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The wonderful Martin Landau plays a paranormal investigator by the name of Nelson Orion. He’s brought in for his expertise when a taphophobia (fear of being buried alive) suffering woman passes away. Her fear was so extreme that she had a phone installed in her crypt… well, one year later, that phone has been ringing and accompanied by her sobbing to her blind and rightfully horrified son. Diane Baker graces us with her presence as the blind man’s skeptical wife who begrudgingly calls Nelson in for help at the insistence of her spooked hubby. She warms up a little to the man when he explains he makes his money through architecture and if he discovers the haunting is a prank, he won’t charge a dime. While investigating the crypt where mama rests, a terrifying apparition shows itself to the disbelieving wife. The spirit recalls a case Orion worked where an American teacher was supposedly murdered by a blood-splattered specter, the location being the Sierra de Cobre of the title and the case was proven to be a hoax. There’s a sinister housekeeper hanging around as well, obviously up to no good and connected to Sierra de Cobre and disappointed in Orion’s failure to exorcise a ghost that he refuses to believe exists. Of course, it’s far more complicated than all of that and there’s a few secrets occupying the dark. We get some wind attacks, the stellar physical manifestation of a grave-dwelling spirit, Orion’s awesome take-no-shit housekeeper and a lovely beach house Orion calls home. Intended as a pilot for a horror-themed series, the airing station supposedly received too many complaints about the level of terrifying it brought to the table but it may just have been the exit of CBS president James T. Aubrey that killed the series dead. The series idea was scratched, footage was added and the endeavor became a pleasantly creepy TV movie. It’s a shame we didn’t get more Orion adventures but we’ll just place him right beside David Norliss, Brett Kingsford and Tom Kovack. A damn fine time.
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