 Roger Sands (Frank Ashmore) is a lunatic in a hospital for the criminally insane.
He fills his time reading up on how to be a psychic until he develops such powers as telekinesis accompanied with glowy eyes & the ability to turn all sparkly just before becoming invsible. When he decides he's ready to leave, who's to stop him.
The minor cast in Astral Factor; akam Invisible Strangler (1976) all seem to be from contemporary television shows or are slumming after reaching their height of popularity a decade or two earlier & already losing their employability for better films.
Sue Lyon of 1962's Lolita fame puts in a quick appearance as a victim. Elke Sommer as the one who escaped being a victim turns in the only performance that even attempts substance, weakly enough.
 Stefanie Powers, best known for the 1966 spy series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., is completely wasted as Candy the ditzy wife of the cop (Robert Foxworth) tracking down the Extra Sensory Psycho.
Stefanie puts as much into the moronic role as anyone could, but her purpose in the story is so tenuous that if all her scenes were deleted, nothing would seem to be missing.
As chintzy looking as any made for tv film, it is not listed as a telefilm but has that look of a pilot movie for an unsold series, possibly intended to star Foxworth & Powers.
Director John Florea's lackluster career was primarily in television. This would explain both the look of the film & the choice of a psycho killer whose activities are ready-made for family-safe television.
 The psycho, who had a bad relationship with his mom, likes to kill beautiful socialites; but since he's invisible, we get to see nothing more violent than actresses pretending to be killed.
Astral Factor is as close to unwatchable as any film gets that I keep watching, & I only stuck to it because I wanted to review it & it's unfair to review anything only half seen.
After it runs its requisit hour & a half time, the bad guy is easily gunned down, just to get the damned show over with. He melts away into the cosmos after he's shot which could've been creepily mystical if the special effect hadn't looked like a poorly drawn cartoon.
Continue to the next madhouse:
Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2006)
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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