My review was written in November 1991 after watching the movie at a Manhattan screening room.
A clash of two dissimilar personalities is examined with mixed success in the thriller "Where Sleeping Dogs Lie". Restrained approach compared to recent films like "Cape Fear" spells modest box office success.
Dylan McDermott portrays an unsuccessful writer in Hollywood who's frustrated by the commercial need to write blood-and-guts stories. His agent Sharon Stone puts on the pressure and he decides to write a detailed novel about a mass killer.
McDermott has just been evicted from his flat and moves into the creepy old mansion his day job real estate boss (Ron Karaatsos) has ordered him to sell. Gimmick is that he uses the house for inspiration, basing his novel on a notorious murder case that took place there.
Before the film can turn into a haunted house suspenser, Tom Sizemore shows up as a twitchy boarder. McDermott is mean to him, flauntging an air of superiority, but before long the tables are turned.
Director Charles Finch (son of the late actor Peter Finch) and his mother, co-scripter Yolande Turner, get good mileage from the insidious relationship of the Joseph Losey/Harold Pinter classic "The Servant".
Film requires a great deal of audience willingness to go along with several far-fetched plot twists notably in McDermott's character. However, both leads' good acting makes it worth the effort, leadking to its unsettling ending.
McDermott is properly macho and overbearing in the interesting departure from his previou straight-arrow roles ("The Blue Iguana", "Hardware"). Sizemore makes a strong impression as the unctuous worm who turns.
Stone ("Basic Instinct") is perfect in a small role as the bitchy agent. Est of the cat has a mere walk-on in a film that reportedly was heavily trimmed to reach its current release version. Result Is a vignette structure with little continuity between individual scenes.
Hans Zimmer and Mark Mancina's melodramatic score does a great job of setting and maintaining the creepy atmosphere.
A clash of two dissimilar personalities is examined with mixed success in the thriller "Where Sleeping Dogs Lie". Restrained approach compared to recent films like "Cape Fear" spells modest box office success.
Dylan McDermott portrays an unsuccessful writer in Hollywood who's frustrated by the commercial need to write blood-and-guts stories. His agent Sharon Stone puts on the pressure and he decides to write a detailed novel about a mass killer.
McDermott has just been evicted from his flat and moves into the creepy old mansion his day job real estate boss (Ron Karaatsos) has ordered him to sell. Gimmick is that he uses the house for inspiration, basing his novel on a notorious murder case that took place there.
Before the film can turn into a haunted house suspenser, Tom Sizemore shows up as a twitchy boarder. McDermott is mean to him, flauntging an air of superiority, but before long the tables are turned.
Director Charles Finch (son of the late actor Peter Finch) and his mother, co-scripter Yolande Turner, get good mileage from the insidious relationship of the Joseph Losey/Harold Pinter classic "The Servant".
Film requires a great deal of audience willingness to go along with several far-fetched plot twists notably in McDermott's character. However, both leads' good acting makes it worth the effort, leadking to its unsettling ending.
McDermott is properly macho and overbearing in the interesting departure from his previou straight-arrow roles ("The Blue Iguana", "Hardware"). Sizemore makes a strong impression as the unctuous worm who turns.
Stone ("Basic Instinct") is perfect in a small role as the bitchy agent. Est of the cat has a mere walk-on in a film that reportedly was heavily trimmed to reach its current release version. Result Is a vignette structure with little continuity between individual scenes.
Hans Zimmer and Mark Mancina's melodramatic score does a great job of setting and maintaining the creepy atmosphere.