''The Kirlian Witness'' is a 1979 American thriller/

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

film written and directed by Jonathan Sarno. The film stars

Nancy Snyder Nancy Snyder (born December 2, 1949) is an American actress who won the Clarence Derwent Award in 1976 and the Outer Critics Circle Best Actress award in the 1977–78 season. Life and career Snyder was born in Kankakee, Illinois, the dau ...

, Nancy Boykin, Joel Colodner,

Ted Le Plat TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depart ...

Lawrence Tierney Lawrence James Tierney (March 15, 1919 – February 26, 2002) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and tough guys in a career that spanned over 50 years. His roles mirrored his ...

and

Maia Danziger Maia (; Ancient Greek: Μαῖα; also spelled Maie, ; la, Maia), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is one of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes, one of the major Greek gods, by Zeus, the king of Olympus. Family Maia is the daugh ...

. The film was released on June 6, 1979, by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Plot

Rilla's sister, Laurie, is dead, murdered on the moonlit rooftop above her apartment. There are no clues and no fingerprints. Yet there is a "witness". If Rilla can communicate with it, she can expose a murderer, but that communication could cost her her marriage, her sanity and her life. Laurie's childhood affinity for plant life had developed into a remarkable telepathic bond, one that she had been researching exhaustively. When she is murdered, the only "witness" is her favourite houseplant. Rilla insists that the plant holds the key to the killer's identity. The police are openly skeptical of her theory. So Rilla becomes a one-person private detective agency. Through the use of

Kirlian photography Kirlian photography is a collection of photographic techniques used to capture the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges. It is named after Semyon Kirlian, who, in 1939, accidentally discovered that if an object on a photographic plate i ...

, - a type of

X-Ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

process that can reveal the psychological aura of its subject - she compiles persuasive evidence. Still, her obsessive investigation is alienating her husband and upsetting her life. Her own

telepathic Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

communication with the plant is triggering a series of terrifying dreams of her sister's death and what she cannot distinguish in the prophetic nightmares is the face of the murderer who is about to kill again.

Cast

as Rilla * Nancy Boykin as Laurie * Joel Colodner as Robert *

as Dusty *

as Detective *

as Claire

Background

Among the wilder branches of pseudoscience to gain popularity during the 1970's was

, which supposedly allowed researchers to document emotional reactions from plants during exposure to stimuli. Kirlian photography is rumored to be the inspiration and basis for the film.

References

External links

* 1979 films American thriller films 1979 thriller films Paramount Pictures films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language thriller films {{1970s-US-film-stub