Le cercle interdit

The actors in this laughable, straight-to-video erotic "thriller" seem to be in a competition for booby prizes. It's really hard for the viewer to decide who gives the worst performance: the stunningly untalented Tanya Roberts, the irritating and unnatural Timothy Bottoms or the amazingly unattractive, horribly miscast Margaux Hemingway ? The script tries to hold our interest by continuously adding twists and doublecrosses, but the poor acting and the amateurish direction doom this suspesnseless film. All it has going for it are some hot sex scenes with Roberts. (*)

I haven't seen a film with Margaux Hemingway for awhile and now remember that she talks just like Carol Channing in need of a voice coach. Tanya Roberts is not much better. Tanya seems to be saying "tough stuff" in a monotone so often her dialog sounds dubbed from reading off screen. The film seems to aim for violent kills and eroticism every five minutes and can't decide which flavor it wants to dish out more of, each very badly. Some of the lines are so mechanical it makes you laugh at the wrong time. The wording of the voice overs is a bit artificial at times. It makes me glad people have finally grown tired of imitating Basic Instinct with dozens of movies like it.

Very poor film, thin plot with even thinner acting. What is Tanya Roberts doing in a film like this. Paranoid woman attempts suicide, fails, tries again, fails again, is subject of attempted murder, survives again and outlives most of the other cast. Standard stuff for a soft porn movie, which this film is bad at too. Lots of Boobs and grinding, but about as erotic as a wet sock. Given the choice between this film and an australian soap, watch the film, otherwise get a life.

Jennifer Reed (Valerie Wildman) tries to kill herself haunted by suspicions of her husband Baxter (Joseph Bottoms)'s infidelity. She falls down the stairs instead leaving her paralyzed. She suffers her husband's anger. He is having an affair with co-worker Anna Rawlins (Margaux Hemingway). He hires live-in nurse Lynn Foster (Tanya Roberts) who is suspected of killing before.

This is pretty bad and cheesy. It's got the prerequisite cheesy sex scenes. The story tries to be a Hitchcockian thriller. It does it really really badly. There are way too many dream sequences. The acting ranges from passable to pretty bad. I guess it could be worst.

My review was written in October 1991 after watching the movie on Columbia TriStar video cassette.

This gothic thriller makes absolutely no sense but delivers the sexy goods for genre fans.

Tanya Roberts retains her status as queen of the unrated video, though Shannon Tweed is coming on strong (even sequelizing Roberts' "Night Eyes" hit).

Though director Fred Olen Ray is a film buff, this pic bears no resemblance to the series of "Inner Sanctum" thrillers made by Universal in the 1940s with Lon Chaney Jr. Instead it's a sexed-up tale of a woman in jeopardy, with many red herrings along the way.

Pic opens with Valerire Wildman (blonde femme fatale of tv's "Dangerous Women" series) attempting suicide. She falls down the stairs but survives, only to feel persecuted by her husband, Joseph Bottoms.

He hires sexy nurse Roberts to take care of Wildan, but her behavior is suspicious. Sneaky neighbor (Bret Clark) moves in next door and seems to be in league with Bottoms or Roberts.

This paranoid plot line goes for nought, since film's raison d'etre is to have as many sex scenes as possible, a formula that worked in not only Roberts' "Night Eyes" but also Tweed's plot-heavy "Last Call".

Roberts, sporting a low-down accent, is uninhibited and sexy. That her character's behavior makes no sense is unfortunate. Co-star Margaux Hemingway as Bottom's main squeeze in the office is peripheral to the plot.

Wildman, who also has a topless scene, is a find, combining distinctive beauty while ably personifying the genre's "vulnerable victim" role. Ending is arbitrary and rushed.

Columbia TriStar is marketing the video in a blue box for R-rated contents and a red box for the hotter, unrated version reviewed here.