Quiet Kill

A lonely housewife unknowingly has a one nighter with her best friend's killer. Obsession, stalking and death ensue. Before you can say that's all there is, that's pretty much all there really is. Standard story lines apply: adulterer's guilt and fear, spouse's anger and disbelief, killer's mother fixation, etc, etc (you get the idea). Lead performances range from decent enough (Corbin Bernsen, Claudia Christian) to over the top (Nicholas Celozzi, or I should say 'over kill' since he plays the killer). TV B- movie quality.

Ron Perlman has a small role as a Detective and gives his character some nice quirks (it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't scripted and he did them simply to entertain himself).

Rental.

The City of Angels has a sicko serial killer killing off beautiful women, prostitutes & all & whilst this is happening a beautiful, lonely & neglected well-off house wife has a steamy one-night stand with a sleezy & charming weirdo who may or may not be the sadistic serial killer?

Things get messy, there's guilt & suspense & it all looks & feels very 90's late-night Sleezy Slasher & i liked that about it as i love many B-movies & old slasher flicks, now I'm not saying this is a great film or even a particularly good film but for an easy watching late-night Thriller i didn't mind it & it's above average because we have one of my all time favourite actors in this, the great & legendary RON PERLMAN!!!! Now i know he probably took this role just for the cash because this is a low-budget sleezy DTV flick but his presence lifts it in quality right away, he is even good in his small role as one of the local Detective's investigating these bloody murders & the film is always interesting whenever he's on screen. I mean PERLMAN is always good in anything even if the movie isn't great & here he gives his small but decent enough role as Detective Perry, some character traits & gives him enough life to be an interesting character that i liked to follow through this cheap standard Slasher Thriller.

I've given a longer review than really needed but that's because Ron Perlman deserves some recognition for being a hard working underrated & undervalued actor but The Perl has his fans & I'm one.

The look of this small production is actually decent with that cheap lighting that they always used in these straight to video films, the glow of blue, green & red & i liked the sleezy 90's & Early 2000's feel & its a fine little flick really just nothing special or great but like i said an easy watching little Thriller best watched late at night, oh & the beginning with the funky rap music as it started with the films title & the scenes of people dancing, smoking & wondering about a sleezy motel place was hilarious!!! I laughed lots, good 'ol Perlman for taking this job & making it atleast watchable trash.

I'm not sure what happened here, but I'm pretty sure that I just watched my least favorite movie, ever. I enjoy watching Ron Pearlman on screen, however, I do hope he was paid well for this role since the stain of this movie will, forever, be a part of his soul. I also feel sorry for Mr. Bernsen since his career is probably over now. The director (Mark Jones) has outdone himself this time. I'm sure that even HE would have had to have known that this movie would be terrible even before tainting it with his directing skills. I didn't even buy this thing... That's right, I stole it and I feel ashamed that I didn't cut my thumbs off after watching it. I give this movie the rating of TURD and hope that someday, maybe, the behavioral disorder that is Quiet Kill will be forgotten. Let us pray that Ron Pearlman didn't develop down syndrome from this movie.

This movie was a little better when it came out 3 years before this one. A total ripoff of an Angie Everheart movie called 'Heart of Stone' (2001). Almost word for word. What are the odds that I'd rent both of these movies within a week...guess that's what i get for trolling the old Suspense isle at the movie store. It was good to Ron Perlman but he wasn't in it enough. Still it was kind of interesting. It wasn't the worst Corbin Bernsen movie i've seen...by far. But not his best either. It was nice to see Dick Van Patten in a movie again...been a little while. All in all it wasn't a bad movie, it just was a little predictable when you watch the same movie with different actors a week before.

This thriller is pretty terrible, with B-movie lighting, only competent acting and a treatment of cliches, however there are some redemptive touches, the least of which is hearing Dick Van Patten curse.

The narrative centers on Amy Martin, a sexually frustrated California housewife who succumbs to the seduction of tennis teacher Steve (Nicholas Celozzi), apparently blind to his obvious baggage. When Amy rejects Steve after a night of passion, he turns stalker.

Mixing the serial killer genre with the betrayed lover, we get steals from Psycho and Shadow of a Doubt, with the requisite ineffectual police investigation. Suspicion is also placed on Amy's husband Jerry (Corbin Bernsen) since he never wants to sleep with her. There is a double nightmare, and at the end we are given a Brian de Palma-ish twist.

The treatment provides some comedy - "Nail one ba****d" is noted after the police chief yells "We gotta nail this ba****d", "Motherf**ker" is given a clever use, and someone accused of over-using the telephone ends with a cell phone jammed in their mouth. Steve is given a chopsticks musical motif which at one point allows him to play on a toy piano, Amy is very particular about how she is spoken to as her repeated cry is "Don't speak to me like that", and there is plenty of lightning.

Director Mark Jones goes for the standard subjective, expressionist and lurking camera-work, with minimal use of slow motion, and uses glass for silhouette, refraction and distortion. He cross-cuts between two seductions, stages an argument on the beach with screaming seagulls in the background ending with a long tracking shot, and exposes the bare breasts of prostitute victims.