Disconnected

source: Disconnected

Disconnected is the perfect word to describe the style of this very bizarre '80s obscurity, which is executed in such an off-kilter manner, with disparate scenes edited together in a seemingly random manner, that it actually proves quite mesmerising. Frances Raines stars as pretty video store clerk Alicia, who begins dating a guy called Franklin (Mark Walker) unaware that he is the serial killer who has been butchering local women. Meanwhile, the poor girl is also having to contend with a series of bizarre, unsettling phone calls that are pushing her to the brink of insanity. While this sounds pretty straightforward, writer/producer/director/editor/tea-boy Gorman Bechard's unique creative approach makes for an unusual viewing experience to say the least. From the get go, this is one weird movie, the first ten minutes or so making very little sense: Alicia helps an old man to her apartment, where he uses her phone and promptly disappears; Alicia and her friends dance to a really bad band; a man entertains a woman at a bar by doing the same magic trick twice; Alicia accuses her boyfriend of sleeping with her twin sister; Franklin visits the video shop despite not owning a player; a cop talks directly to camera about the murders: all of this is edited together in such a strange fashion that it beggars belief (throughout the film, Bechard chucks in random shots of everyday objects for good measure). The film then trundles along in a relatively logical manner until midway, when Franklin is shot dead by the police, after which Alicia's scary phone calls become more and more frequent. No explanation is ever given for these occurrences, the film ending with Alicia smashing her phone (after the earpiece bleeds!?!), and with the reappearance of the old man from the beginning, whose relevance is also a complete mystery. Go into this one expecting to not understand what is happening, and you might just find yourself entertained by its sheer craziness; if not, then there's always the lovely Miss Raines to hold your attention, the actress spending much of the film wandering around in her underwear and taking off her top to provide the obligatory nudity (she also plays Alicia's twin sister Barbara Ann, giving us twice the opportunity to appreciate her charms). 4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

Lovely young Alicia (luscious brunette Frances Raines, who's very good in a challenging dual role) starts receiving bizarre and disturbing phone calls after breaking up with her boyfriend Mike (a solid performance by Carl Koch) who she suspects is cheating on her with her twin sister Barbara Ann). Alicia meets and befriends amiable, but awkward film nerd Franklin (a sound and likeable portrayal by Mark Walker), who alas turns out to be a total psycho with a penchant for carving up nubile ladies. But is Franklin the nutter responsible for those distressing phone calls? Director Gorman Bechard, who also co-wrote the idiosyncratic script with Virginia Gilroy, grounds the compelling premise in a believable workaday reality (the scenes with Alicia at the video rental place she has a job as a clerk at are especially cool and enjoyable), ably crafts an out of whack disorienting atmosphere, and further spruces things up with assorted artsy stylistic flourishes along with nice touches of quirky humor. Moreover, it's the clever way that Bechard plays around with basic slice'n'dice movie conventions that gives this picture its own highly distinctive outre identity. Carmine Capobianco lends amusing support as wisecracking goofball detective Tremaglio. As a tasty bonus, the delectable Mrs. Raines bares her beautiful body several times. The soundtrack of groovy rock songs hits the right-on funky spot. The rough cinematography provides a raw grainy look. The surprise downbeat ending packs a startling punch. Recommended viewing for fans of obscure low-budget oddities.

Pretty much loved this through and through - the blaring pop-punk soundtrack - Francis Raines' believable acting/characterization - the weird off-kilter blend of the banal and truly bizarre - the use of real apartments/clubs/videostore/Waterbury streets in which it all takes place - guaranteeing nothing feels like a "cheap set" despite (and/or because of it) being a low-budget production.. there's great choices being made all over the place here including a plethora of odd-ball, random little details - like shrimp newberg for dinner (!?!) - realizing she lives right across the street from the cemetery - or the ridiculous Groucho Marx statue in her apartment (that takes on a truly creepy demeanor at one point) - make it much richer a watch than expected and not just a by-the-books/let's-make-a-buck exploitationer.. and when it shifts from being (mostly) "I know where this is going" into something darker, more sinister and more somewhat incomprehensible - it manages to become truly frightening and nightmarish.. and that cacophonous noise coming out of her phone is pretty darn unsettling.. all of the reviews I read (positive or negative) pointed out a particular shot as a complaint towards being amateurish - a shot that actually had me almost leaping outta my seat thinking how bold and beautiful a choice it was - and it doesn't feel out of place in a movie that is doing a lot of things its own way.. Director Bechard's Psychos In Love is probably better known - possibly better regarded - than Disconnected - but I found this one to be more enthralling, more particular, more interesting - and less straining to be funny or quirky.. and in the words of the Disconnected nice-guy-but-a-serial-killer, Franklin's trade-mark sign-off that I got a kick out of once I realized he was going to keep saying it: "ok - see ya - bye"..

I thought this movie would be about a psychotic killer that stalks a women through phone calls. I didn't expect the killer to pursue the woman and stalk her at the same time! This is a very strange but oddly entertaining horror film. It doesn't always make sense but it does enough to keep you interested. I give it a 6/10 for being a weird low budget flick!

Disconnected is quite a strange movie. It is half slasher film, a quarter crime thriller, and a quarter art film. It is, surprisingly, quite unpredictable, and even a little bit shocking at times. Unfortunately, the movie is brought down drastically by a low budget, making the film sleazy and unrealistic. The film itself kind of brings this feeling of "What the hell just happened?" at the end of each scene, not because of twists in the plot, but because the film is confusing. After coming home from work one day, Alicia (the beautiful, yet sadly unknown Frances Raines) finds an old man at her apartment, wanting to use the telephone. She lets him use her phone while she leaves the room to make some tea. When she comes back, the man is gone. She begins to receive obscene phone calls, which consist of a loud, electronic voice screaming at her. Meanwhile, Alicia begins dating a man named Franklin (Mark Walter) after her twin sister, Barbara Ann (Also played by Frances Raines), steals her boyfriend, Mike (Carl Koch). Little does Alicia know that Franklin is a serial killer who kills women after he sleeps with them... Made in 1983 (A golden age for slasher films), Disconnected is probably one of the rarest and most original slasher made for it's time. However, like mentioned before, the budget is so small that the film is basically a * film without all the sex (Even though there is a ton of T&A in the film). Despite the low budget, the acting is actually not that bad for such a bad movie. Frances Raines is pretty good in her role as a damsel in distress, especially towards the end of the movie, which leads to her nearly having a breakdown from the phone calls. One of the things I didn't entirely like about the movie is why there are scenes that consist of the director of the film (Gorman Bechard) and a policeman who is trying to solve the case (Ben Page). There really isn't much explanation as to what these scenes are completely about. The policeman usually talks more about himself than the actual case, and ends up just disappearing from the film entirely towards the end. Overall, the idea the writers had wasn't a bad idea at all, the plot isn't bad at all. The actual movie, however, was bad. The budget, the confusing scenes, the music, and the strange artsy scenes made the film bad.

I'd never seen this until the Neon Brainiacs guys picked it one of our movies on the Drive-In Asylum Double Feature. Man - this is something. Directed by Gorman Bechard, this film centers around video store employee Alicia - if you love seeing classic VHS cases, this is assuredly a movie you should watch - who allows an old man into her home to use the phone and abruptly disappear. She tries to relate this story to her boyfriend Mike and her gorgeous twin sister Barbara Ann, who is definitely stealing Mike away from her. She's also being pursued by a strange man named Franklin who comes to her store despite not having a VCR. And when she gets home from the bar that night, she starts a series of prank calls that either have strange voices at the end or have Mike and her sister discussing murdering her and the affair they are having behind her back. At the same time, Detective Tremaglio is investigating a series of crimes and this section of the movie takes the form of what we'd call found footage these days, as we see the actual interrogations. If you've just read those two paragraphs and thought, "Disconnected seems to make no sense," trust me, it lives up to its name. Alicia and Franklin begin a romance - at the same time that he's murdering women and using their dead bodies for sexual pleasure - and then just when it seems like things are about to get resolved, the calls begin all over again, even after she destroys the phone, which starts bleeding. Then the old man leaves her apartment. Shot in Waterbury, Connecticut and featuring a soundtrack with XTC, The Excerpts (the band Jon Brion started in), Haysi Fantayzee and Hunters & Collectors, there really isn't a slasher - there isn't a movie - like this. Of course, Vinegar Syndrome put it out. They made some kind of deal with several dark demons to have the inside track on the rights to forgotten VHS rental movies or something. They're going to all lose their souls, but we get some great movies out of their dark deal.

OK, I don't normally like to trash filmmakers and this director seems to want to make something way beyond his abilities. But seriously anyone who gave this film high marks needs to have their Thorazine doses lowered. This director makes Ed Wood look like a genius. I had never heard of this film (and for good reason). The plot is non-existent. The editing appears to have been done by throwing all the film into a Veggiematic and then randomly splicing it together. There are numerous "wall reaction" shots (seriously) that go on for literally 30 seconds. The sound is terrible. The photography aspires to good but fails miserably. There is one whole sequence that is shot directly into the sun where you can't make out at all what's going on. In a climatic scene (as though it would really exist in this movie) the entire action happens off-screen. This is a train wreck of movie. It just doesn't get worse than this. I can only imagine the director apparently went to the the Xavier Cogat School of film and failed. The only redeeming thing in this is Frances Raines who is great to look at. I am stunned by the IMDb info that this filmmaker went on to make more films. I have to think he must be a rich kid whose parents indulged his every whim.

I enjoy weird low budget horror from the early 80's more than most. Disconnected is weirder and lower budgeted than most early 80's horror. We were meant to be together...Here we have the lovely Alicia for a heroine, cracking up as her identical twin Barbara-Anne screws around with her boyfriends. Tormented by hallucinations and noisy psyche freak-out phone calls (which succeed in being genuinely creepy) she happily sets to it with a geeky new beau. But what does all this have to do with a crazed killer icing his way through the ladies of the area...? While other no-budget horror of the era was content with aping popular slashers of the time, Disconnected has more on its mind. References to older films, notably Shadow of a Doubt (which a character spoils) as well as various posters, and the heroines video rental job (where at one stage she comes across an obnoxious porno patron) give the impression of the film riffing on its own milieu even as it inhabits it, its an approach that can come off awfully obnoxious but here it works because everything is so damned strange that its tough to unpick any meaning. The joy is that the construction is as strange as the plotting, so the strangeness becomes inescapable, it curls out of just about every frame in a captivating web of strange and if you can succumb, well its a good experience. There are strange things that seem a result of ineptitude, like the main character referencing the lateness of the hour while sun clearly shines in her window, or one bit where the brightness through her window makes a scene near impossible to make out. Then there are strange things that seem deliberate and beautiful, like editing that shuns plot rhythm so the audience can never settle into a scene in case it cuts away without discernible point (a pivotal moment of the film takes place off screen in this way), but really likes cutting to weird background objects in scenes where the action is of interest. Occasionally the wacky technique comes up unsettling trumps (a couple of interesting kills) but mostly it's bewildering, and I sure like bewilderment. There are bar scenes that skip dialogue and environmental sound so we can see mouths move but hear only disco pop, there's even a cop talking straight to camera against a white backdrop for some kind of documentary touch. There's more of course, but I could carry on a long way on it and I haven't got all day. It is worth mentioning that the ending explains virtually nothing and summons suspicions of a lost script (or final scenes dreamt up on the fly), which may be a problem for some. Acting-wise this is about what you'd expect. Frances Raines is pretty solid as Alicia/Barbara-Anne, effectively frayed as the former and sexy and combative as the latter. Helps that she's a lovely looking lady as well (and shows her *). Mark Walker is convincingly awkward and strange as new boyfriend Franklin, and to be honest I can barely remember anybody else worth mentioning. Most people are going to hate this one, but I had a grand old time, its mixture of unabashed strangeness and cold sincerity with trash art musing aesthetics place it as one of the most unusual of its era, giving perhaps even Horror House on Highway 5 a run for its acid burn out money. I give it a 7/10, but suspect this is more like a 4 for the majority.

Four stars...for THIS film; all the proof you need to realize the rating system here just can't be taken seriously. "Disconnected" is, for lack of a better description, a movie for people who are truly into film. It's not a movie to simply watch for entertainment, or as a distraction, but rather something to be studied for it's technique, camera angles, experimental ideas that come together to create a totally unique experience. New wave music and 80's fashions are on display, as this intriguing story that centers around a group of people that love movies and music...and sex and murder, unfolds like some nostalgic dream. The fact that the cast, both male and female, is gorgeous, doesn't hurt the production at all. Alicia works at a local video store where she rents big box movies to the locals. The store is decorated with movie posters. When she goes home to a place that is also covered with movies posters, you realize that Alicia is a big movie fan. She has an identical twin sister, Barbara Ann, who is as crazy about her sisters boyfriends as Alicia is about classic movies. One of the men sis decides to steal, is a violent, psychotic serial killer.. But things aren't as they seem, and Alicia has unknowingly invited an evil force into her home, by way of a mysterious old man, who seems homeless, and in need of a phone to call for help. That old man disappears when Alicia turns her back. She assumes he has left her house...but he hasn't. This evil presence manifests itself through the telephone, when Alicia starts being terrorized by a horrible, evil, ear splitting sound on the other end of her phone line. The connection between the serial killer and this evil force isn't explained, but the whole thing is just such a chilling and fascinating mix of horror and oblique mystery. "Disconnected" is sort of a punk rock movie, with it's music and clothing, and those night club scenes. The characters are those hip people who always seem to know the cutting edge bands and the underground music venues. Shot on a tiny budget, the gray, late Autumn scenery creates an atmospheric and unsettling world. Strangely the recent horror film "It Follows" has a very similar aesthetic to this film, and I wonder if the director of that movie is a fan of this obscure gem. The bluray restoration for "Disconnected" is a welcome addition to any fan of cult and avant garde horror, and it already goes for a hefty price on auction sites. And this film is exactly that; a film for movie collectors and serious film buffs. Casual viewers will most likely not comprehend the greatness that is this film..