HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE

Caitlin O'Heaney and Don Scardino

HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE (1980). Director: Armand Mastroianni.  

Amy Jensen (Caitlin O'Heaney) is about to get married to a man named Phil, but her ex-boyfriend, Marvin (Don Scardino of Cruising), keeps hanging around and insisting she should marry him. Amy is clearly torn between two men but she has worse problems: a maniac (Tom Rolfing) has been stalking and killing new brides and others and Amy is the next on his list. Meanwhile Detective Gamble (Lewis Arlt), whose fiancee was the first victim, does his best to catch up with the killer before he can murder anyone else. 

Tom Rolfing and O'Heaney

He Knows You're Alone has serious script problems, to put it mildly, and seems as if it were very hastily cobbled together. As there's no attempt to hide the identity of the killer, I can tell you that you never really learn anything about him or his motives (although it's hinted at in the dumb epilogue). Most of the characters, including the cop on a mission of vengeance, are one-dimensional as well. The lead actress, Caitlin O'Heaney, is terribly obvious, emoting as if she were acting on a stage instead of in front of a camera. One scene, when Amy discovers her roommate's severed head in the aquarium, is unintentionally comical because her attempt to have a numb, shocked reaction doesn't work at all. Don Scardino is better as Marvin, although his character is quite irritating. 

Lewis Arlt as the detective

There are a couple of interesting moments: the first murder occurs in a theater as the bride-to-be sits watching -- you guessed it -- a slasher film. (This idea was later used in Scream 2.) The stabbing-by-shears of a poor tailer who works on Amy's wedding dress has some energy to it, if nothing else. Tom Hanks shows up as a jogger who has a date with one of Amy's friends, and James Rebhorn is a married professor who is having an affair with another of Amy's gal pals -- why the maniac picks on these two is never explained. Don't expect a final twist because there isn't one. It would have been fun if Hanks had turned out to be the killer, but apparently his death scene was never filmed because he was deemed too likable! Armand Mastroianni also directed The Killing Hour.

Verdict: And a terrible hokey score doesn't help. **.  

SAVAGE WEEKEND

SAVAGE WEEKEND (1979). Writer/director: Claude Pushkin (David Paulsen and John Mason Kirby). 

"You get lonely, you get weird." -- Mac. 

Marie (Marilyn Hamlin), who is separated from her husband, Greg (Jeff Pomerantz), goes to the country for the weekend with her boyfriend, Robert (Jim Doerr), sister Shirley (Caitlin O'Heaney of He Knows You're Alone), gay buddy Nicky (Christopher Allport), and Robert's friend, Jay (Devin Goldenberg). Marie wants to love and marry Robert, who owns a farm near a lake, but she is sexually drawn to his employee Mac (David Gale). Meanwhile Shirley is dallying with Jay, whom she later turns against. Then a killer wearing a fright mask starts snuffing the people in the party. Could it be weird Otis (William Sanderson), who also works for Robert and is rumored to have a violent history? Or someone else? 

Savage Weekend is a strange slasher film with an adult cast -- instead of teens -- that meanders along until the killings begin but never quite boils over into anything worthwhile despite some good sequences. Although the movie works overtime trying to develop its red herrings, the killer will not come as much surprise to most viewers. Busy actor Christopher Allport plays Nicky as a mincing queen most of the time, but in an amusing scene beats up a couple of fag-bashers in a bar: "I wasn't brought up in the South Bronx for nothing." Although still affected, O'Heaney is better in this than she was in He Knows You're Alone. William Sanderson has had a very long career, but he might be most famous for playing Larry on Newhart; he gives a typically flavorful performance in this. One gets the feeling Weekend is a half-hearted attempt, with a screenplay just thrown together, and slayings thrown into the mix because horror was profitable. David Paulsen also directed Schizoid. Savage Weekend was actually made some years before its official release, so it predates Halloween and other slasher films. 

Verdict: If this was an attempt at something different, it just doesn't work. **.