Dead on Sight (1994)

Director:

Ruben Preuss

Writer (WGA):

Lewis A. Green (written by)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A psychic woman has visions of the Clock Killer's past and future murders. |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Psychic | Dream | Butcher Knife | Hypnotism

Cast

Jennifer Beals	...	Rebecca Darcy
Daniel Baldwin	...	Caleb Odell
Kurtwood Smith	...	Julian Thompson
William H. Macy	...	Steven Meeker
Kent Williams	...	Sheriff Holleran
Ed Beechner	...	Deputy Kinney
Eleanor Comegys	...	Stephanie Shaver
Alvin Walker	...	Mark Curry
Robert Harvey	...	Detective
Bill Evans	...	Guard
Michelle McKee	...	Sorority Girl
Heather Lauren Olson	...	Young Rebecca
Gabriella Aceves	...	Young Jenny
John Branagan
Richard M. McCallen

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 (video premiere) | Germany:18 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Messina-Captor Films

watching a Clock Killer: not a bad way to kill time, but not terribly engrossing either

A woman who had witnessed her younger sister being abducted as a child begins to have visions of murders committed by "The Clock Killer." One is of one of his past murders, while she has another of a future one. The police believed they had already shot and killed the Clock Killer. They might have gotten the wrong man, or there may have been a copycat.

The woman, played rather uninterestingly by Jennifer Beals, is also a student and/or girlfriend of the widowed husband of one of victims, and he teaches a class on serial killers. He's played by Daniel Baldwin, whose main job here is to be suspicious. In one scene he plays a rather unconvincing drunk. William H. Macy, whose talent is really wasted here, plays another man whose job is to be suspicious. Thus, until the killer is identified, we really can't decide which of them is the killer (or copycat), or if it is someone else entirely.

It seems like there are some attempts to push this into the horror genre, like the knife- wielding killer who wears coveralls and a hood with holes cut out for eyes, and a jeweled cross necklace. The psychic visions of the murders are somewhat stylized. But really, it remains in the mystery/thriller arena.

There are also loads of clichés, and some bad direction. Kurtwood Smith, playing a friend and colleague of Baldwin gets pushed down, falling against a wall but not quite making contact with it, and this knocks him out - they should have reshot that until it looked convincing. He also comes to just as a policeman is approaching him to wake him up - corny.

While the ending seems to end on a decisive note "The Clock Killer is dead," since the possibility of a copycat had been raised for at least one of the murders, it seemed more ambiguous to me.