A soon-to-be bride is stalked by a killer the weekend before her wedding.
He Knows Youre Alone directed by Armand Mastroianni, came out in 1980 the same year as Maniac and Friday the 13th. Effectively due to its daisy chain kills, lack of blood, and music it is a blueprint rework of Halloween (1978), but interestingly the countless imitations that graced 80’s video shops share more with Mastroianni’s offering in terms of tone, pacing, blandness, twist and reveal than Halloween itself.
Writer Scott Parker includes ‘a film, within a film’ opening and a series of deaths. The Staten Island crisp setting gives it a unique feel, but doesn’t create much atmosphere for murder. The ordinary locations where the kills take place, a cinema, living room, local dress shop, bedroom etc may offer a psychological ripple after the end credits. Notable is the build up to a pot smoking death and the bumpy reveal of the decapitation aftermath in a fish tank. The amusement parks ghost-train ride, full of rubber masks naturally offers a pop-up thrill.
Lead Caitlin O’Heaney carry’s the film well as stalked Amy Jensen. Young Dana Barron as Amy’s sister is a scene stealer with her brilliant smart line delivery as Diane. It features the late greats James Rebhorn, Elizabeth Kemp and PaulGleason. Also a young Tom Hanks. The film work and editing arguably doesn’t lend itself to some of the performances. With shadows of Hitchcock playbook that offers some suspense it’s pretty much what you’d expect for a paint by numbers stalker killer film. Think Columbo, without Columbo, the main issue here is that there’s no pay off, as not only do you get music announcing the killer’s arrival, you also know who the killer is. Also the morgue showdown ends up anticlimactic with no closure, even with the tagged on pre-wedding end scene with an obligatory 80s twist, it makes little sense.
Overall, if you want surprises and gory kills look else where, He Knows You’re Alone is mainly for stalker, slasher film completists only.
No comments:
Post a Comment