Rouge comme la Mort

Amy, a college psych student comes across a red garment in a chest she just bought to use in a play. She keeps it and makes it into a party dress. However the first time she puts it on, it influences her and changes the way she acts. By bringing out her darker side. Soon everyone seems to want a piece of this garment. From her college professor she finds out it's an Aztec cloak that was used in sacrificial ceremonies.

I'll go to say that I never even heard of this Tobe Hooper supernatural thriller opus. Striking and strange, but the one-idea premise and languidly cut n' dry script doesn't really build upon its interesting background and teetering imagination enough. Maybe this is due to its restrictions of being a cheaply produced made-for-TV production, but I seem to doubt it as it could be associated to material being adapted from a short story. On the other hand it's probably best to not really delve deep into it though, because of uneven logic and it borderlines on tacky. The plot does have a 'Cinderella' touch to it, and seems to have that everything, but the kitchen sink drama quality to it. All the characters that come and go are stereotypically painted, but the performers were better than the material. The gorgeously fixating Madchen Amick confidently grows from her sweet performance as Amy. Anthony Perkins keeps it professional and likes to just pop up randomly as the suspicious college professor. Dee Wallace Stone is great in her minor role that reeks of attitude. R. Lee Ermey in a small role engages with his sombre detective. Corey Parker makes for a likable love-interest for Amick. Also appearing are Natalie Schaffer, William Berger and Jack McGee.

You can really see Hooper's able illustrative style shining through this work. He subtly mixes the eerie violence together with sexual seductiveness. Sure it can become silly and lousy with its jolts, but still it stays dangerously ominous and tautly handled with its imagery. It might not have the biting flair of some his previous early work ('The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'Eaten Alive' and 'The Funhouse') though. He milks it out slowly, letting the atmosphere unfold and the possessive force evolve. For a TV production the film is smoothly shot, very well lit and effectively scored.

A modest TV feature, which has some obvious and stodgy patterns.

The Animism professor at Tiverton College finds a sacrificial cloak hidden in an ancient Aztec altar and goes on a homicidal rampage before committing suicide. Soon after, a campus co-ed (TWIN PEAKS' Madchen Amick) buys the ceremonial cloth at an estate sale and turns it into a ravishing red cocktail dress that removes sexual inhibition and triggers another murder wave before being stolen from the morgue...

The intriguing premise was adapted from a short story by Cornell Woolrich and the movie has horror director Tobe Hooper as an asset but, all the same, it's rather tame and doesn't reely warrant an R rating. Anthony Perkins guest-stars as a quirky professor with an inordinate interest in the apparently inexplicable and Natalie Shafer ("Lovey" on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND) pops up as a wheelchair-bound mute a la William Castle's HOMICIDAL. Not bad, I suppose, but it could have been more with added gore.

Billy Ocean sung "Red Light Spells Danger" in the late 70s already, but if he had seen this movie in 1990, I'm sure he would have altered the title slightly and re-released his catchy dance hit!

"I'm Dangerous Tonight" unites four of my favorite people in the horror/cult industry. We have director Tobe Hooper (although this is one of his more inconspicuous efforts), the iconic Anthony 'Norman Bates' Perkins (but regrettably in a rather small role), Dee Wallace-Stone (in a marvelously psychotic role), and the astoundingly beautiful Mädchen Amick (at the peak of her success in between the two seasons of "Twin Peaks").

The film can be considered unremarkable and mediocre overall, but nevertheless it's engaging and fun from start to end thanks to the great cast, simple but effective plot, and a few grisly moments. The plot revolves around an ancient red cloak that was worn by evil Aztec Priests during their sacrifice rituals. Psychology student Amy O'Neill processes the cloak into a sexy prom dress that everyone in her surrounding wants to wear. The dress, however, brings the vilest and most sadistic fantasies of its carrier to the surface.

Definitely a decent late 80s/early 90s made-for-television thriller, made slightly more intriguing by the insertion of two unusual time lapses. After a nasty car accident, the dress mysteriously vanishes but reappears on the lovely shoulders of Dee Wallace-Stone, and it takes a while before we figure out how it got from A to B. During the finale as well, there's a bizarre moment when Amy seems defeated but then she comfortably wakes up in her bed with the dress. The explanation for that is also rather cuckoo. I don't know if these lapses were intentional or due to sequences getting cut, but it helps to keep you alert in a film that is unfortunately (because a TV-movie) rather low on graphic violence and bloody make-up effects.

I'm Dangerous Tonight is a functional piece of entertainment. Being a made for TV movie it is kind of bland and toothless. The blurb on the back on the case made me think it would primarily involve the Madchen Amick possessed by the evil dress for the course of the movie, sort of slowly turning her evil, kind of like Christine but with a dress instead of car. It doesn't quite work like that with the dress being worn or possessed by various different people throughout the film and turning evil to varying extents. The central premise of a dress, or a cloth that eventually gets turned into a dress, that turns those who wear it evil is one of those silly concepts that could provide cheesy entertainment and would require some really good scripting to work as a genuinely good film. I'm Dangerous Tonight does kind of try but ultimately does not succeed. There is some claptrap that is never really explored about inanimate objects being mystical focuses of belief and power, which is thrown in as an explanation for the Aztec cloak/dresses' power, which is quite forgettable. It does seem an enormous coincidence that the girl who comes into possession of the dress (No pun intended) just happens to be studying this very esoteric and specialised topic as part of her college course. There is also some stuff about the dress affecting different people in different ways, depending of their existing strength of character and their psychology etc. It isn't delved into very much, other than as an explanation as to why some people seem to turn more evil than others, but it is a fairly interesting plot idea. As it is the concept of a random object or artifact which turns people around it evil or makes weird stuff happen has been done a few times by now- I'm looking in your direction Amityville sequels.

What we do get on screen is okay but nothing to write home about. Tobe 'One Trick Pony' Hooper rattles through the proceedings with a predictable lack of flair. Madchen Amick is easy to watch, especially in the red dress, and Anthony Perkins provides the best entertainment in the movie with his giggle inducing scenery chewing. His histrionics and overacting are b-movie gold. By this point in this sad and sagging career it looks like he was just having fun. R. Lee Ermey has a small but amusing role as a gruff detective. There are quite a few plot contrivances and some scenes toward the end which are very choppily handled. There is one part where our heroine wakes up after being rendered unconscious to find the situation has changed in a way that doesn't make in sense in terms of plot logic or pacing. There is also a lame twist ending that everyone will see coming from miles away.

Bland, as one would expect for a made for TV movie but there is enough to at least hold your interest.

Known mainly for "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Poltergeist", Tobe Hooper also directed this TV movie about an Aztec cloak that brings out the wearer's evil side. Kinda far-fetched, but it's pretty entertaining.

However, there is something REALLY surprising about "I'm Dangerous Tonight". It co-stars Anthony Perkins (aka Norman Bates in "Psycho"), Natalie Schafer (aka Lovey Howell on "Gilligan's Island"), R. Lee Ermey (aka Sgt. Hartman in "Full Metal Jacket") and Dee Wallace-Stone (aka the mom in "E.T."). Yes, this absurd horror flick has a man who worked with Alfred Hitchcock, a man who worked with Stanley Kubrick, and a woman who worked with Steven Spielberg. As for the other co-star, Mrs. Howell plays the infirm grandmother, and looks how Norman Bates's mother must've looked...while co-starring WITH Norman Bates (along with Sgt. Hartman and E.T.'s mom)! Double brain freeze!

Anyway, the rest of the movie didn't really catch my attention. Mädchen Amick and Corey Parker are OK, but the mind-blowing supporting cast was what really caught my eye. My possible final statements are:

*So yes, a boy's best friend IS his mother.

*In conclusion, this ain't no three-hour tour!

*So yes, what IS your major malfunction?

*In conclusion, E.T. ain't phoning home!