Disconnected

This modest student-made effort, which was shot in 16mm for a mere $40,000 budget, was perhaps something of a baptism of fire from newcomer Gorman Bechard, but also an archetypal example of failed enthusiasm. Like so many first time features, Disconnected suffers from a variety of issues: it’s over-ambitious, and is plagued with an excess of needless padding which often leads to viewer impatience. Bechard, who was co-writer, editor, producer and director, deserves a modicum of kudos here by managing to avoid several clichéd stalk ‘n’ slash elements, most notably his use of several new wave soundtrack elements — including Hunters and Collectors, Haysi Fantayzee, The Excerpts, and in the film’s most effective sequence, Complicated Game by XTC. Interestingly, Excerpts’ member Jon Brion is now a successful producer and film score composer.

Bechard’s film follows Alicia Michaels (Frances Raines; Bad Girls Dormitory), a young brunette who becomes troubled by a series of erratic nuisance calls and strange hallucinations. This follows her gesture of allowing an elderly derelict to use her home telephone; but are the two connected…?

Alicia is also having boyfriend troubles, and begins to suspect that her partner is secretly dating her twin sister, Barbara Ann (Raines in a dual rôle), behind her back. Whilst working a lone shift at the local video boutique, Alicia accepts the offer of a date from a handsome young customer, Franklyn Hayes (Mark Walker), who not only transpires to be charming, but turns out to be deranged killer whose likeable façade has left police baffled after having already killed five local women!

Naturally, Barbara Ann also takes an interest in Alicia’s new boyfriend — but this transgressions against her sibling proves to be her last, as Hayes’ chalks up one more victim. Alicia is saved from the same fate however when she discovers her sister’s body in Hayes’ apartment, managaing to alert the police who arrest Hayes in the nick of time. The distraught and devastated Alicia now takes to the bottle, while the annoying nuisance calls continue, becoming more and more intense…