Showing posts with label
Thrillers of the '80s and '90s.
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Showing posts with label
Thrillers of the '80s and '90s.
Show all posts
When Paula doesn’t return home that first night, Janet, Steve, and Cindy assure a worried Nora that they will stop by George’s trailer and bring her back. Instead, they find Paula’s lifeless, blood-soaked body tied to George’s bed, kicking off a chain of events in which more than one person in this normally peaceful community will meet a grisly end.
Produced by low-budget master Nico Mastorakis and directed by Terrence O’Hara, 1989’s Darkroom features moments that harken back to the slashers of the decade’s early years. The opening sequence, in which a young couple is butchered in their home with an ax, certainly gives off slasher vibes, and there’s a scene involving a car and a machete that would have been at home in any Friday the 13th movie.
Ultimately, though, Darkroom is more a mystery / thriller, with plenty of red herrings to keep us guessing, for the better part of an hour, as to which of its character is the actual killer. The story also crosses from time to time into dark territory, and because we grow to like Janet’s family, we feel the loss whenever something terrible happens to them.
Shot primarily on a remote orange grove in Southern California, Darkroom also successfully conveys its characters’ feelings of isolation, especially when they are unable to report Paula’s death because the phones are out, and the nearest town is 20 miles away.
The film occasionally suffers from some of the weaknesses you’re likely to find in many low-budget movies, including performances that range from very good (Jeff Arbaugh is particularly strong) to borderline terrible. And when it came time to finally reveal of the killer’s identity, I had already figured it out. Though to be fair, I only put two-and-two together about 3-4 minutes before the movie itself spilled the beans, and there were moments when I was convinced that two other characters, ultimately innocent, were committing these murders. So, as a mystery, Darkroom works (even if said reveal shines a light on some gaping plot holes that are never satisfied).
Where Darkroom really impressed me, though, was in the last act. The movie continues a full half-hour after the killer’s identity is divulged, and these last scenes are among the film’s most intense, and most heartbreaking. So even if Darkroom isn’t perfect (and it certainly isn’t), it’s far from a total loss, and is worth a watch.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
While touring the La Brea Tar Pits, Harry (Anthony Edwards) meets Julie (Mare Winningham), and it isn’t long before the two are deeply in love.
One night, the power goes out at Harry’s hotel, and because his alarm never went off, he over-sleeps and misses his third date with Julie. Despite it being almost 4 am, Harry rushes to the coffee shop where Julie works, only to find she has gone home.
But fate is about to rear its ugly head. Stepping outside to call Julie from a phone booth to explain what happened, Harry is surprised when the phone suddenly rings, and he decides to answer it. The voice on the other end, believing he is talking to his father, claims to be a soldier in a North Dakota Nuclear silo, and starts shouting that the country is at war. The missiles have been launched, and Los Angeles has about an hour before it will be obliterated.
Not sure whether to believe the call or not, Harry tells the late-night patrons of the coffee shop, one of whom is Landa (Denise Crosby), who has connections in Washington D.C. Making a few calls on her mobile phone, Landa corroborates that something is, indeed, going down (many government officials have already left the country), and arranges for everyone in the coffee shop to get out of town on a private jet.
Desperate to save Julie and her grandparents (John Agar and Lou Hancock), Harry breaks away from the group and heads for Julie’s apartment. Landa has a helicopter, filled with life-sustaining supplies, set to land on top of the Mutual Benefit building. Realizing the clock is ticking, Harry’s plan is to get Julie and her grandparents to that building before 5 am so they can hitch a ride to the airport and fly to safety.
And thus begins one of the most nerve-racking thrillers I have seen in some time.
Armed with a gun belonging to Fred (Robert DoQui), the coffee shop’s owner, Harry flags down a car and threatens to shoot unless the driver, Wilson (Mykelti Williamson), takes him first to Julie, then the helicopter landing pad. Of course, once Harry tells Wilson why he’s so anxious to get out of L.A., Wilson says he has to save his sister, and eventually leaves Harry in the lurch (but not before a jaw-dropping confrontation between the two and a couple of unsuspecting cops at a gas station).
Aided by Tangerine Dream’s incredibly effective score, Miracle Mile gets more intense with each passing scene, and will have you poised on the edge of your seat for the duration. There were moments I was literally yelling at my screen, telling Harry to get a move on.
And my guess is your reaction will be about the same. Though it supposedly plays out in real-time, far too much transpires in the 45-50 minutes before the shit hits the fan, and we simply don’t believe everything could have happened within that allotted time.
But while the believable passage of time may not be the film’s strongest suit, it is also its only weakness. Edwards and Winningham generate tons of chemistry, and we fully believe their love story, which means we’re as invested in seeing them stay together as the characters themselves. Throw in about a half-dozen “WTF” moments, some deep drama, and a final act you won’t soon forget, and you have a motion picture that, even with the Cold War now over, will frighten the hell out of you!
Rating: 9 out of 10
To investigate the recent murder of a stripper named Angel (Michelle Foreman), detective Cody Sheehan (Kay Lenz) goes undercover, posing as Sunny, an amateur stripper. Cody lands a job at the Rock Bottom, a dingy dive owned and operated by Ray (Normal Fell). The dead girl worked at this very club, and before long another of the Rock Bottom’s dancers is also murdered.
As Cody’s partner, Heneman (Greg Evigan), continues the investigation on the outside, with suspicions falling on “Mr. Pocket” (Peter Scranton), one of the club’s creepy regulars, Cody befriends Roxanne (Pia Kamakahi), Angel’s lover, who herself may be hiding a secret or two.
Kay Lenz delivers an exceptional performance as the undercover cop turned stripper, as does Evigan as her partner. The two have a definite chemistry, even if the film has no idea how to handle their relationship (they go from antagonistic one minute to cozy and familiar the next). There is an underlying sexual energy between the two that occasionally rises to the surface, only to retreat again for no real reason.
The dancers at the Rock Bottom, including Athena Worthey as Zeena, Caryle Byron as Cinnamon, and Debbie Nassar as Dazzle, are also quite good, both when on-stage (their acts are damn creative) and backstage, while Pia Kamakahi shines in what proves to be a very difficult role. As for the violence, Stripped to Kill isn’t overly bloody, but the killings it does show are fairly intense, especially Angel’s (she is pushed off a bridge, and as she lays bleeding on the concrete the killer douses her with gasoline).
Unfortunately, the film’s story is often forced into the background by the strip routines. We get one during the opening credits, and at what seems like 5-minute intervals from that point forward. Even the tense finale, when Cody is on the run from the killer, has a few moments with a stripper edited into it.
Flashy and sexy, Stripped to Kill has its charms (from an ‘80s perspective, anyway. Audience members with modern sensibilities will likely cringe at some of what transpires). I recommend a viewing, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself wondering if you are watching a crime / thriller or a strip show that occasionally pauses to try and tell a story.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
