Paul Michael "Starsky" Glaser is Dr. Peter Ross in this routine psycho-thriller, which is treated as *just* a pay check movie for the majority of the talent assembled. Certainly nobody brings any real passion or creativity to this script. The script is really not so hot, which is too bad considering that some of the writing talent involved included Ronald Shusett ("Alien") and Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster ("Horror of Dracula"). Overall, the film is lacking in suspense and a truly good story, although the idea of mental patients led to their doom through their own phobias *could* have been better realized.
Ross is overseeing a program in which his patients are forced to confront images capturing their anxieties (heights, snakes, etc.). Then, one of them is blown to kingdom come by an explosive device left inside Ross' own apartment, and this leads to a rash of murders as the cops on the case (John Colicos, "The Changeling", and Kenneth Welsh, "The Day After Tomorrow") cast a suspicious eye on everyone in the therapy group.
Glaser is miscast in the lead and not very good, although the presence of Colicos & Welsh, and the appealing Susan Hogan ("The Brood") as Ross' girlfriend does help matters. Colicos and Welsh play "bad cops" who go out of their way to intimidate the nebbishy Henry (David Bolt, "Videodrome"). Co-starring are Patricia Collins ("Lost and Found"), David Eisner and Lisa Langlois from "Happy Birthday to Me", Robert O'Ree (David Cronenbergs' "Rabid"), Alexandra Stewart ("Frantic"), Neil Vipond ("Kings and Desperate Men"), and Marian Waldman (Mrs. Mac in the original "Black Christmas").
All of this is adequately entertaining at best, leading to a supposed "twist" ending that isn't exactly hard to figure out. Even this finale is executed with a certain lack of zeal.
There *are* worse thrillers out there, to be sure, but people may wonder why Huston would spend (some would say waste) his time filming such a script. At least his name in the credits ensures a definite curiosity value.
Five out of 10.
