tommy Lee Wallace: Halloween III: Season of the Witch, It