DEADBOLT
Television Movie - 1992 - 90 minutes
STARRING
JUSTINE BATEMAN, ADAM BALDWIN, MICHELE SCARABELLI, CHRIS MULKEY, CYNDI PASS, ISABELLE TRUCHON
WRITTEN BY MARA TRAFFICANTE & FRANK REHWALDT
DIRECTED BY DOUGLAS JACKSON
CHARACTER:
Alec Danz - Alec is a charming young man who wants to rent Marty's apartment, but for dark reasons. He had forced his previous girlfriend to suicide, and now has his sights set on Marty. He kills her ex-husband and various other people one-by-one, making her a prisoner in her own home. Great serial killer role for Baldwin :)
THE FILM:
For Marty Hiller (Justine Bateman), Alec Danz (Adam Baldwin) seems like the perfect flatmate. Clever. Kind. Cute. But as the nice guy withthe dark side works his way into her home and her head, Marty's bedroom becomes a prison cell of bolted doors and sound proof walls as the twisted killer fulfills his ultimate fantasies...
A slice of sheer fear, Deadbolt unleashes a new houseguest from hell to rival Single White Female as one woman takes on the terror of a tenant who's looking for more than a place to stay...
Make up the guestroom. Your worst nightmare has arrived.
THE REVIEWS:
Video Business, USA:
"A chilling and riveting thriller. Baldwin is one of the most interesting and clever killers since Hannibal Lectar."
Tony Scott for Variety:
"Despite assurances of less violence in the future on its net, CBS drops in a program focused on a young woman and her male roommate who chokes, stabs and tortures people crossing his path. Directed without subtlety by Douglas Jackson, "Deadbolt" is a potboiler with a couple of scary moments, but the plot about a psycho threatening a woman's life is getting overly familiar.
Med student Justine Bateman rents half her apartment to stranger Mark Camacho , but Adam Baldwin murders Camacho so he can move in.
Bateman meanwhile brings home a jarful of botulism from the lab and stores it in the dining room without warning anyone about the deadly brew, a clumsy plot device that just sits there until the appropriate time.
Bateman doesn't ask for references from Baldwin, despite ex-husband Chris Mulkey's warnings, and takes in the charming unknown. She doesn't know, of course, what viewers do: That Baldwin had been living with a woman whose body turned up in a bathtub. Understatement is not the program's long suit.
Baldwin, garnering several scalps on the way to controlling Bateman, works his cunning deceptions until Bateman's a helpless prisoner in her own home. Scripters Mara Trafficante and Frank Rehwaldt resolve her dilemma, but it's a long, long look at the loony Baldwin character and his grim indiscretions.
Bateman rightfully looks scared, and Baldwin looks sunny except when he's threatened; he then looks anxious. Michele Scarabelli is around as Bateman's acquaintance from the past, and Cyndi Pass plays Bateman's best friend.
Rodney Gibbons' camerawork is all-pro, and Yves Langlois' editing is efficient.
Tech credits are superior. Pic was intended as a 1992 feature film."
LEAFANS REVIEW:
I love this film. It's no classic by any means but it is entertaining. Adam is very good in evil mode and this movie is just fun, you can tell it's just a TV movie though. The scene with Adam, Chris Mulkey and the gun is a classic in my opinion. My advice is to see this as a matter of priority. Performances are ok from most of the cast but it is Adam that carries this film.
TAGLINES:
Stranger. Roommate. Lover... Prisoner.
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:
FILMING LOCATIONS:
Montreal, Canada.
GENERAL FACTS AND STUFF THAT DOESNT FIT ANYWHERE ELSE:
Made with the intention of being a 1992 feature film, but ended up being a 1993 CBS TV movie.
RELATED MERCHANDISE:
VHS at Amazon.com