Fatal Charm (1990)

... aka: Seduzione omicida (Murderous Seduction)

... aka: Tödlicher Charme (Deadly Charm)

... aka: Urok mordercy (Murderer's Charm)

Directed by:

"Alan Smithee" (Fritz Kiersch)

Peter Medak (uncredited; replaced)

Lots of tell tale signs this was a troubled production, beginning with the infamous "Alan Smithee" directorial pseudonym being used. According to the Turner Classic Movies website, filming began in early 1989 and, at some point, original director Peter Medak was replaced by Fritz Kiersch. I'd imagine there must have been problems if the director of The Changeling was swapped out for the director of Children of the Corn, though neither man wanted to take credit for the end results (it's also unclear whether Medak made it far enough into production to even direct any of the scenes). Bizarrely, Fatal Charm was released oversees several years before it was seen by American viewers. There's a VHS release in Germany dating back to 1990 but this didn't make its U. S. debut until the Showtime cable channel aired it in 1992 and wasn't released on home video until 1993 here. I've found no evidence this ever even played in theaters, though there's also no evidence this was made with cable TV specifically in mind, despite what several websites say.

Troubled high schooler Valerie Richter (Amanda Peterson) is having issues with both her police detective mother Susan (Mary Frann) and her mother's lover, Louis (James Remar). As far as mom is concerned, Valerie's mad that she's openly carrying on an affair with Louis, who has yet to divorce his wife and has thus become the subject of local gossip. As far as Louis is concerned, he has a tendency to get drunk, make passes at Val when her mom is away and occasionally makes out with her (he may have even slept with her a time or two - though it is left somewhat vague). Because of this, Val is understandably angry, bitter, confusedand vulnerable.

Meanwhile, clean cut Adam Brenner (Christopher Atkins) is accused of raping and murdering at least six women over a three month period of time. Part of his legal defense is that his former roommate (who's been missing since Adam's arrest) actually did it, but that claim is quickly dispelled once the roommate's dead body washes up on the beach and his death fits the same m.o. (crushed esophagus due to strangulation) of the other victims.

As a means of distraction from her own miserable life, Valerie has been obsessing over both the trial and Adam. She religiously watches news coverage on TV, saves newspaper clippings of him, has lens flare-y, hazy erotic dreams about him having strangle fetish doggy style sex with her and another woman (Tracy Dali) in a van, becomes pen pals with him, starts skipping school and taking a bus into the city so she can see the court proceedings in person and becomes completely convinced of his innocence ("Why would anybody that gorgeous need to rape someone?") Part of me wanted to laugh at all this until I realized there are currently millions of teenage girls all over social media as we speak making excuses for the bad, and frequently criminal, behavior of whatever scandal-plagued social media "influencer" they happen to like or think is cute, so this really isn't too far outside the realm of reality, is it?

The jury finds Adam guilty of all counts and sentence him to die in the gas chamber. He's shipped off to San Quentin to await execution. Being a celebrity killer, he immediately attracts the interest of the other inmates. On one hand, there's a black gang lead by Willy (Ken Foree) threatening to kill and castrate him ("I'm gonna cut your dick off and shove it down your throat!"). On the other, there's Adolph (Ned Romero), who offers him protection in exchange for him becoming his boy toy bitch. All the while, Adam continues his correspondence with Valerie. Valerie's best friend Sandy (Lar Park Lincoln) tries to set her up with a nice, non-convict boyfriend (Andrew Lowery) but she's only really interested in Adam. When her mom finds out she's been writing him, she drags her to the police station where the sheriff (Andrew Robinson) tries to scare her straight by showing her crime scene photos of Adam's victims. Not even that convinces her.

After a prison fight leaves several men dead, the authorities decide it best to move Adam elsewhere. While he's in a holding cell awaiting transfer, several other inmates fake illness so they can overwhelm an officer. And they're nice enough to unlock Adam's cell before taking off. Adam makes it to a bar, where any questions about whether or not he's actually a psycho are answered when he sneaks into the back of a couple's van, strangles the guy while he's getting a blowjob and then kills his girlfriend. From there, he decides to stalk Valerie and then kill off her friends and family.

Profanity and some brief nudity aside, this psycho-thriller comes off a lot like any number of very average made-for-TV movies. While it's not poorly made or acted, and it gets a little credit for covering a lot of bases, the dialogue is mediocre and the script has some VERY questionable story points, starting with the depiction of the protagonist's home life. When Val confesses to her mom that her boyfriend has been sexually abusing her, the mom (who works in law enforcement for Christ's sake!) refuses to believe her, slaps her in the face and, later, lets her daughter's molester babysit her while she's at work! In between those infuriating scenes, they then expect us to be moved by these "heartwarming" mother/daughter bits like them snuggling in bed and such, which are impossible to take seriously.

Providing the most interest here is the cast. I'm generally not a fan of the male star; a surfer-looking former teen heartthrob with a Cheshire Cat grin who has perhaps the worst filmography of the 80s. I'm not even joking when I say that with The Blue Lagoon, A Night in Heaven, The Pirate Movie, Beaks, Listen to Me and MORTUARY ACADEMY preceding, this 2 Star movie actually may be the best thing he'd done up to this point! Though he did nothing to change my opinion of him, to be fair, he's not embarrassingly bad here even though his performance is mostly bug eyes and intense camera stares. Peterson (who passed away in 2015 of a drug overdose) fairs a little better as the teen whose "youthful idealism" puts her life at risk but it's also kind of sad this is the best offer she netted just a few years after her appealing performance in the 80s teen comedy Can't Buy Me Love (1987).

The cast also includes Peggy Lipton and Robert Walker Jr. as opposing attorneys, singer and VENUS IN FURS star Barbara McNair as a teacher, Shelley Smith and Carol Higgins Clark (daughter of novelist Mary Higgins Clark) as reporters, Kevin Brophy (Hell Night) and J. Trevor Edmond (who later starred in Pumpkinhead 2 and Return of the Living Dead III).

★★

Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989)

...aka: Eric's Revenge
...aka: Kasvoton tappaja (Faceless Killer)
...aka: Phantom des Todes (Phantom of Death)
...aka: Phantom Nightmare

Directed by:
Richard Friedman

Good-looking, popular teen Eric Matthews (Derek Rydall) has a bright future ahead with dreams of becoming an Olympic gymnast and sweet, pretty girlfriend Melody Austin (Kari Whitman) by his side. Coinciding with Eric and his parents' refusal to leave so developers can tear down their home and build a modern shopping center in its place, there's a mysterious fire and both Eric and his parents are killed. Melody was there when it happened and spotted a strange man wearing some kind of metal religious symbol as an earring lurking about. She's positive the man had something to do with setting the fire. Unfortunately for her, her memories are hazy from hitting her head and no one believes her anyway, so the company planning on putting up the mall now conveniently get the now-vacant plot of land they desperately wanted. A year later, construction on the mall is finally complete, with sleazebag owner Harv Posner (Jonathan Goldsmith), glamour puss town mayor Karen Walton (Morgan Fairchild, who really means business with her massive shoulder pads) and other prominent members of the community showing up for the big ribbon cutting ceremony. All the while, someone is lurking around in the mall's air vents... watching... and waiting to strike.

That “someone” is, of course, Eric, who didn't actually die in the fire but was instead badly burnt and now wants revenge on the greedy developer who, of course, is the one responsible for ordering the burning of his home and thus ruining his life in the process. When he's not pumping iron or practicing his martial arts moves, Eric's having fun terrorizing Harv in a variety of ways, like using a rope and the escalator to strangle his obnoxious, spoiled son (played by John Travolta's nephew, Tom Fridley) and sending the perverted security guard (John Walter Davis) he's just electrocuted through a vent directly onto Harv's desk with a note attached that says “An eye for an eye.” Not to cause a stir or hurt business, Harv decides to hide the security guard's body and then calls up Christopher Volker (Gregory Scott Cummins), the same punk who pulled off the arson routine, to pose as a security guard and snuff out any trouble he happens to stumble upon.

To Eric's good fortune, Melody gets a waitress job at the mall so he can keep a close eye on her using stolen video surveillance equipment. He leaves orchids (her favorite flower) in her locker, steals a dress she liked but couldn't afford and leaves it in her car, plays “their” song on a jukebox, shoots a masked would-be rapist who attacks her in the parking lot with a crossbow and basically kills anyone who tries to do her harm. Eric does what he can to let Melody know he's still around, not only to protect her but also to put a stop to a budding romance she's developing with handsome journalist / photographer Peter Baldwin (Rob Estes). Because of all of the strange occurrences going on, Peter and Melody team up to get to the bottom of things. Meanwhile, Eric keeps busy decapitating and impaling victims. He also uses a flamethrower to set someone on fire and uses a cobra to take care of someone else. For his big encore, he forgoes the chandelier in favor of a bomb.

Nothing all that surprising goes down in this umpteenth spin on The Phantom of the Opera that adds a slash-happy dash of late 80s mall culture to the mix. However, this is still fun and enjoyable all the same. A big part of the film's success lies with its (mostly) appealing and likable cast. A big exception is a before-he-was-famous Pauly Shore as weird-o friend “Buzz,” who wears a “Weasels” t-shirt, claims to possess “supersonic hearing,” sneaks rubber ears and eyeballs into the frozen yogurt he sells, keeps pestering Melody's disinterested best friend Suzie (former fashion model Kimber Simmons) for a date and is already starting to perfect his annoying slow-speak slacker shtick even at this early stage in his career. One clever bit of casting is Ken Foree, from the ultimate mall horror movie DAWN OF THE DEAD, as the main security guard. Like in Dawn, this even throws in a bit of anti-consumerism / materialism humor, like when a couple of the guys discover that the owner has hidden subliminal messages (“I like to spend money!” “Shopping makes me feel good!” “Spending money makes me feel good!”) into the Muzak being pumped throughout the mall.

Using the alias “Kari Kennell,” leading lady Whitman (who is not only nice to look at but also not a bad little actress) had appeared nude in Playboy magazine as a 1988 Playmate of the Month and then appeared nude in subsequent Playboy videos, which makes the fact she used a body double for her sex scenes here pretty amusing. Some other nudity is provided by several female extras (including Brinke Stevens) in a locker room scene. For all you beefcake fans you get an ass shot from, uh, probably the last guy in the cast whose ass you actually want to see. I will say it is not provided by Rydall, who went on to star in Night Visitor (1989) and Popcorn (1991) before starting a lucrative career as a screenplay consultant and script doctor, or Estes, who went on to a busy TV career (Melrose Place, Silk Stalkings) the following decade, and leave it at that, buuuuu-ddy.

The executive producer was Charles W. Fries, who gave this a very limited theatrical release through his company Fries Entertainment and then a VHS release through his Fries Home Video. There has not been an official DVD release to my knowledge. Beware a heavily-cut 84 minute version floating around that eliminates all of the nudity and nearly all of the gore (including an entire death scene). Director Friedman also made Death Mask (1984), Doom Asylum (1987), Scared Stiff (1987) and Dark Wolf (2003), which means this is clearly his best genre film to date.

★★1/2