“He Knows You’re Alone” (1980)

Studio: MGM
Starring: Caitlin O’Heaney, Don Scardino, Lewis Arlt, Tom Rolfing
Directed by: Armand Mastroianni
Rated: R
Running Time: 94 min.

Synopsis: A killer targets brides to be in a small town while a detective tracks him down.

REVIEW

Chris Woods

This underrated slasher film from the 1980’s in my opinion, has some great suspenseful moments, a good cast, and a creepy killer. The film actually starts off with a couple making out in a parked car. The boyfriend goes out to check on a strange noise. As the girl waits for his return, the noises gets louder and louder. She goes to investigate and turns out the boyfriend’s dead body is hanging from a tree and his class ring was hitting the roof of the car. The scene is taken from an urban legend of course and a killer then jumps out to get the girl.

But this part is only a movie, when camera pulls back and we’re in a movie theater watching a scary movie. A girl from the audience gets up because the movie is too scary for her and goes to the bathroom. There’s a part when the girl enters the bathroom and she smiles at herself when she looks at herself in the mirror, like, I’m so hot or something. I thought it was kind of funny. Anyway, when she enters the stall she starts to hear noises outside. It freaks her out and she gets the hell out of there and geoes back in the theater where her friend is waiting for her. The girl is a little freaked out, but her friend tells her she’s just a little shaken up because of the movie they’re watching. Then out of nowhere a man stabs her in the back from behind the seat without anyone seeing him. A great close-up shot of the killer’s wide eyes is creepy as hell and is almost as creepy as Faud Ramses in Blood Feast. After the killer leaves, her friend finally notices that she’s dead and the screaming starts. (Awful Scream 2 ripped off this scene in their opening.)

Det. Len Gamble is sent to investigate the crime scene. Turns out the girl that was murdered was getting married. This information is especially important to the detective, since he’s been tracking down a killer who murders soon to be brides for years that all started with his own bride, which the killer use to date. Now the bride killer is clear out of town and in a new city looking for his next victim.

The killer gets off in a small town and finds a would be bride, Amy, that he starts to stalk. She is played by Caitlin O’Heaney of Tales of the Gold Monkey fame. Amy’s a college student who has second thoughts on getting married. Most of friends think the guy is a loser and they think she should go back to her ex-boyfriend, Marvin played by Don Scardino from the 70’s horror film Squirm, who she is still friends with and he’s also trying to change her mind. While this is going on she keeps seeing a man following her around town and watching from outside when she’s at home. Very creepy moments when the guy is just lurker around at one moment then gone the next.

The bride killer starts to off friends of Amy. The detective finally shows up when he hears a owner of a bride shop is killed and knows that’s his guy. Amy still sees the killer stalking her, but no one believes her. There’s a cool scene where Amy and her little sister are at an amusement park and enter a haunted house. Some cool classic house of horror props pop up at them and flashes of the killer show up as they ride through. There’s also a scene where one of Amy’s friends is sitting down listening to music with her head phones on, smoking pot and sipping wine when all of a sudden the killer sneaks up behind her and pulls a knife to her throat. Amy later finds the girl’s head floating in her fish tank.

He Knows You’re Alone, is a good scary horror film to come out in that period. Lots of suspenseful and scary moments through out and the guy that plays the killer, Tom Rolfing, was pretty good and creepy as hell at times. There’s one part that comes to mind when he’s stabbing this guy and his eyes are just bulging out and the expression on his face is pretty wacked. There’s also a few recognizable faces before they were stars, one is Tom Hanks who plays one of the friends, Paul Gleason, who’s in a bunch of 80’s films always playing an asshole like in Trading Places, The Breakfast Club, Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home, and Die Hard. He plays a cop in this one. James Rebhornwho’s in tons of movies like Basic Instinct, Carlito’s Way, Independence Day, and many others. The movie is a good find and a lot better then some of the other movies out during that time.