Great Film overall

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This movie was almost good, just did not quite get there. It started slowly, but then it picked up as strange things started occurring, but then it finished in very weak anticlimactic fashion. The film starts as a woman plunges to her death from a building. The cops start the investigation and while they investigate the movie flashes back to the life of the lady who was killed and you see all the things that lead up to her untimely demise. You learn of how she is a prostitute and a heroin addict, and at this point I was wondering why this film was in a horror movie pack I got as it did not seem to have any elements of horror in it at all. Then you learn of a mysterious offer and how this lady who died gets wrapped up in something that seems to be very shady. At this point the movie started picking up and if they had a better finish the film might have been okay. As is, it felt disjointed at times, though the way the flashbacks and real time intertwined made this somewhat interesting title move in a way that held my interest when the film was in its early, looks like a simple homicide mode. The cop is rather good, as he methodically follows every lead and like I said, it was an almost good movie, but it just seemed to be missing parts of the story here and there. I am guessing they left a lot out of the film from the book as there was a revelation about the main cop at the end that seemed to come out of nowhere. I also still have no idea what a pyx is, even though that is the title of the film. Some gore in this one, not a whole lot, there is some nudity here and there too. I am guessing the lead here was not exactly proud of her breasts though as she never really showed them, but willingly showed her butt twice. I don't know why she may have been reluctant as at one point she wears a white see through type gown and though they were not exactly big, they were nice and perky looking. Not a horrible movie, but just a scene or two and a better finish from being a good movie.

Oh come on now, I keep seeing posts where this movie is described as "an intelligent thriller". Uh, where's the intelligence and where are the thrills? I didn't check the "spoilers" box because the entire plot is revealed in the first 15 minutes. I've seen more scintillating plot lines on "The Streets of San Francisco". It has that 1970's made-for-TV look complete with the blurry, quick-fading, washed out MetroColor print that few will ever want to preserve for any film archive. Well, on second thought, I will check the "spoilers" box so I can state that it would have been nice to see a "Rosemary's "Baby"-like avatar of Satan play hide-the-salami with Karen Black. But alas, no such luck - only some swishy Black Mass priest dressed up like Gaius Caligula with too many lines of pretentious dialogue. If no "intelligence" or "thrills", maybe just alittle titillation!!?? Instead we get gratuitous blood and gore - several guys getting graphically gunshot. Well, enough bitchiness; at least it was nice seeing Christopher Plummer looking 20 years younger than he did in "The Sound of Music" which was filmed about 10 years previous??? And Karen Black? She's totally hot-looking here, and, dare I say it, her performance is almost UNDERSTATED.

Prostitute Elizabeth Lucy (Karen Black) is found dead at the beginning--she fell (or was pushed) from the top of a building. Police sergeant Jim Henderson (Christopher Plummer) investigates and finds himself involved in satanic rites, ritual killings and more. Also there are flashbacks to the last few days of Lucy's life to see what happened to her.Interesting but very confusing. It starts off pretty good with Black singing (and doing a credible job) over the opening credits and throughout the film. Then it gets very involved, the story gets muddled and murky and leads to an unsatisfying end. To be honest I'm STILL not sure what happened! Also there's bad overdubbing of voices, poor direction and a hysterically bad score at the end which sounds like a bunch of Munchkins signing! The acting is pretty good considering the material. Plummer (a great actor) looks miserable and gives a rare bad performance. Black however was just great. It's a very difficult role and she pulls it off. I kept watching solely for her. So--if you do want to see it see it for Black.Be warned: The St. Clair DVD is in terrible shape. It (obviously) inserts a new title (calling it "The Hooker Cult Murders"!), has faded color and jumps VERY badly at the beginning. Also the sound quality is poor and the movie ends a full nine minutes before it's 111 min running time. That may have some reason for me not understanding it.

Now that Im a grown up I'm beginning to appreciate Karen Black for the fabulous Scream Queen she is. Many of my childhood memories are of scarey movies I used to watch on TV and then not be able to sleep. One is BURNT OFFERINGS a very spooky Karen Black flick. I also remember Karen running from the Evil Zuni doll in the freaky deaky TRILOGY OF TERROR. So when I found out Karen was in THE PYX I just knew I had to buy a copy(eBay). I was SO disappointed. This movie...a sort of whodunit...although they let us know WHO did it and WHY...is sort of muddled, for lack of a better word. Because it uses flashbacks between Karens life and the investigation after her death its pretty confusing. We also know that karens charactor, Elizabeth dies in the beginning of the movie, so when we are seeing her sad life unfold we know how the story ends, and we can guess when the phonecall comes for her to go to a strange place that this is how and why she will die. The box captions lead you to believe they'll be alot of deparvity with sex and drugs and homosexuality. Well, first up...Elizabeth has a friend who just HAPPENS to be gay. Thats the big homosexual angle. As for the sex, I believe they show her with one "customer" (and then a scene where she strips for a potential customer...then gets dressed again. So no big sex angle there. Then theres the drugs: I belive we see Elizabeth shoot up once. So there goes that angle. In fact, the scene where Elizabeth is shot up and having flashback dreams we see how sad and lonely she is. Then when she gets the "strange calling" it seems she KNOWS something bad is going to happen to her (the church scene) and is prepared to meet her fate, because her life was not so wonderful anyway (although she DOES believe in God she tells us through tears). When Elizabeth arrives at the Black Mass there is strange eerie Satanic Cult-type music, that I would've run screaming from. It sets up a good atmosphere. Then a sped-up Alvin-and-the-Chipmunks-type track of Satanic Worship music comes on and it it SO distracting it almost turns a serious scene FUNNY!!! When karen dies the scene is so choppy that you feel CHEATED that you hung on for an hour and a half...they really should've done more with that scene! One * out of five.