A
serial killer with a penchant for handcuffing his victims is on the loose. As the detectives on the case look for clues,
a trashy TV host named Mac (Riptide’s Perry King) exploits the murders for
ratings. Meanwhile, a clairvoyant art
student (Elizabeth Kemp) discovers she has the power to draw pictures of the
murders before they happen. She soon
becomes torn between helping the cops with their investigation and appearing on
Mac’s show to help draw out the killer.
The
Killing Hour opens with a string of murder set pieces that feel like they came
out of an Italian giallo. These
sequences are strong and help to grab your attention, but the rest of the movie
is sort of dawdling. It helps that the film
is populated with quirky characters. The
cop (Norman Parker) who vies with King for Kemp’s affections is pretty memorable. When he isn’t searching for the killer, he’s
at the local comedy club polishing up his stand-up act. (He does a lot of lousy impressions
too.) I also enjoyed Kenneth McMillan as
the cranky police captain, who in a funny scene hassles a coroner for a Band-Aid.
The
film is decidedly less entertaining when it becomes a love triangle between Parker,
King, and Kemp. Also, the murders that
occur later in the picture aren’t nearly as stylish or effective as the ones
that kicked things off. However, the draggy
middle section is somewhat redeemed by the decent twist ending, although the
final confrontation with the killer leaves something to be desired.
This
was director Armand Mastroianni’s follow-up to He Knows You’re Alone. You can see him building on and expanding upon
the themes from that film as it feels like grown-up version of a slasher movie
masquerading as cop thriller. (Or vice
versa.) It doesn’t quite work as either,
but the cast is strong enough to keep you watching. Both King and Parker are quite good in the two
leads and the supporting cast is better than you’d expect from this sort of
thing. Kemp is really the only weak link
as her character feels more like a plot device than an actual human being.
Despite
its flaws, The Killing Hour isn’t a bad way to kill some time.
AKA: The Clairvoyant. AKA: The
Killing Kind. AKA: American Killing.
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