Double Exposure

source: Double Exposure

Growing up there are familiar faces you recognize from TV and movies that for some reason always seem to be around and yet never fall into the category of major movie stars. For me growing up in the sixties and seventies there were a ton of actors like this. You'd see them on nearly every TV series around and they offered solid performances but for some reason never found fame and fortune in film. For me Michael Callan was one of those actors. I'd first seen him in film, actually, in one of my favorites MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. But after that it was mostly TV. In the mid-eighties I opened a video store and we stocked our shelves with not just the major releases of the time but with side items as well, movies that went straight to video for lack of interest by major studios or produced by smaller companies for just that reason. These films were often good movies but for some reason overlooked. One of those movies I ordered was DOUBLE EXPOSURE. While I didn't recall much of it from that time I did remember it as being a decent film. Watching it again with this new release I found it much better than I'd remembered. Callan stars as Adrian Wilde, a professional photographer for men's magazines that is having some problems. It seems he continues to have dreams of women being violently murdered in various gruesome methods. At the same time a murderer is on the streets where he lives, killing women much in the same way his dreams show. Not only that the women being murdered the same as well. Unsure of whether he is committing the murders or just losing his mind Wilde looks for help. His brother offers all the support that he can. A stunt coordinator who lost and arm and a leg on the job, he seems bitter but more positive than Wilde. He also gets help from his psychiatrist Dr. Curtis (Seymore Cassel) as well as medication. But the dreams persist as do the murders. Along the way Wilde meets Mindy (Joanna Pettet) and the two begin seeing one another. The fall in love and eventually into bed as well. Wilde is drawn to Mindy and finds her to be one of the only women in his life he truly loves. But with the fear that he may be killing women without knowing it has him take on a guarded approach to her as well. Fearful of losing his mind the truth has to be found. The movie is a nice mixture of slasher film that was popular at the time and giallo which was just being discovered by American audiences around that same period. The killer's point of view seen in many giallo films is there as is the questioning of the innocence of the main character who wants to find the killer. It works well and plays out smoothly by the end of the film. Everyone involved does a fantastic job. There isn't a bad performance here. The cinematography for a low budget film is exceptional. And as with all of the other films they've been putting out Vinegar Syndrome has outdone themselves here with this one offering a restored 2k version from 35mm original camera negative. Extras? Once again Vinegar Syndrome outdoes themselves. They include: a commentary track with Director William Byron Hillman; "Exposing Double Exposure" Interview with Cinematographer R. Michael Stringer; Staying on Task" Interview with Script Supervisor Sally Stringer; an isolated score by Composer Jack Goga; the original theatrical trailer; promotional still gallery; and reversible cover artwork by Derek Gabryszak. All for less than most special editions like this would costs. For slasher fans, fans of 80s movies and fans of giallo this is a movie worth adding to your collection. Not only will you find an enjoyable movie in the genre to watch but you'll get it in the best format possible with the most extras found on the movie. Along with companies like Arrow, Twilight Time and Shout Factory, Vinegar Syndrome is showing that they are a company to be reckoned with when it comes to titles like these. And for fans that's a good thing.

A serial killer who likes to photograph the bodies of his victims stabs a streetwalker through the neck with an icepick, only to discover that his latest target is a male undercover cop in drag. Sergeants Fontain (Pamela Hensley) and Buckhold (David Young) arrive on the scene moments later to find that the killer has fled and that they are too late to save the life of their colleague. So begins this lurid early '80s psychological thriller that is totally preposterous, yet which offers up so much silliness, sex and slasher-style violence that I found it impossible not to enjoy. As the police continue their investigation, fashion photographer Adrian Wilde (Michael Callan) becomes their chief suspect: you see, he's been visiting his shrink a lot lately, suffering from dreams in which he brutally murders his models using modus operandi identical to those in the real-life slayings. As the dreams and murders continue, Adrian himself begins to wonder if he is the killer, but there are several more camera-carrying suspects for the viewer to choose from, including psychiatrist Frank Curtis (Seymour Cassel), bald bartender Alec (Robert Tessier), and even Adrian's own brother, stuntman B.J. Wilde (James Stacy), who has only only one arm and one leg. Intertwined with this murder storyline is a soap-opera style romance between Adrian and beautiful blonde Mindy Jordache (Joanna Pettet) which makes Double Exposure feel like a TV movie at times, a fact not helped by a cast better known for acting on the small screen. As a result, the sex and violence that punctuates the film only seems all the more exploitative: it's a bit like watching an episode of Hart to Hart, but with full frontal female nudity and graphic killings (come to think of it, Stephanie Powers in the buff would have made that series sooooo much better). The film's most entertaining moments occur during Adrian's dreams, in which the photographer, wild eyed and ranting, coaxes a beauty into a swimming pool before drowning her, kills another woman by throwing a rattlesnake into a bin liner and popping it over her head, strangles a hooker who flaunts her wares, and slashes a naked chick across the throat and breasts. Sexy highlights include Adrian romping with a babe called April (the same woman he slashes in his dream), the lucky photographer getting it on with Mindy (who moans her appreciation), and B.J. Wilde getting to grips with a female mud wrestler. The film eventually reveals the killer to be none other than B.J., who is even more emotionally troubled than his brother, the guy having never got his head round the idea that his mother was a * (and probably a little bit upset over being cursed with such a silly name). It is never adequately explained how a bloke with only half his limbs could be such a successful murderer (strangling that hooker would have been especially hard) or, for that matter, how he manages to tie up Adrian in the supremely daft denouement. 7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

No matter how intriguing the mystery, how revolting the crime, seems as if films like this always end up the same to where you really don't care who ends up being the culprit because all the trippe's are the same. There's a series of murders of models and prostitutes, and photographer Michael Tallon is having a dream that he is the culprit. He's been arguing Joanna Pettet whom he ends up getting to date him, and it seems obvious that she'll become an intended target. No matter how fast paced or action packed or horror flick, these films are nothing more than Hi-Tech trash, especially those released to the theater like this was for a brief run, coming and going so quickly that it's nearly forgotten other than on cheap DVD labels. One scene of a truly sleazy prostitute being strangled in an alley is almost pornographic in nature as she describes what she'll do for how much, wearing garish makeup and looking like Diane Ladd as Flo in "Alice doesn't live here Anymore" without the buffoint. I didn't find any of the characters really all that interesting and the atmosphere just proves how shallow a good portion of the photography/modeling industry has become. But the bottom line overall is that I really just didn't care. I had no interest in exposing myself to the cliches and the unethical characters and predictable twists that cheap flicks like this always utilize, barely just out of the class of soft core adult videos.

A photographer Adrian Wilde (Michael Callan) doesn't know of he is dreaming or awake when people are being killed while he is taking pictures. In the meanwhile he's the 'stud' of them all and all the ladies are falling for him. But in the town girls, some he photographed, are actually being murdered. Of course the question Adrian asks is if he's the killer. More a thriller then a horror this is rather low on the killings. The first * being killed looked a bit tame. There's a bit of nudity here and there and even some full frontal but I was never in full force with this flick. I just couldn't care what happened, the killings I did care but Adrian himself I just couldn't care. The biggest name here is Seymour Cassel as Dr. Frank Curtis. For a slasher made in the heydays of horror and slashers this is extremely low on all aspects to be called a horror. It has more a television film look. Still unavailable on DVD or Blu Ray, only on VHS. It's only the fact that Adrian is a playboy that makes this a failure. All girls want him and that makes it a bit unbelievable. Almost no blood or gore to see in a period when the red stuff and gore were the big thing. Gore 0/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Reportedly, Crown International studios original plan for this pick-up was to give it a fairly wide release, but after a bad reaction from audiences during previews, they ended up dumping it in just a few theaters before it went to video. Watching the movie, one has to wonder why the studio heads couldn't see for themselves they had an unsuccessful movie on their hands before showing it to audiences. To be fair, it's not a terrible movie. While low budget, it never looks cheap, being well shot. It's also acceptably acted. However, it's the script that sinks this movie. The story is very slow-moving. It takes forever for the movie to set up the situation, and once that happens it continues at a crawl until the end. Also, the ending does not really explain the haunting murder dreams the hero was having throughout the movie. I guess the movie could have been a lot worse, but that's hardly a ringing endorsement.

I had to scan the credits of this movie for surnames beginning and/or ending in vowels because I'd swear it was an Italian giallo. All the signs are there: gratuitous violence and nudity, out-of-control cinematography, a completely ridiculous plot. Michael Callan is a photographer who has incredibly cinematic dreams where he murders his beautiful, half-naked models. When his beautiful, half-naked models start being murdered in real life, both the police and his psychiatrist (Seymour Cassel) begin to suspect that he is the killer. But is it him or is it his creepy brother who is missing both an arm and leg (but still gets to date former "Hee Haw" honey Misty Rowe and mud wrestle Playmate-to-be Kathy Shower)? If you've seen even one of these kind of movies, you already know the answer. Still if you love Italian giallos and 70's and 80's low-budget American exploitation flicks (a select group of people, I know) you'll be in drunken, late-night TV-watching heaven with this one.

This is a much more solid B-movie production that I was expecting. It's kind of an American giallo/slasher combined with some De Palma flare in the storytelling department and has some very surprisingly authentic performances, with a naturalistic and sleazy atmosphere that still permeates from the 70s. It has a very good pace and some surprising set pieces and deserves a much better recognition, like a kind of "Peeping Tom" on coke.

Double Exposure (1983) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Adrian Wilde (Michael Callan) is a photographer who is seeing a shrink because he's having very bad nightmares about murdering the women he takes photos of. He tries to strike up a relationship with Mindy (Joanna Pettet) but before long he begins to fear that his dreams are real. DOUBLE EXPOSURE isn't the most successful film that you're going to watch but there are enough good moments in it to make it worth watching. The best way to describe the film is saying it's a cross between the type of thriller that Brian DePalma would make but with the sleaze factor of a slasher. The two go well together and we get some nice performance that help make the film a bit better than it probably deserves to be. As far as the mystery goes, for the most part we're given some suspects and we're made to wait until the very end for the killer to be revealed. I thought the mystery aspect worked quite well, although there are some rather silly moments involving a couple cops working the case. The two of them pretty much just show up every so often whenever the film needs to remind the viewer that the murders are being investigated. What really helps the film is the fact that Callan is so good in the lead role of the troubled man who thinks he might be more damaged that he originally thought. Pettet and James Stacy both add nice support. The film works as a slasher and especially during the scenes where we see the killer talking various women including prostitutes. There's a nice sequence where we see a hooker lure the killer down an alleyway. Director William Bryan Hillman makes the film look quite good but a little more energy and a bit more suspense certainly would have helped things. As it stands, DOUBLE EXPOSURE certainly isn't a masterpiece but it's a mildly entertaining film.

Adrian (Michael Callan) is a troubled photographer. He dreams about people dying and they actually die the way he dreamed it, go figure. He lives in a large travel trailer, drives a 928 Porsche, wears his shirts open, and has some of the worse pick-up lines ever...except for the ones used by his brother (James Stacy) who is missing an arm and a leg. There are two cops tracking the killer (Pamela Hensley, David Young) who work for the proverbial angry black chief (Cleavon Little). The cast includes minor roles by Misty Rowe and Victoria Jackson before she discovered Big Macs. The film overall is poorly scripted and acted. The hair styles and automobiles did bring back some memories. Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Joanna Pettet from Casino Royale, Sally Kirkland of General Hospital, Jeana Keough a ZZ Top Video girl, Debbie Zipp)