He Knows You're Alone (1980, Armand Mastroianni)

HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Did that sound sinister? Well I tried. This film has one of those titles that alone is kind of scary. You figure the movie must be too. He Knows You're Alone came out right at the dawn of the slasher films and definitely took a lot of inspiration from Halloween. I remember renting this movie from my beloved Blockbuster and being very disappointed after. I thought the film was way too slow and talky with not enough of the red stuff. I found a copy at my local library and decided to give it another shot after recently reading a write up in an old issue of Fangoria.

Amy (Caitlin O'Heaney) is about to get married and while her fiancee is away for a weekend bachelor party, she notices someone following her. Her friends try to convince her she is crazy while her ex boyfriend Marvin (Don Scardino) tries to convince her to marry him instead. Is she imagining it or is she really being followed?

Well, watching this movie again several (roughly 11 or 12) years later unfortunately didn't change my opinion of this crappy slasher wannabe. It was way too talky and slow. The killer is revealed early on so there is pretty much no mystery whatsoever. Many scenes directly ripoff Halloween and the only really cool thing about the movie was the opening scene. The head in the fish tank would have been a nice touch if it didn't look like a mannequin. Oh, also this is Tom Hanks' film debut and unfortunately he's the only one with the slightest bit of likability (even though his character is pointless). In the sea of early slashers, this film is a turd amongst sharks.

RATING: 2/5