Really, one wonderfully flimsy effort, this film, which in my country was released on DVD under the title 'A Killing Obsession'. And I might add that fans of John Savage and John Saxon will have some terrible fun with it (although I can't guarantee you won't shake your head in shame on several occasions). John Savage plays Albert, a mentally deranged thirty-something who spent most of his adult life in a mental health hospital. Released - as in: proclaimed "cured" - at the beginning of the story, because of the government cutting budgets, John Saxon repeats himself from the start to everyone (not) willing to listen that Albert is not sane after all and will kill again. And again. And again. Saxon is simply so funny, taking his role very serious while going through the motions (often also sporting tremendously over-sized glasses).
But the real star, of course, is John Savage. Within the first ten minutes, he already manages to stab two people to death, steal a whole bunch of cash and a getaway car. And he's clearly not going to stop, because he's got a killing obsession. We know from the get-go that he's determined to find a certain Annie Smith, a girl he once sickly loved when she was a mere nubile teenager. The thought that she's now a fully matured woman in her early thirties, doesn't cross his mind, of course.
What does he do? He picks up a phone book and heads off to pay a visit to every single Annie Smith listed in it. So, this film is pretty much 'Terminator' with John Savage replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger. Of course, this modus operandi will have Albert encountering many disappointments on his path, so he mostly ends up killing the Annie Smiths that don't fit the bill. I don't think I've ever seen John Savage act so weird in a film before. He pulls off some exquisite berserk grimaces throughout the film and his dialogue mainly consists of repeating the lines "You are not my Annie" and "You're a whore."
While Savage is already on a roll within the first ten minutes of the film, we're also treated to at least two women bearing their breasts in the following twenty minutes (attractive leading lady Kimberly Chase included). And just like Albert, writer/director Paul Leder isn't going to stop repeating this whole cocktail we're treated to in the first act already. Plus, during the last twenty minutes or so, Albert suddenly decides to take the plot of the film into a different direction, leading us towards a laughably underwhelming finale.
Add to that some lousy sound design and incompetent audio recording (the cuts between scenes with phone calls on different locations will have you noticing zooming refrigerators all of the sudden, and other scenes feature annoyingly squeaky stairs or shuffling sofas). The cheap synthesizer score is an entertaining hoot as well and the cinematography and directing, while perhaps not the worst you'll ever encounter, is as bland as it gets. But, surprisingly so, I would be lying if I'd say I didn't have fun watching this ridiculous attempt at a 'psychological thriller' for the various reasons mentioned above.
