The great Gene Siskel called this movie stylish and said it surprised him more than once, but objected to the admittedly shocking violence. Overall, he gave it 2.5 out of 4 stars. The director was acclaimed for several tv directing credits, and Siskel speculated that the extreme violence was included to try and stand out from the pack.
shareGene Siskel was a piece of garbage
shareSaw this film years ago, and yeah, the violence is disturbing as hell. What's really creepy about the film is the killer---he comes off as such a normal-looking person that I found him much scarier than in most slasher flicks from that time. So Siskel was right about the film, even though it's actually not that bad.
shareI agree with that. Siskel and Ebert, but Siskel especially, were these kind of sensitive Baby-Boomer types who were turned off by violence and sleazy content. I personally LOVE violence and sleazy content and I wish Hollywood movies today were half this sleazy.
Still, this movie also has a strong Hitchcockian element to it and a strong feminist theme that is only really at odds with the lurid content if you have a limited imagination (which a lot of feminists of that era did if you remember groups like "Women Against Pornography"). Still, these other "classier" elements are there, and the performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh floats way above the material and is not diminished in the slightest by the fact she rather gratuitously shows her perky young boobs (that's just icing on the cake for me, but then I never would have made it as an 80's era sex-negative feminist).
John DeSantis is also very good in this. He was an obscure and very underrated character actor.
"Let be be finale of seem/ The only emperor is the Emperor of Ice Cream"
I agree, I love violent and sleazy films as well and Siskel & Ebert came off as wimps sometimes. I mean, they started a boycott against Silent Night, Deadly Night and tried to make sure the director and producer never received work again, now that's messed up even if you hate a film, you shouldn't try to ruin someone's career. Don't forget Siskel didn't like Aliens (One of the best films ever made) and Ebert didn't like Die Hard. I mean, they had their right to their opinion but both of them liked Speed 2! I believe one of them also wrote a letter to Betsy Palmer regarding her being in Friday the 13th and their disapproval of it.
Wow, did he? Haven't seen it yet, but I've been looking for the Siskel and Ebert review for it to no avail. Is there a written review from him somewhere?
The only reason I stumbled across this movie is because I'm a huge fan of Jennifer Jason Leigh.