Disconnected

Once again we're in the realms of slasher movies that just about fit the guidelines of the category. As with Dead Kids and Murderlust, Disconnected attempts to branch away from the hackneyed likes of The Prowler and Edge of the Axe without straying too far from the stalk and slash rulebook.

After the credits have rolled we meet Alicia (Francis Raines) the protagonist of the feature. On her way home from work one day she finds an elderly man hanging around mysteriously beside her apartment. Sympathetically she allows the stranger to come inside and use her phone, but whilst she's making a cup of tea, he vanishes from her living room without trace. Later that night, Alicia tells her twin sister Barbara Ann (also Francis Raines) about the mysterious visitor, but she laughs it off telling her sibling that he probably just made a call and left suddenly. We soon learn that these twins don't exactly see eye to eye, mainly because Barbara Ann keeps sleeping with Alicia's boyfriends behind her back. Mike (Carl Koch) is the latest in the line of unfaithful partners to get the chop, not only for the aforementioned cheating, but presumably also because he has the worst case of 'bad mullet syndrome' that I have ever seen! Imagine a mid-eighties geek with a poodle on his head and you may be able to conjure up your own visual image.

Down in the dumps and on the rebound, Alicia meets up with a guy named Franklin (Mike Walker) and agrees to go out on a date with him. Franklin comes across as a polite fellow and he hides pretty well the fact that he loves nothing more than picking up promiscuous women, taking them back to his flat and then slaughtering them with the handy switch blade that he keeps in his bedside cabinet. Around the same time that Alicia meets this undercover maniac, she begins receiving bizarre and frankly quite credibly eerie persistent anonymous phone calls. As the bodies pile up around the city the Police get more and more baffled. Is Franklin the mysterious caller or is the petrified female just a little disconnected?

Disconnected is certainly an oddity of a feature. Almost as intriguing as it is bemusing, it will at times leave you staring at the screen in confusion. After the killer is revealed and dealt with half way through the runtime, the mystery is still un-resolved and to be honest the conclusion remains inconclusive to the viewer. Gorman Bechard's direction will have you as baffled as the illogical plot line. 88 of the 90-minute runtime looks to have been shot and edited by a retarded gibbon, but then every once in a while he manages to pull off a standout shock sequence that feels out of place amongst the rest of the point and shoot mediocrity. The director's obsession with wide, spacious and eminently tedious backdrops is as tedious as a HBO documentary and the chapters look to have been sewn together using a chainsaw and a tub of wallpaper paste.

The dramatics from the supporting actors are generally non-existent, but Francis Raines showed flashes of potential. OK, so she's certainly no Merryl Streep; in fact come to think of it, she's no Sharon Stone either; but for a breakout performance, I've certainly seen worse. One thing that is worth mentioning is the cheesy but still rather enjoyable soundtrack, which must have soaked up the majority of the minuscule budget. Look out for the hilarious nightclub scene, which in true slasher cheese on toast tradition shows us why the early eighties will always remain a bad disco memory to those that were alive and kicking at the time.

Bechard didn't attempt to hide the fact that he was making a shlock-a-lock feature. One character says, "I feel like I'm stuck in a low budget horror film, because some man is going round killing young women!" Another mentions something about nudity and violence and you can tell that the director knew exactly which audience he was aiming to satisfy. I guess in a way he succeeded, because for all its nonsensical and off the wall ramblings, Disconnected remains worth a watch. Yes it's confusing, and yes it makes very little common sense; but as an authentic take on the slasher formula, there are worse attempts floating about. Track it down if you can find it.

Disconnected (2017)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Women are being brutally murdered by a psychopath. At the same time, video store worker Alicia (Frances Raines) begins dating a new guy but she's constantly worried that her slut sister Barbara Ann (also played by Raines) might be trying to do something wrong.

Gorman Bechard made DISCONNECTED before doing PSYCHOS IN LOVE and I must say that the title of this movie perfectly summed up my feelings on it. I really did feel disconnected throughout the entire film and I had a really hard time trying to connect with anything going on. To say the film struggled to hold my attention would be an understatement.

This film has quite a bit going on with it as you've got the entire story dealing with the sisters. You've also got the story dealing with the good sister and her new relationship. You've also got a detective (Carmine Capobianco) talking directly to the camera as he tries to solve the killings. All of this is going on in a film that runs 84-minutes and to say it's very fair to say that the overall movie is very uneven and it seems like they weren't quite sure how to handle everything.

For the most part the performances are good enough for this type of film. There's some sleaze elements with some nudity and some mildly gory scenes but consider this is a slasher film, neither are really up there among the genre's more memorable moments. With that said, fans of the director might want to check this out but others can certainly stay clear of it. I will add that it was fun seeing a video store like they used to be.

Both the (extremely) low budget production values and the bad acting helped to create a film that was reminiscent of giallo, which brought a sense of nostalgia to the table for me- however, Disconnected has characters that are the 'every day' american type, and this, alongside the graininess of the cheap film stock, makes the film seem much more like a 70's film than an 80's one. The more real violence contributes to the 70s feel- other than the acting, there is no cheese to be found here. The first 3/4 of this film were absolutely fantastic. A real sense of tension and a blend of realistic, sleazy subplot alongside a more surreal main plot made Disconnected an absolutely unique and interesting piece. After the subplot culminates however, the film falls off, and begins to wear out its welcome. Overall this film is actually really cool as long as you can stand the super low budget feel.

Pretty much loved this through and through - the blaring pop-punk soundtrack - Francis Raines' believable acting/characterization - the weird off-kilter blend of the banal and truly bizarre - the use of real apartments/clubs/videostore/Waterbury streets in which it all takes place - guaranteeing nothing feels like a "cheap set" despite (and/or because of it) being a low-budget production.. there's great choices being made all over the place here including a plethora of odd-ball, random little details - like shrimp newberg for dinner (!?!) - realizing she lives right across the street from the cemetery - or the ridiculous Groucho Marx statue in her apartment (that takes on a truly creepy demeanor at one point) - make it much richer a watch than expected and not just a by-the-books/let's-make-a-buck exploitationer.. and when it shifts from being (mostly) "I know where this is going" into something darker, more sinister and more somewhat incomprehensible - it manages to become truly frightening and nightmarish.. and that cacophonous noise coming out of her phone is pretty darn unsettling.. all of the reviews I read (positive or negative) pointed out a particular shot as a complaint towards being amateurish - a shot that actually had me almost leaping outta my seat thinking how bold and beautiful a choice it was - and it doesn't feel out of place in a movie that is doing a lot of things its own way.. Director Bechard's Psychos In Love is probably better known - possibly better regarded - than Disconnected - but I found this one to be more enthralling, more particular, more interesting - and less straining to be funny or quirky.. and in the words of the Disconnected nice-guy-but-a-serial-killer, Franklin's trade-mark sign-off that I got a kick out of once I realized he was going to keep saying it: "ok - see ya - bye"..

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Disconnected; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.50 Direction: 1.50 Pace: 1.25 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.50

TOTAL: 7.00 out of 10.00

This little-known picture came as a pleasant, if slightly disturbing, surprise. It possesses some intriguing concepts and is one of the better modern telephone horror films.

The screenplay, written by Director Gorman Bechard and Virginia Gilroy - based on her short story - tells the tale of Alicia and Franklin's doomed romance and throws in a generous spattering of mystery, mayhem, and murder. One day when Alicia leaves for work at the video store, she spots an elderly gentleman who appears distressed. Being a kindly person, she offers him a cup of tea. However, no sooner has the tea been brewed and she's walked back into the room does Alicia find him gone. Quickly she moves to her front door and looks out but can't see the gent anywhere. He was slow-moving and unsteady; there was no way he could have walked out, descended her stairs, and ambled down the street before Alicia scouted the neighbourhood for him. The incident troubles her, but she soon forgets him when the phone calls start coming. Franklin is a cinephile. One day he pops into Alicia's store and shyly asks her out. She happily accepts his advances as she's unsure of Mark, her ex, and her twin sister Barbara. Her sister has issues, and one's to seduce her sister's men. Alicia believes Mark has already fallen under her temptations. And this theory is borne out when she receives a call from Barbara. However, it appears to be a crossed line as Bab's not conversing with her but with Mark, and she's saying that her sis is clueless about them. But this isn't the only curious call she's received, and it won't be the last. Because, now, when the phone rings and she picks up, an undulating shriek screech from the earpiece before the strange and obscure chatter starts. Is she suffering a mental breakdown? Are these aural delusions? While out in the streets of her town, a stalker is killing and mutilating women. The police are having little luck in apprehending the slasher. Will they find him out in time, or will Alicia and Bab's end up on the wrong end of his blade? A lot is going on in Disconnected, but it never feels overly stuffed or heavy. Bechard and Gilroy magnificently weave together all the strands into one strong rope of a tale. They keep the narrative flowing smoothly and fill it with appealing and credible characters. I particularly like the two detectives; they have a je ne sais quoi about them.

Another positive is Bechard's direction. This guy attempts to make every scene interesting at every opportunity. He uses light and shade, varying camera angles, different styles of panning, quick cuts, and composition to entertain the audience. I especially liked the phone call segment when Alicia rings Franklin to accept his dinner offer. We see her in the video store dialling his number. We then have a semi-close-up of Franklin appearing to wake up in his bed and answer the phone. After they hang up, we stay in Franklin's bedroom, but this time we're standing looking down at the foot of the bed. We slowly pan up the bed to reveal the bloody chaos. It's a simple shot, but it works well. There's also a superb rolling pan in the nightclub to witness the patrons sitting at the bar. It doesn't bring anything to the story, just interest in a filler scene, but it's good.

As for the performances, these are all above par. However, I would've liked more tension and darkness from Mark Walker (Franklin), especially in the murder scenes. He's a tad soft for my liking. But apart from that, everyone does well and are on an even keel.

I would gladly recommend this macabre piece of cinematography to every Horror and Dark Thriller fan. It's original and mysteriously entertaining, and a wonderful way to spend a dark autumnal night. But beware, I have found this story has a way of crawling into your cerebrum and nestling there.

Don't listen to the voices on the phone. Focus on my voice; now, please read over my IMDb lists - Absolute Horror and Killer Thriller Chillers, to see where I ranked Disconnected before I have my fun with you.

Take Care & Stay Well.