Rampage
The Hillside Strangler Murders
This film was one on the list from the same KQRS bit << see ask the dust >> and daniel spends a good third of her time on screen in her birthday suit. This alone would normally make for a quality film, but then fisher wanted to add some historical perspective to it. I guess this was an attempt to add depth or even a film to surround daniel’s nudity. It could have worked if daniel and those surrounding her were quality actors, or he didn’t spin the camera in circles nearly every sequence.
It’s not as though the low caliber performances came as a surprise. High expectations of the love interest in joe dirt and a racist border guard in babel would be absurd. Neither performance is horrible, but the movie itself would have carried some weight if different actors were chosen. Not that I had any personal objections to Daniel. Great casting at least visually.
Beyond that it appears this was a pet-project of Fisher’s. He wrote and directed this one. As the writing goes it’s simple and unintelligent. Dialog is beige and mostly irrelevant. I don’t know how historically accurate this one is, but i can’t imagine too much time spent on characters’ interaction. It’s just too forced throughout.
The directing though is at least atypical. I can’t say for sure if it adds to the film’s merit, but it does make it fun to watch to a certain point. He takes liberty with lengthy shots that spin around a room while transitioning from medium shots to long in order to follow the action. The camera creates a first-person perspective of characters as they move through sets for almost the entire movie. It’s effective in displaying multiple points of interest in confined spaces, but overused. The camera movement has a disorienting effect, but i still enjoyed it in certain sequences. There is also a layering of shots in order to create the effect of intensity. This too was done excessively and something alluring became tedious.
unfortunately for Fisher he picked a strong subject << the hillside stranglers >> and then failed to create a strong film around it. There is no believability in Daniel as a psychologist with her own practice and the other characters are too shallow to spark interest. His directing style would be more effective if done with a quality screenplay and in moderation, but at least it added to the scenes where daniel was clothed.
and a sidenote: what’s the deal with blurring when you’re going straight to DVD? all you have to do is stamp that “[unrated]” on the front and you’re golden. it’s cheesy and ridiculous. it’s not like everyone isn’t already doing it anyway.
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