glenn_peters

Erika (Hack) is a blind switchboard operator at a remote lodge in Maine which has been sold and is being boarded up in advance of future renovations. The

staff is laid off, including Hack and the elderly caretaker (Langedijk), who are the last occupants as night falls. Nearby, an armoured car robbery has occurred

and the three criminals, led by the violent, psychopathic Ed (Coates) travel to the lodge (which they assume is vacant) to rendezvous with their contact. The caretaker is quickly taken hostage and killed, but Hack's presence goes

undetected as she hides upstairs. When the criminals realise that someone is

still in the building, things escalate as they tracks her through the darkened rooms. Has it's moments of suspense and Coates makes a fine protagonist, but

the film is still B-grade with some marginal acting and dialogue to suit. The plot includes the prerequisite twist at the end. OK if you are a Shelley Hack fan with time to spare.

Mason Chadwick (Nichols) is a successful first–time author who has two problems: he suffers from a serious case of writer's block as he struggles to start his second book, and someone is leaving him nasty, threatening messages. He escapes the city to a remote ocean-front cabin in an effort to clear his mind and restart his writing and soon encounters a lovely, mysterious woman (Harris) who goes for a naked swim off his beach. She re-energises Mason and he fixates on her; however, when the muse returns for another visit, things quickly get kinky as she gets him naked, then whips and eventually ties him to the bed. Is she the one who has been threatening Mason, and what is the reason for her actions?

What follows is amusing, disturbing, and ultimately revealing as the truth behind the character's motives is made apparent. Filmed in British Columbia.

An offbeat story filmed in stark black-and-white, the plot revolves around Tim Midley (Webb), a simple man who works as a pollution monitor at the large factory which dominates the town (its tall smokestacks spew clouds continuously over the valley). He lives at home with his domineering mother (who, like the rest of the townsfolk, smokes like a chimney herself); when he deviates from his routine by getting a more stylish haircut it catches the eye of the grocer's wife (and seriously upsets his mother, who usually cuts his hair). That evening, emissions from the factory overcome her, requiring an emergency trip to the clinic. Freed from his mother's grasp, Tim soon finds himself inviting an exotic dancer to stay at his house until the weekly passenger train arrives (she has decided to escape the rowdy lot who frequent the local bar). Soon she begins to assume the mother's role by moving into her bedroom, wearing her clothes & wigs, and reading her correspondence. After the mother passes away, the grocer's wife gets more aggressive in her pursuit of Tim and he attempts to rid himself of the stripper. Ultimately an interesting viewing experience (you never quite know what to expect next), though certainly strange and not for everyone's taste; the cinematography makes good use of light & shadow to

help define the setting and mood.

Sidenote: the movie appears to have been filmed in British Columbia (one bar patron is wearing a U.B.C. pullover and the mother mails her letters to California with Canadian stamps). The factory is a close match to the large Cominco Ltd. lead-zinc smelter which overshadows the southern Kootenay city of Trail, B.C.