Disconnected (1984)
5/10
It Had Some Potential
8 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Disconnected is quite a strange movie. It is half slasher film, a quarter crime thriller, and a quarter art film. It is, surprisingly, quite unpredictable, and even a little bit shocking at times. Unfortunately, the movie is brought down drastically by a low budget, making the film sleazy and unrealistic. The film itself kind of brings this feeling of "What the hell just happened?" at the end of each scene, not because of twists in the plot, but because the film is confusing.

After coming home from work one day, Alicia (the beautiful, yet sadly unknown Frances Raines) finds an old man at her apartment, wanting to use the telephone. She lets him use her phone while she leaves the room to make some tea. When she comes back, the man is gone. She begins to receive obscene phone calls, which consist of a loud, electronic voice screaming at her. Meanwhile, Alicia begins dating a man named Franklin (Mark Walter) after her twin sister, Barbara Ann (Also played by Frances Raines), steals her boyfriend, Mike (Carl Koch). Little does Alicia know that Franklin is a serial killer who kills women after he sleeps with them...

Made in 1983 (A golden age for slasher films), Disconnected is probably one of the rarest and most original slasher made for it's time. However, like mentioned before, the budget is so small that the film is basically a porn film without all the sex (Even though there is a ton of T&A in the film). Despite the low budget, the acting is actually not that bad for such a bad movie. Frances Raines is pretty good in her role as a damsel in distress, especially towards the end of the movie, which leads to her nearly having a breakdown from the phone calls. One of the things I didn't entirely like about the movie is why there are scenes that consist of the director of the film (Gorman Bechard) and a policeman who is trying to solve the case (Ben Page). There really isn't much explanation as to what these scenes are completely about. The policeman usually talks more about himself than the actual case, and ends up just disappearing from the film entirely towards the end.

Overall, the idea the writers had wasn't a bad idea at all, the plot isn't bad at all. The actual movie, however, was bad. The budget, the confusing scenes, the music, and the strange artsy scenes made the film bad.
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