The story would have had more credibility if it was revealed in some manner how Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley) entered the Mandrakis home at the beginning of the story, how he got into Tracy Fuller's (Colleen Dewhurst) apartment after she had taken all sorts of precaution to secure her place (with John Clifford surveilling), and finally Jill Lockhart's (Carol Kane) home to wrap up the picture. These are not little things, and you can suspend disbelief so far, but how did the guy do it? Of course, there's no rational explanation, so the viewer subliminally takes it on faith that all of his intrusions were simply a matter of fact, no further consideration necessary.
Now if you cast those thoughts aside, you have a taut little thriller here, especially in the first twenty minutes setting up then young Jill Johnson's (Kane) panic. Can anyone reasonably say they wouldn't lose their cookies if they found out a series of distressing phone calls came from WITHIN the same house you were receiving them from? That is the stuff of pure psychological terror. Unlike a lot of reviewers, I didn't mind the expository middle of the picture dealing with Duncan's instability, but I do question why Tracy Fuller left the door to her apartment open to take a phone call with him standing there, right after witnessing the brutal beating of Duncan at the bar. Waltzing right in, Duncan could have attacked her at any moment. By the way, in case you didn't notice, when Duncan got beat up at Torchy's, the guy who did it poured a bottle of liquor all over Duncan's body, yet when he arrived at Tracy's immediately after, his shirt was dry.
The shocker at the end was a neat touch when Duncan popped up in Jill Johnson's bed, one of those jump scares that come out of nowhere to grab you by the throat. But there again, you have the whole scenario of Duncan knowing who she was as a married woman (although her picture was in the paper), where she lived, and where she was out dining that evening. I guess I just require a little more explanation on how those things were possible before I buy into the whole premise. And you know what else was truly irksome? That cad Bobby never did call Jill when she was babysitting for the Mandrakis family.
Now if you cast those thoughts aside, you have a taut little thriller here, especially in the first twenty minutes setting up then young Jill Johnson's (Kane) panic. Can anyone reasonably say they wouldn't lose their cookies if they found out a series of distressing phone calls came from WITHIN the same house you were receiving them from? That is the stuff of pure psychological terror. Unlike a lot of reviewers, I didn't mind the expository middle of the picture dealing with Duncan's instability, but I do question why Tracy Fuller left the door to her apartment open to take a phone call with him standing there, right after witnessing the brutal beating of Duncan at the bar. Waltzing right in, Duncan could have attacked her at any moment. By the way, in case you didn't notice, when Duncan got beat up at Torchy's, the guy who did it poured a bottle of liquor all over Duncan's body, yet when he arrived at Tracy's immediately after, his shirt was dry.
The shocker at the end was a neat touch when Duncan popped up in Jill Johnson's bed, one of those jump scares that come out of nowhere to grab you by the throat. But there again, you have the whole scenario of Duncan knowing who she was as a married woman (although her picture was in the paper), where she lived, and where she was out dining that evening. I guess I just require a little more explanation on how those things were possible before I buy into the whole premise. And you know what else was truly irksome? That cad Bobby never did call Jill when she was babysitting for the Mandrakis family.