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News anchor Jane Harris (LAUREN TEWES) is close to having a televised melt down. Everyday she has to report about a string of rape/murders and nobody, not her fellow anchors, not her producer, and certainly not the public at large seems to grasp the gravity of the situation. Are they all morons? Or perhaps they don’t have first hand knowledge of the devastation an assault like that can cause. Jane knows. She lives with the walking reminder in the form of her deaf blind mute sister Tracy (JENNIFER JASON LEIGH),who became that way after just such an attack. Worse yet, it was a younger Jane’s self-involvement that propelled the tragedy. Maybe if Jane could catch the killer she could redeem herself. But where to start? Where to find a clue? Well, there is that neighbor of hers, the one who she watched changing his blood soaked clothes in the parking garage, he’ll do! We viewers know he actually IS the killer but our feminist heroine doesn’t want to report it to the police just yet because her boyfriend told her that was dumb — so it’s off to get more clues!

Sticking a little chewing gum into a juice vending machine coin slot is the perfect way to distract a custodian and steal his keys! Inside the serial rapists apartment our Jane finds muddy shoes and a cuckoo clock, more clues! Meanwhile across the city woman continue to be smacked repeatedly in the face, sexually assaulted, and violently killed as the pudgy psycho progresses with what appears to be a personal vendetta against women with night jobs. Well, Jane’s just getting started too! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander and knowing her nemesis enjoys making prank phone calls prior to his kills, Jane decides to give HIM a little ring! She calls him a “phone freak” and tells him she is quite aware of his actions (murdering everybody) and when he hangs up she calls him again. He does not like it, No, he does not like the tables being turned one bit! So as Jane enjoys a victory cigarette he goes out and murders a stripper.

This one player cat and mouse game may have gone on forever leaving hundreds of bloodied corpses in it’s wake, but thankfully Jane uses the phrase she coined earlier “phone freak” during a broadcast and instantly identifies herself to the maniac. He finds her home (he can see it from his) and decides he’ll murder both Jane and her innocent sibling to boot. Will Jane be able to stop him in time? Has her fancy attorney boyfriend gotten the muddy shoe back from the lab yet? I can’t tell you all that but I can tell you that the police are never involved. This strangely compelling psychological thriller plays like a typical woman in peril television film (an inordinate amount of time is spent in parking garages and snooping in closets) fused with typical early eighties slasher trimmings (care of TOM SAVINI). Double score!

INDELIBLE SCENE(S):

• The old decapitated head in the aquarium routine!
• Hanging off the balcony in green jogging suit
• The stripper’s strange leg dance
• Dead dog alert
• “Can a cuckoo clock play music or does it just go cuckoo?“