He Knows You're Alone [Blu-ray]

Overview

In this fairly frightening slasher-horror film, sweet young Amy Jensen (Caitlin O'Heaney) and her friends decide to all get married together. Unfortunately, all the guys go on vacation, leaving the women at the mercy of a psychotic killer (Tom Rolfing) who goes after brides with a big knife. Amy must seek help from an obsessed cop (Lewis Arlt) and her nerdy friend (Don Scardino) who works at a morgue. The familiar supporting cast includes Tom Hanks in his big-screen debut, and '80s standbys Russell Todd, Paul Gleason, and Dana Barron. This one has some scary moments despite the clichéd plot and the obligatory severed head in a fishbowl, especially a stalking scene in a tailor's shop and the tense morgue chase at the end. The most memorable sequence, involving a murder at a movie theater, was later restaged almost shot-by-shot in Scream 2 (1997).

Product Details

Release Date:	05/18/2021
UPC:	0826663217551
Original Release:	1980
Source:	Shout Factory
Language:	English
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	20,146

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Don Scardino	Marvin
Caitlin O'Heaney	Amy Jensen
Elizabeth Kemp	Nancy
Tom Rolfing	Killer
Lewis Arlt	Gamble
Patsy Pease	Joyce
James Rebhorn	Professor
Tom Hanks	Elliot
Dana Barron	Diana
Joseph Leon	Ralph the Tailor
Paul Gleason	Daley
James Carroll	Phil
Brian Byers	Bernie
Curtis Hostetter	Tommy
Robin Lamont	Ruthie
Robin Tilghman	Marie
Peter Gumeny	Thompson
John Bottoms	Fr. McKenna
Debbie Novak	Girl in Car
Patricia Benson	Guest at Party
Russell Todd	Boy in Car
Dorian Lopinto	Gamble's Bride
Jamie Haskins	Ice Cream Vendor
Barbara Quinn	Dance Teacher
Laurie Faso	Coroner's Assistant
Anthony Shaw	Detective
Ron Englehardt	Detective
Michael Fiorillo	Detective
Steve James	Young Man

Technical Credits

Joseph Beruh	Executive Producer
Robert Di Milia	Producer
Edgar Lansbury	Executive Producer
George Manasse	Producer
Armand Mastroianni	Director
Nan Pearlman	Producer

Editorial Reviews

If this isn't a Halloween rip-off, then what is? While He Knows You're Alone is a fairly successful exercise in early slasher filmmaking, it also owes a great deal of debt to John Carpenter's seminal classic. From its synth score to the lone shots of the killer stalking his suburban teen victims out in the daylight, there's far too much familiar territory here to distinguish it from the shockers of its time. Then again, the fright-fests of 1980 don't have the honor of having Tom Hanks in his first big-screen appearance either, thus supplying the film with the most press throughout the years. The killer himself is very much in the Slumber Party Massacre mold, using the white middle-aged killer motif that ends up being a bit more unsettling than many of the over-the-top masked killers that followed suit.

All Movie Guide - Jeremy Wheeler