A news anchorwoman begins to suspect a man living in the same apartment complex as her to be the serial killer that's been raping and killing women in the Miami area.A news anchorwoman begins to suspect a man living in the same apartment complex as her to be the serial killer that's been raping and killing women in the Miami area.A news anchorwoman begins to suspect a man living in the same apartment complex as her to be the serial killer that's been raping and killing women in the Miami area.
- David
- (as Peter DuPré)
- Dr. Bob
- (as Bob Small)
- Jimmy
- (as José Bahamande)
- Woman in Car
- (as Rhonda Flynn)
- Director
- Writers
- Ron Kurz
- Eric L. Bloom(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOriginally conceived and shot as a more straightforward thriller. Partway through production, it was decided to embrace the then-current slasher genre and introduce more gore and violence.
- GoofsDuring one of the last scenes of the movie, a man rips Jennifer's top completely from front but during next few seconds her top is intact but later on when she goes to bathroom her top is ripped again.
- Quotes
[first lines]
TV Reporter: Police say the body was found early this morning by a wildlife photographer in a mangrove swamp off Key Biscayne. The victim's clothes were in disarray, and police believe she may have been the victim of an assault. This is possibly the third rape/murder in as many weeks. However, police are not willing to say the murders are connected.
- Alternate versionsAlthough the print submitted was the heavily edited U.S R-rated one, UK cinema and video versions were cut by a further 1 min 25 secs by the BBFC with edits made to shots of nudity and heavy cuts to the belt strangulation scene. While the 18-rated version of the film was the BBFC-approved cut version, Warner did in fact issue an uncut version rated X prior to this in the early 1980s.
The heroine of the film is TV newsreader Jane Harris (Lauren Tewes), who lives in a high rise apartment building with her sister Tracy, who was left blind and deaf after a sexual assault when she was a child. When Jane sees neighbour Stanley Herbert (John DiSanti) changing his clothes in an underground car park, she begins to suspect that he is the Miami Strangler who she has been reporting on in her news programme. The messy double murder of a courting couple only convinces her further. Being an intrepid reporter, she doesn't go to the police with her suspicions, but instead tries to gather evidence of his guilt. In a scene inspired by Rear Window, she breaks into Herbert's home (in the apartment block opposite hers) to look for proof that he is the killer, which is a pretty risky and ill-advised move since she tells no-one of her plan. Of course, Wiedrehorn is no Hitchcock, and in perhaps the film's most ridiculous moment, the man arrives back sooner than expected, forcing Jane to dangle from his balcony by her fingertips, hundreds of feet up. Fortunately, Miami clearly doesn't abide by the usual rules of physics, and rather than falling to her death, she is able to swing herself onto the balcony below.
Having successfully half-inched a muddy shoe that could place the man at the site of the last murders, what does Jane do? No, not send it to the police anonymously, with an explanatory note suggesting they check the man out. What she actually does is give the shoe to her lawyer boyfriend in the hope that he can get someone to examine it, and then phones the killer to tell him that she knows what he did. All credibility goes out the window when sicko Stanley sees Jane on TV and he recognises her voice, and then sees Tracy out on the balcony opposite and decides to make her his next victim. The killer breaks into the sisters' apartment and menaces the poor blind girl; meanwhile, Jane has broken into Stanley's place AGAIN (having not been put off by her previous near-death experience), and sees Tracy being attacked in her apartment opposite. In one final contrivance, this event kick starts Tracy's dormant senses and she is able to see enough to grab a gun and shoot at her assailant. In time honoured slasher tradition, the girl wrongly believes Stanley to be dead and drops the gun, giving the maniac the opportunity for one more attack. Big sis Jane arrives just in time to pick up the pistol and blow Herbert's brains out, a splatterific effect by Savini that ends the film in fine style, just like it began. Shame about some of the not so great stuff in between.
- BA_Harrison
- Apr 7, 2021
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $800,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,118,634
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $546,724
- Mar 29, 1981
- Gross worldwide
- $1,118,634