Chloe and Michael Anderson have just moved into their new home in suburban Park View Hills. Their neighbors are the Dixons, Gerald and Cheryl. Suffering from depression, Chloe takes Gerald up on his offer to provide her with free therapy sessions. Little does she know that she is talking to a complete quack. In psychological terms, Gerald and Cheryl are suffering from the Orestes-Electra complex.
The strength of the film was in the well-developed character of the vulnerable Chloe. Michael is a workaholic adjusting to a new law office, and Chloe is still in the throes of dealing with the reality of not being able to bring a baby into the world. She had spent time in psychiatric institute, and she now welcomes some refresher counseling from Gerald.
A mysterious phone caller named James Rooker sets Chloe on the track of sleuthing the identity of her neighbor with the phony smile. Choloe tracks Gerald to his undergraduate years at Middlesex College, and she concludes that he does not have a degree in psychology. The discovery of a deed to the childhood home of Gerald in Bakersfield leads to the film's chilling discovery of the relationship of Gerald and Cheryl.
Locked in a symbiotic relationship, Gerald and Cheryl are quite the tag team performers. He covers up for his sister's murders, and she assists in supplying him with a string of paramours, then performs clean-up duties herself. A fateful fire that killed their parents was evidently set by Cheryl, setting her on a career of Murder, Inc.
Gerald's come-on line to prospective therapy victims is "I just like helping people." He has a nice inflection with his reading of that line that makes the victim feel like it is too good to be true to be receiving free counseling from an expert. But the expertise of the brother-sister team is not in the art of science, but in the effective use of the garrote.
The strength of the film was in the well-developed character of the vulnerable Chloe. Michael is a workaholic adjusting to a new law office, and Chloe is still in the throes of dealing with the reality of not being able to bring a baby into the world. She had spent time in psychiatric institute, and she now welcomes some refresher counseling from Gerald.
A mysterious phone caller named James Rooker sets Chloe on the track of sleuthing the identity of her neighbor with the phony smile. Choloe tracks Gerald to his undergraduate years at Middlesex College, and she concludes that he does not have a degree in psychology. The discovery of a deed to the childhood home of Gerald in Bakersfield leads to the film's chilling discovery of the relationship of Gerald and Cheryl.
Locked in a symbiotic relationship, Gerald and Cheryl are quite the tag team performers. He covers up for his sister's murders, and she assists in supplying him with a string of paramours, then performs clean-up duties herself. A fateful fire that killed their parents was evidently set by Cheryl, setting her on a career of Murder, Inc.
Gerald's come-on line to prospective therapy victims is "I just like helping people." He has a nice inflection with his reading of that line that makes the victim feel like it is too good to be true to be receiving free counseling from an expert. But the expertise of the brother-sister team is not in the art of science, but in the effective use of the garrote.