Lovely young Alicia (luscious brunette Frances Raines, who's very good in a challenging dual role) starts receiving bizarre and disturbing phone calls after breaking up with her boyfriend Mike (a solid performance by Carl Koch) who she suspects is cheating on her with her twin sister Barbara Ann). Alicia meets and befriends amiable, but awkward film nerd Franklin (a sound and likeable portrayal by Mark Walker), who alas turns out to be a total psycho with a penchant for carving up nubile ladies. But is Franklin the nutter responsible for those distressing phone calls? Director Gorman Bechard, who also co-wrote the idiosyncratic script with Virginia Gilroy, grounds the compelling premise in a believable workaday reality (the scenes with Alicia at the video rental place she has a job as a clerk at are especially cool and enjoyable), ably crafts an out of whack disorienting atmosphere, and further spruces things up with assorted artsy stylistic flourishes along with nice touches of quirky humor. Moreover, it's the clever way that Bechard plays around with basic slice'n'dice movie conventions that gives this picture its own highly distinctive outre identity. Carmine Capobianco lends amusing support as wisecracking goofball detective Tremaglio. As a tasty bonus, the delectable Mrs. Raines bares her beautiful body several times. The soundtrack of groovy rock songs hits the right-on funky spot. The rough cinematography provides a raw grainy look. The surprise downbeat ending packs a startling punch. Recommended viewing for fans of obscure low-budget oddities.

Disconnected (2017) * 1/2 (out of 4)Women are being brutally murdered by a psychopath. At the same time, video store worker Alicia (Frances Raines) begins dating a new guy but she's constantly worried that her slut sister Barbara Ann (also played by Raines) might be trying to do something wrong.Gorman Bechard made DISCONNECTED before doing PSYCHOS IN LOVE and I must say that the title of this movie perfectly summed up my feelings on it. I really did feel disconnected throughout the entire film and I had a really hard time trying to connect with anything going on. To say the film struggled to hold my attention would be an understatement. This film has quite a bit going on with it as you've got the entire story dealing with the sisters. You've also got the story dealing with the good sister and her new relationship. You've also got a detective (Carmine Capobianco) talking directly to the camera as he tries to solve the killings. All of this is going on in a film that runs 84-minutes and to say it's very fair to say that the overall movie is very uneven and it seems like they weren't quite sure how to handle everything.For the most part the performances are good enough for this type of film. There's some sleaze elements with some nudity and some mildly gory scenes but consider this is a slasher film, neither are really up there among the genre's more memorable moments. With that said, fans of the director might want to check this out but others can certainly stay clear of it. I will add that it was fun seeing a video store like they used to be.

I enjoy weird low budget horror from the early 80's more than most. Disconnected is weirder and lower budgeted than most early 80's horror. We were meant to be together...Here we have the lovely Alicia for a heroine, cracking up as her identical twin Barbara-Anne screws around with her boyfriends. Tormented by hallucinations and noisy psyche freak-out phone calls (which succeed in being genuinely creepy) she happily sets to it with a geeky new beau. But what does all this have to do with a crazed killer icing his way through the ladies of the area...? While other no-budget horror of the era was content with aping popular slashers of the time, Disconnected has more on its mind. References to older films, notably Shadow of a Doubt (which a character spoils) as well as various posters, and the heroines video rental job (where at one stage she comes across an obnoxious porno patron) give the impression of the film riffing on its own milieu even as it inhabits it, its an approach that can come off awfully obnoxious but here it works because everything is so damned strange that its tough to unpick any meaning. The joy is that the construction is as strange as the plotting, so the strangeness becomes inescapable, it curls out of just about every frame in a captivating web of strange and if you can succumb, well its a good experience. There are strange things that seem a result of ineptitude, like the main character referencing the lateness of the hour while sun clearly shines in her window, or one bit where the brightness through her window makes a scene near impossible to make out. Then there are strange things that seem deliberate and beautiful, like editing that shuns plot rhythm so the audience can never settle into a scene in case it cuts away without discernible point (a pivotal moment of the film takes place off screen in this way), but really likes cutting to weird background objects in scenes where the action is of interest. Occasionally the wacky technique comes up unsettling trumps (a couple of interesting kills) but mostly it's bewildering, and I sure like bewilderment. There are bar scenes that skip dialogue and environmental sound so we can see mouths move but hear only disco pop, there's even a cop talking straight to camera against a white backdrop for some kind of documentary touch. There's more of course, but I could carry on a long way on it and I haven't got all day. It is worth mentioning that the ending explains virtually nothing and summons suspicions of a lost script (or final scenes dreamt up on the fly), which may be a problem for some. Acting-wise this is about what you'd expect. Frances Raines is pretty solid as Alicia/Barbara-Anne, effectively frayed as the former and sexy and combative as the latter. Helps that she's a lovely looking lady as well (and shows her boobs). Mark Walker is convincingly awkward and strange as new boyfriend Franklin, and to be honest I can barely remember anybody else worth mentioning. Most people are going to hate this one, but I had a grand old time, its mixture of unabashed strangeness and cold sincerity with trash art musing aesthetics place it as one of the most unusual of its era, giving perhaps even Horror House on Highway 5 a run for its acid burn out money. I give it a 7/10, but suspect this is more like a 4 for the majority.

I'd like somebody to explain exactly how this movie was made. It starts as a (bad) psychokiller where basically nothing makes sense : it's just one scene after another without reason nor logic. Then we witness the killer's demise (do we ? I'm not even sure) and then, the heroine suddenly gets persecuted by her phone in a flood of weird, "arty" shots. The movie ends because they ran out of time, or somebody yelled "cut !", or everybody fell asleep, I still don't know?. In a way, it is a movie to be experienced : your latest dream had more logic in it than this attempt. What were they on ? Who made this ? Who released this ? What will become of the world ? What time is it ? What are you reading ?