I see some 7 and 8 ratings on this film. Laughable.
Douglas plays against type as a professor who really is mousey, hence an appropriately applied nickname. He is upset that his wife broke up with him. And about being teased when he was a kid 40 years ago!
I saw this when it first came out as a kid, and felt slightly nauseated with it, and just re-watched it recently.
It is not a horror movie, or a particularly good character study. You are treated to 90 minutes of a weirdo upset at the world, sobbing, then angry.
The worst moment is a lonely, nice woman sweetly attends to a wound on him, and for no reason he just slashes her throat. We are treated to some extended moments that she tried to get away while bleeding heavily, only to fall over while realistically crying as she realizes she is dying. All she was doing was trying to help him.
The entire movie is underlit, cold, dark and depressing. Not one of the characters is interesting. In the end, he tries to kiss his shocked ex-wife as the police close in, and the last shot he is just a pile of wrinkled clothes on the floor sobbing. So the audience is deprived of any climax, or any small joy of seeing justice served.
Douglas plays against type as a professor who really is mousey, hence an appropriately applied nickname. He is upset that his wife broke up with him. And about being teased when he was a kid 40 years ago!
I saw this when it first came out as a kid, and felt slightly nauseated with it, and just re-watched it recently.
It is not a horror movie, or a particularly good character study. You are treated to 90 minutes of a weirdo upset at the world, sobbing, then angry.
The worst moment is a lonely, nice woman sweetly attends to a wound on him, and for no reason he just slashes her throat. We are treated to some extended moments that she tried to get away while bleeding heavily, only to fall over while realistically crying as she realizes she is dying. All she was doing was trying to help him.
The entire movie is underlit, cold, dark and depressing. Not one of the characters is interesting. In the end, he tries to kiss his shocked ex-wife as the police close in, and the last shot he is just a pile of wrinkled clothes on the floor sobbing. So the audience is deprived of any climax, or any small joy of seeing justice served.