My review was written in July 1988 after watching the feature on Prism video cassette.
The made-for-video feature film has its merits as a modest rites-of-passage tale of a young man trying to make it in the big city, but its attempted horror concept is purely shaggy dog.
Stacy Carson gives an engaging performance as Andy, a budding writer from Kansas who heads to the big metropolis (actually Denver) to make his fame and fortune. Pic details his frequent butting up against reality, as people mistreat him and he finds it hard to make ends meet.
He eventually gets a job in a video store and develops a crush on a girl (Shirley Ross) who works there, but the horror plot device intrudes in the form of a stolen VCR containing a tape made by a satanic cult. The tape apparently causes Andy to become a killer at night and to write stories during his sleep; also, events are mystically taped sans camera. Special effects and violent scenes are handled in chintzy fashion.
Besides Carfson, there is an effective, against-the-cliche performance by diminutive Tony Carpenter as an Italianate street hood who drags Andy into his criminal activities.
