HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE

US, 1980, 94 minutes, Colour.
Don Scardino, Caitlin O' Heaney, Elizabeth Kemp, Tom Rolfing.
Directed by Armand Mastroianni.

He Knows You're Alone is one of the thrillers in the cycle started by John Carpenter's Halloween. Others include Prom Night and Terror Train. The plot is obvious in its way - a variation on the Halloween theme. However, it is quite effectively done and there are some scary sequences. There is a focus on a heroine pursued by a psychotic murderer. The motivation is suggested: the jilting of a bridegroom and this recurs ironically at the end of the film.

There are the obvious contrivances but they work quite effectively. The star is Don Scardino who appeared in the animal menace thriller Squirm and as the gentle homosexual playwright in Cruising.

1. The appeal of this kind of thriller: the tradition of Psycho, madness, violence, the motivation for murder and poetic justice? The nightmare aspects of these thrillers? Vicarious thrills and anguish? Playing on audience fear, fear of violence and death?

2. The cinema tradition of this kind of thriller - Hitchcock, Psycho? The impact of the opening? The irony of having the initial murder on screen and the discovery that it was a film within a film? The girl in the audience watching and the surprise of her murder in the theatre? Potential for scaring the cinema audience? A satisfactory prologue to this kind of thriller?

3. Colour photography, locations? The importance of editing for pace, scares and shocks? The borrowings from the knife-wielding thrillers of the '70s?

4. The importance of motivation? The policeman and his memory of his fiancee's murder? His obsession with tracking down the killer? The murderer and his being jilted? His pursuit of girls about to be married? The murder of people associated with his victims? Marvin as intervening in Amy's life, her marriage? The parallel for the ending? The neatness of the final effects for the film?

5. How well did the film establish the atmosphere for the first murder and play on that?

6. The focus on Amy as heroine? Phil and his love for her, his friends and the stag party weekend - and their behaviour with the girls they took? Audience antipathy towards him? The contrast with Marvin and his friendliness, devotion to Amy, pursuit of her? His scaring her at times? His work at the morgue? Amy and her girlfriends and their girl talk - in such sequences as the ballet training? The discussion about Joyce and her boyfriend at College? The build-up to Ralph and his making the dress for Any - and the manner of his murder? Joyce and her being terrorised in the bedroom? Nancy and her not going out, the menace in the house and the ugliness of her death? Marvin and his being terrorised? The atmosphere of terror, doubts? The scares in the house, the car pursuit, the finale in the morgue? The terrorising of Amy - her discovery of Nancy, the visit to the morgue? The pursuit by the murderer?

7. The portrayal of the killer - the audience seeing him, his appearances and disappearances - e.g. outside the house, at the carnival? His ability to anticipate Amy's moves, moving around the town? The jilting and his being unhinged - how credible?

8. Marvin as hero - genial, humorous, helpful? His participation in the finale? His being the hero when the obsessive policeman was killed?

9. The atmosphere of the small town - Ralph and his shop, the priest and his friendship with Nancy and the advice, the girls and their talk, Elliott, the way of life the morals of the small town?

10. The portrayal of the killer - enough menace for the audience? The murder of Ralph, of the university lecturer and Joyce, Nancy and the echoes of Psycho and the shower and bath sequences? His prolonged presence throughout the film?

11. An atmosphere of fear with death, knives? How exploitive was the material? How entertaining? The ultimate effect on the audience - how satisfying this kind of thriller, how disturbing?