Senza scampo

Please do not read the summary of this movie. There are no depressed women around here but two strong female characters and a bunch of guys who don't know how to deal with it. Lower Level was scripted and directed by women and I think this can be sensed clearly. The main storyline deals with a guard who is smitten with a woman architect and entraps her in "her tower" one night. The guard did a lot of planning - not unlike the Collector Terence Stamp in the eponymous movie directed by William Wyler. But he is doomed and clearly intimidated by the woman who in the end is not only able to liberate herself but also her occasional sexual partner (boyfriend or lover would not be the right word here). This is a fine example of low budget movie making. Very few actors, one location, nighttime only and quite a few good directorial ideas. It is not the greatest movie of all times but really good entertainment and visually very pleasing. Great cameo by Shari Shattuck.

A security guard obessed with a beautiful woman traps her and her boyfriend after they have just made love in a building one night and plans to keep her all to himself by using advanced security camera's and equipment and getting the boyfriend out of the picture.

Interesting reversal of Fatal Attraction is a sexy, exciting, and handsome looking thriller that offers a better then usual premise and manages to keep the viewer entertained from start to finish.

Rated R; Sexual Situations, Violence, Nudity, Profanity.

A woman and her boyfriend are trapped in high tech state of the art skyscraper by a deranged security guard who watches there every move on security cameras. The guard who has a fixation on her, plans to remove her boyfriend from the picture.

Sexy Fatal Attraction reversal w/ an interesting premise. The film is handsomely produced and generates enough thrills, chills, and close calls to keep its auidence entertained. Good leading performances and direction help too.

Rated R; Violence, Sexual Situations, Profanity.

The "action" starts off right away so you don't have time to know the characters or really care about them. The acting and writing makes this a B movie at best. The only small redeeming part was that it involved a strong female lead, but she didn't have any depth at all. Silence of the Lambs came out the same year this movie did and it was a much better cat-and-mouse film. SOTL actually had well developed characters and intense directing. I've seen other movies directed by Kristine Peterson and they're not that much better which, I'm guessing, is why she hasn't directed anything since the late 90's.

I had never heard of this movie until I watched it, but it turned out better than expected. It's nothing great, but it's tense, well-made and well-acted. Having three relatively unknown actors in the three main roles works in its favor - sometimes you almost forget you're watching a movie. Elizabeth Gracen is beautiful, sensual, strong and convincing: when she tells the villain that she is somehow turned on by him, only to catch him off guard, it's no wonder he is fooled - the viewer is fooled as well. And David Bradley is not the one-dimensional villain you might expect: he manages to bring out the sympathetic sides of his character, despite the horrible things he does ("It's not so much that I want to sleep with you", he tells Gracen, "It's just that I want to wake up next to you". That is genuinely romantic. Too bad he also kills people...). (**1/2)