Product Description
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4 Times the Thrills! Enjoy 4 heart-pounding films in the
Thriller Quadruple Feature including Fear, The Watcher, Raising
Cain and A Kiss Before Dying.
.com
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Fear
Two years before he let it all hang out in Boogie Nights, former
rapper and Calvin Klein underwear model Mark Wahlberg played the
psychotic boyfriend in this derivative but surprisingly effective
thriller, aptly described by producer Brian Grazer as "al
Attraction for teens." Reese Witherspoon plays Nicole Walker, the
unwitting teenager who gets the hots for David McCall (Wahlberg).
David only seems like a nice guy until he gets upset by the
girl's overly protective her. That's when hell breaks loose
and the love-struck Romeo turns into a deadly threat who just
won't go away. You'd think this kind of material would be beneath
the talents of a fine director like James Foley (whose credits
include At Close Range and Glengarry Glen Ross), but Foley gives
the film just the right blend of style and tension to match
Wahlberg's breakthrough role as an all-too-believable teenage
maniac. You might feel silly afterwards, but don't be surprised
if you find yourself getting caught up in the expertly
manipulative suspense. --Jeff Shannon
The Watcher
James Spader stars as Joel Campbell, a former detective
traumatized by the death of his lover at the hands of a serial
killer he'd been hunting--a psychopath who has taken their
combative relationship a little too personally, and has now
tracked the retired Campbell down in Chicago. The killer, who
methodically studies his victims before killing them, starts
sending Campbell photographs of prospective victims and gives him
a day to find them before they're killed. Campbell rises to the
challenge, returns to his role as detective, and launches a
comprehensive manhunt for the killer and the women in the
photographs. The Watcher is surprisingly watchable--though it
does suffer from an excessive use of arty cinematography. But
while the psychological interpretation of the killer's behavior
is a little too schematic to be convincing, the portrayal of
Campbell is quite strong, particularly due to Spader's
performance. A much-underrated actor, Spader is lean and
efficient in his portrayal, rarely given to flashy histrionics,
but compelling and emotionally complex. Unfortunately, the killer
is played by Keanu Reeves; and though Reeves isn't as terrible an
actor as some critics may say, he's out of his depth here. Still,
Spader carries most of the movie, and the sequences in which the
are trying to track down the victims are nicely
suspenseful--in fact, the movie is overall more interested in
suspense than gore, making it a pleasant change from most
contemporary thrillers. Also starring Marisa Tomei as Campbell's
psychiatrist and budding romantic interest. --Bret Fetzer
Raising Cain
In this wicked thriller from 1992, director Brian De Palma
shamelessly borrows from Alfred Hitchcock (as usual) and several
other filmmakers to create a shock-a-thon that plays like a film
buff's highlight reel from a dozen different thrillers. Taken on
those terms it's a lot of fun to watch (though not for the
faint-hearted), and multiple maniac roles for John Lithgow make
it an irresistible shocker that isn't afraid to wallow in its own
excess. Lithgow not only plays the evil Dr. Carter Nix, who is
performing strange experiments on children, but he also plays the
doctor's twin sons, Josh and Cain, who kip kids and bring them
to their her's laboratory. Lolita Davidovich is a mother whose
child has been abducted, but she won't give up without a fight.
If this sounds repulsive, rest assured that De Palma focuses on
the battle between the mother and the nefarious twins (this isn't
a film about gratuitous child abuse), and film students will
delight in the allusions to Hitchcock, Michael Powell's Peeping
Tom, and Orson Welles's Touch of Evil, among others. It never
makes much sense or adds up to anything truly satisfying, but
thanks to Lithgow's wild performances Raising Cain is the kind of
over-the-top thriller that grabs you for 95 minutes and holds you
in its entertaining grip. --Jeff Shannon
A Kiss Before Dying
Matt Dillon, Sean Young and Max Von Sydow star in this chilling
romantic thriller from writer-director James Dearden (al
Attraction). Troubled by the death of her twin sister, Ellen
Carlson (Young) unwittingly falls in love with an ambitious young
man, Jonathan Corliss (Dillon). As she investigates Dorothy's
death, a chance encounter reveals how little Ellen really knows
about her husband, and what she doesn't know may kill her in this
heart-stopping suspense thriller based on Ira Levin's
best-selling novel.