Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) is a novice actor who does a bit of Shakespeare and some low budget independent films on occasion. He finds himself in a terrible spot of bother when he has a claustraphobia attack while locked in a coffin playing a vampire, goes home early for the day and finds his wife cheating on him.

From here he loses his job and in his efforts to find somewhere to stay, another actor gives him a very high class place where he is introduced to a very seductive neighbour, Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton), who takes to some erotic dancing in front of her open window every night. Jake becomes obsessed and obviously sexually frustrated he follows her around in the hope that he can deter a rather scary looking Indian Guy who is trying to rob her.

To no effect, she runs off and leaves him even more frustrated. He continues to spy on her with his trusty telescope and discovers one night the Indian guy robbing her and she doesn’t know it. He rushes over to help her only to witness a gory killing and getting attacked by her dog.

It’s not much of a plot but that’s about as good as it gets until; enter stage right, Melanie Griffith as Holly body the drop dead skinny porn star who does a very similar erotic dancing act to that of the late Gloria Revelle.

From here is a big attempt at some suspense in solving the murder. It was nice however to see some appearances by Dennis Franz from NYPD Blue (someone with a little talent).

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?

VIDEO
For the age of the film this isn’t a bad Anamorphic Widescreen transfer at all. There is certainly some drastic improvement needed in the shadow detail and colouring. Colours were disturbingly flat, lifeless and drab, and that’s being nice. Shadow detail was lacking considerably, black levels were also flat and this didn’t help at all. Images were generally soft and muted and were only very occasionally sharp. Generally taking into consideration that the film is going on 17 years old the transfer is pretty good. There was little sign of dust marks and such.

AUDIO
This Dolby 2.0 Surround mix is also very lacklustre. I had to struggle to hear a lot of the film, continually turning the volume up and down. The surrounds were only used minimally and certainly had no spark in them whatsoever. Dialogue was generally muted and often hard to understand, on several occasions I had to go back to check what someone had said. The Musical Score from Pino Donaggio was certainly not memorable and always reminded me of a low budget porno flick rather than a thriller.

I was impressed with the track Relax from Frankie Goes To Hollywood. One of my favourite bands when I was a teenager. This was certainly the only memorable bit of audio in the film.

EXTRAS
Should I even bother to comment.
Up front there is a picture disc, not exactly an extra.
Cast and Crew Biographies
And the original movie trailer which is about as exciting as the actual film.

I’d like someone to tell me who it is that picked this film for release on DVD. What a waste of a good disc. I can think of any number of episodes of the Sullivans I would rather watch. Really this is just one great disappointment. If you can manage to keep your eyes open and you like a bit of low budget, poor acting, pseudo porn influences then by all means you’ll have a great time.