Lauren Bacall isn't the first person you'd expect to appear in a dressed up slasher film, but here she is - running away from a psychotic fan in between rehearsing some of the strangest musical numbers you've ever heard and seen in your life.
Bacall plays a Broadway actress who's attracted the attention of an obsessive fan played by Michael Biehn. He writes her letters all the time and has just recently taken to killing off her friends and confidants as the opening of her new musical looms in the horizon.
The Fan isn't incredibly explicit, but there's enough slashing and gore to make you wonder if Bacall actually read the script before signing on or not. The attacks by mostly razor aren't as graphic as something out of a Friday the 13th film, but there not exactly less is more either. All the attacks are shockingly mean spirited and Biehn really dials up the crazy in his performance.
Setting off some of the unpleasantness are the musical numbers from the show within a show and, in traditional Hollywood fashion (see also: Staying Alive), the musical itself seems to make absolutely no sense. I still can't figure out what this show is supposed to be about. Is it a musical about a menopausal woman's A jaunty musical revue? Who knows?
The Fan is a sometimes uncomfortable mesh of slashing and psychodrama, but it's never dull and that has to count for something.
