Whispers

My review was written in December 1990 after watching the movie on Live video cassette.

Direct-to-video release "Whispers" is a superior thriller, with potential as a sleeper success in the home video market. Name of novelist Dean R. Koontz co9uld be a boost.

In a field glutted with predictable would-be chillers, Canadian made pic delivers a truly novel storyline and a very satisfying payoff.

Steve Martin's wife Victoria Tennant is well-cast as a patrician writer who's attacked in the opening scene by Jean Leclerc, a rich guy she met briefly. The police, led by Chris Sarandon and his sexist partner Peter MacNeill, take a lackadaisical attitude until a second attack occurs and Leclerc is killed by Tennant in self-defense.

With plenty of intriguing details and foreshadowing, film evolves into a maybe he' a vampire picture, as Leclerc returns to wreak havoc. Explanation of what's really going on is offbeat and ingenious. In fact, if this film had received a theatrical release, it would probably have been advertised with a "Don't reveal the ending" warning like such classics as "Diabolique".

Often in satin lingerie, Tennant is an ideal lady in distress while Leclerc has the rugged good looks to personify her nemesis. With old-age makeup on, Canadian actress Jackie Burroughs is terrific in a single scene as a former brothel madam recounting the story of Leclerc's boyhood. It's a perfect example of how to inject exposition without boring the audience.

Finale explains the film's title as the chirpings of cockroaches in an extremely gruesome scene.