Joe Spinell goes nuts again. This time he's a New York taxi driver, with an unhealthy obsession over a horror actress named Jana Bates (Caroline Munro) He decides to stalk her at the Cannes film festival, so he can make the ultimate movie. Jana's friends get killed off one by one, and the killer is now after her. Jana's ex husband, and now producer of her films, Bret Bates gets killed. Everyone thinks he's disappeared, but that may, or may not be the case. Those expecting the quality of Maniac will feel vast disappointment. I didn't hate this movie, but I wasn't particularly enamored with it, despite a few flourishes here and there. Spinell has mommy issues, here again to a lesser degree. (Ironically the mom is played by Spinell's real life Mom) Joe Spinell gives another brave performance, with another psychotic character. This movie has a lot of interesting ideas, but fails to capitalize on them. The thought of a fan (Spinell) killing people to turn it into a horror film was very ingenious, but there is so much tedium in this film. There was quite a few times where I looked at my watch. It has major pacing issues, and ruins what could have been a clever film. Caroline Munro is making a movie called Scream, and weirdly enough. Scream would be made in 96, and rejuvenate the horror genre. It also takes shots at Hollywood's gossip garbage. There isn't a ton of gore here. We get a slit throat off screen, an Axe in the back,chainsaw decapitation, among other things. It's pretty dry. As I mentioned previously, Joe Spinell is quite good in this movie. He's not nearly as deranged as he was in Maniac, but he's still off his rocker to say the least. It's not pleasant to watch him pleasure himself over Caroline Munro, but he is fully committed as the basket case, and gave a solid performance. Caroline Munro doesn't give much of a performance, but she's certainly gorgeous to look at. The re-teaming of her & Spinell disappoints in the long run. There is a poster, advertising a Bond film with Roger Moore. I believe it was For Your Eyes Only. This is relevant, because Caroline Munro was a Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me. The twist ending is actually awesome. It caught me completely off guard, and it was done with bravado. It's just too bad the movie wasn't interesting enough. I suppose it's worth a look, but there isn't a whole lot to recommend
4.3/10
4.3/10