This Michael Craig VHS feature is one of his better efforts, which might have been a real winner with more attention to the workable story. Even though it begins with plenty of softcore content as the tale is established, Craig soon resorts to the usual mechanical sex scenes, one after the other, spoiling the supernatural mood.
Gere portrays Astra, a temptress/siren who novelist Mike Horner sees dancing nude (with a tempting veil) in the window across from the really shabby apartment he has rented (crummy sets also drag the show down). He's there to finish his novel, but is dogged by constant erotic dreams and distracted by sexy neighbors Cal Jammer and Tiffany Million humping away noisily -the sound heard through the thin walls.
But this movie is about voyeurism and Mike becomes entranced by Astra's siren call to "join us". The mystery is unravalled by his girlfriend Alex Jordan: 20 years ago a whorehouse was in the building across the way, where a crazed guy named Raymond Steckler killed dozens of people before committing suicide. That corny "haunted" explanation is milked by writer L. S. Talbot, who also wrote a role for himself as the landlord who rented Horner his room. In-joke about porn/horror director Ray Dennis Steckler is obvious.
Also obvious is Talbot's minor lift from Stephen King's "The Shining", as one morning Mike discovers a sheet in his typewriter filled with ASTRA typed in caps over and over and over -same sign of madness that author Jack Nicholson encountered.
The ending is predictable and corny, but well-executed by Craig -too bad he didn't try harder for this promising but like Mike's novel, unrealized project.
