(2000)
Reviewed By-Paul Cooke Director : Dave Hansen Scripted : Dave Hansen Starring : Carrie Hitchcock , Brian Mani , Heather Prete , Jim Wagner & Richard Pickren
The sleepy town of Eden , a suburban Wisconsin paradise where the local bed and breakfast tempts its patrons with more than a daily apple. A place where a young couple on the run from a complex crime seek safe haven to rest up and take stock of their fractured dreams. The welcome mat is the last threshold to the insanity of the outside world and the first step beyond is one taken into a whole new insanity waiting to unravel inside !.
Posing as newlyweds the young couple Kurt and Madalyn are taken in by their hosts Ed and Jackie , two seemingly regular middle class Americans with a wholesome relationship and a willingness to share an abundance of bonhomie. Their warm smiles hide a deep divide that unravels like a finely set twine around a bushel of thorns. Ed has a sexual craving that would put him in line to run for Presidency and his home networking of video cameras that reach to the guest bedroom allow him his own bill of rights within his own residence. His wife is repulsed but holds a deep rooted secret of her own that eats away and stops her from having the courage to escape her own personal hell that revolves around her all enveloping husbands life.
The young couple have their own problems to resolve but feel secure in their surroundings , blissfully unaware that their evening of love making is intrusively viewed with the eye of a free to air peep show pervert who soon attains a taste for what he sees. The attractive young Madalyn becomes a thing of lustful advances and unwelcome approaches as well as the pawn of a twisted game of winner takes all between Ed and Kurt , with only Ed playing for keeps !.
As a bond builds between Ed and Kurt so does a stronger one between Jackie and Madelyn , as the sins of their past become part of their interlinking present. The relationship between Kurt and Madalyn grows stronger just as that between Ed and Jackie spirals into a destructive decent that inevitably involves all four with shattering results. The tape recording sessions of Ed uncover an incident of deceit and blackmail that allows Ed to step beyond the boundary of human restraint , as he forces himself upon Madalyn and attempts to procure a case of money taken from the local bank.
Writer Director Dave Hansen has brought to the screen a competent piece that is well made on a restricted budget. He delivers a well paced film from his own well realised script , one that is not without its fair share of well delivered moments to put many a Hollywood mainstream production to shame.
Finally the emotional trauma recessed within all of the key players is unleashed from the kindred quartet in a closing act , emerging with a vengeance as the trials and tribulations of life are set to be rebalanced. The much bigger picture is enticingly unveiled to its audience with rewarding results and impacts with a redemption of Brian De Palma / Alfred Hitchcock prowess.
Presentation : Wide Screen 1:85:1 Format Release : Gator Home Entertainment Coding : NTSC Sound : Dolby Digital 2.0
Film: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Picture: 4.0 BITCH SLAPS Sound: 3.5 BITCH SLAPS Overall: 3.5 BITCH SLAPS VISIT MTI VIDEO for more of their titles!
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