Fever (1999)

A struggling artist (Parker) is implicated in a string of macabre murders.

Director:

Alex Winter

Writer:

Alex Winter

Stars:

Henry Thomas, David O'Hara, Teri Hatcher

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Henry Thomas	...	Nick Parker
David O'Hara	...	Will
Teri Hatcher	...	Charlotte Parker
Bill Duke	...	Detective Glass
Sándor Técsy	...	Sidney Miskiewicz
Irma St. Paule	...	Mrs. Rhula Miskiewicz
Alex Kilgore	...	Adam Dennis
Marisol Padilla Sánchez	...	Soledad
Patricia Dunnock	...	Sophie Parker
Helen Hanft	...	Louisa
Remak Ramsay	...	Richard Parker
Lisby Larson	...	Eleanor Parker
Jon Tracy	...	Leonard Wooley
Charles E. Gerber	...	Bob
Ken Comer	...	Detective Comer

Storyline

An art teacher spends his nights painting. One night he hears noises in the loft over his. Investigating, he discovers an interloper, who claims he is going to rent the area despite the landlord's earlier assurances that he would not rent the area. Shortly after this incident, the landlord is found murdered. The investigation turns towards a drunken evictee who was seen arguing with the landlord. However, his unwanted neighbor appears threatening and malevolent. Plagued by nightmares, the artist also starts acting irrationally and becomes a suspect.

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Plot Keywords:

artist | neighbor | macabre | murder | apartment | 

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Taglines:

Who Can You Trust... When You No Longer Trust Yourself...

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language, and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Polish

Release Date:

30 November 2000 (Malaysia)

Also Known As:

Atrapado en la oscuridad

Filming Locations:

Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,068, 4 February 2001, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$4,068, 4 February 2001

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fever Productions Inc., ICE Media, Sunlight Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In an interview in the Fever dvd special features, Alex Winter said he wanted to get back to a type of filmmaking that is more about atmosphere than cutting and more about quiet than about sound.

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Quotes

Nick: [complaining to tenant who just moved in upstairs] I'm an artist, and at night, I work in my room.
Will: What's that got to do with me?
Nick: It's not you, it's the noise. You'll hear for yourself these walls are paper thin. Well, the landlord, he told me that he only used the top floor for storage.
Will: So what? You want me to move at 2:00 in the morning?

User Reviews

A Fever in the Blood

**SPOILERS** Deep psychological suspense/drama set in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn with a murder of a landlord that later escalates into a world of insanity as well as the unknown for one of the tenant's in the building.

Sidney Miskowitz, Sandor Tecsy, is found murdered in his apartment one late evening just hours before Sidney has a bitter argument with one of his tenants Leonard Wooley, Jon Tracy. It's later thought by the police and almost everyone else in the building that Wooley is Sidney's killer. One of the tenants in the building art teacher Nick Parker, Henry Thomas, was a witness to the fight between Sidney and Wooley and is later called by the police as their star witness in the murder.

At first you think your watching a murder/police drama until Nick goes upstairs to talk to his new neighbor Will, David O'Hera. It's then that things really start to get weird. Nick asks Will, the night of the murder, that he's disturbing him in doing his work by making load noises and to please stop. Will lets Nick have it about it being none of his business to what he's doing and almost throws him out of his apartment.

Later that morning when the police are called to investigate Sidney's murder Nick tells NYPD Det. Glass, Bill Duke, about Will living upstairs and being a possible suspect and is shocked to find that Will doesn't live there and In fact the upstairs apartment is empty! You then start to realize that this Will may just be a figment of Nicks imagination. We keep seeing Nick go upstairs and talk to Will, who supposedly is not there, and Will comes across as a man totally out of touch with reality.

Will feels that the Nazis are in control of the world and that the ancient Gnostics are the real power behind every government on earth. This makes Nick, like those of us watching, feel that this guy is a can or two short of a six-pack when it comes to his mental reasoning.

As the movie goes on it becomes apparent that Nick is suffering from some kind of breakdown but what exactly is causing it? Later Mrs. Miskowitz, Sidney's 80 year-old mom, is also found dead by Nick who's now sure that Will murdered her just like her son Sidney. Sometime later Nick looks out of his window and sees a crazed and disheveled looking Will leaving the apartment in a hush with his duffel bag. Nick is now certain that he must have murdered Mrs. Miskowitz, as well as her son Sidney, and is trying to escape from being arrested by the police.

Quickly following Will onto the subway Nick Confronts Will between cars and ends up stabbing him to death. Scared almost to death himself Nick thinks that he was seen by a witness in the adjoining subway car stabbing Will and then makes his way outside on the street only to be picked up by the police! Not for Will's murder but for being a bit lost and out of his mind.

It's not until the very last few minutes in the film that you realize just what's wrong with Nick; His past has finally caught up with him. Nick indeed did witness a horrible event but not of the Miskowitz's or of the imaginary Will but of someone very dear and close to him. It may very well have been the murder of Sidney Miskowitz being so close to home that brought all this out.

Carrying this guilt with him all his adult life Nick tried to hide it in his subconscious mind all these years. When it finally broke out and he was at last forced to face what he did. It was that dark and deadly secret that Nick kept hidden so deeply from himself all that time that in the end, when it finally resurfaced, drove Nick to lose not only his mind but later even his life.