Growing up there are familiar faces you recognize from TV and movies that for some reason always seem to be around and yet never fall into the category of major movie stars. For me growing up in the sixties and seventies there were a ton of actors like this. You'd see them on nearly every TV series around and they offered solid performances but for some reason never found fame and fortune in film. For me Michael Callan was one of those actors. I'd first seen him in film, actually, in one of my favorites MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. But after that it was mostly TV.In the mid-eighties I opened a video store and we stocked our shelves with not just the major releases of the time but with side items as well, movies that went straight to video for lack of interest by major studios or produced by smaller companies for just that reason. These films were often good movies but for some reason overlooked. One of those movies I ordered was DOUBLE EXPOSURE. While I didn't recall much of it from that time I did remember it as being a decent film. Watching it again with this new release I found it much better than I'd remembered.Callan stars as Adrian Wilde, a professional photographer for men's magazines that is having some problems. It seems he continues to have dreams of women being violently murdered in various gruesome methods. At the same time a murderer is on the streets where he lives, killing women much in the same way his dreams show. Not only that the women being murdered the same as well.Unsure of whether he is committing the murders or just losing his mind Wilde looks for help. His brother offers all the support that he can. A stunt coordinator who lost and arm and a leg on the job, he seems bitter but more positive than Wilde. He also gets help from his psychiatrist Dr. Curtis (Seymore Cassel) as well as medication. But the dreams persist as do the murders.Along the way Wilde meets Mindy (Joanna Pettet) and the two begin seeing one another. The fall in love and eventually into bed as well. Wilde is drawn to Mindy and finds her to be one of the only women in his life he truly loves. But with the fear that he may be killing women without knowing it has him take on a guarded approach to her as well. Fearful of losing his mind the truth has to be found.The movie is a nice mixture of slasher film that was popular at the time and giallo which was just being discovered by American audiences around that same period. The killer's point of view seen in many giallo films is there as is the questioning of the innocence of the main character who wants to find the killer. It works well and plays out smoothly by the end of the film.Everyone involved does a fantastic job. There isn't a bad performance here. The cinematography for a low budget film is exceptional. And as with all of the other films they've been putting out Vinegar Syndrome has outdone themselves here with this one offering a restored 2k version from 35mm original camera negative.Extras? Once again Vinegar Syndrome outdoes themselves. They include: a commentary track with Director William Byron Hillman; "Exposing Double Exposure" Interview with Cinematographer R. Michael Stringer; Staying on Task" Interview with Script Supervisor Sally Stringer; an isolated score by Composer Jack Goga; the original theatrical trailer; promotional still gallery; and reversible cover artwork by Derek Gabryszak. All for less than most special editions like this would costs.For slasher fans, fans of 80s movies and fans of giallo this is a movie worth adding to your collection. Not only will you find an enjoyable movie in the genre to watch but you'll get it in the best format possible with the most extras found on the movie. Along with companies like Arrow, Twilight Time and Shout Factory, Vinegar Syndrome is showing that they are a company to be reckoned with when it comes to titles like these. And for fans that's a good thing.

The Plot.A photographer for a men's magazine is disturbed by a recurring dream he has that he is killing his models by various gruesome means. Then he discovers that his city is being terrorized by a slasher who is stalking and murdering women on the streets. He begins to suspect that he may actually be the killer.It's a bad but watchable movie. Lots of plot hole and silliness to contend with.About 15 minutes into the movie you know who the killer is.There a pool scene with a very thin and super hot Jeanie Keogh who what the fat OC Real Housewife. Wow. No wonder her husband lost interest.She was some freaking hot chick in her prime. What the heck happened?Movie gets its R rating because there is some female full frontal. They didn't groom back then! Yuck.Sally Kirkland was a hooker in this film. She hit the wall 25 years ago!Cleavon Little was in his quick decent to obscurity in a cameo.The movie is silly, but watchable.

A good old early eighties slasher film with a distinct giallo flavour to it, Double Exposure does what it sets out to do, but adds a little character to the proceedings too. Adrian Wilde is a photographer who suffers from bad dreams, especially those where he's killing the models who work with him. His brother, a stunt man whose career cost him an arm and a leg (literally), offers support but seems to be increasingly bitter and angry at the world. Wilde meets a girl called Misty, but his dreams and failing grip on reality threaten the relationship, and when the models start turning up dead in real life, Wilde reckons he's got a big problem on his hands. The giallo side of things rears it's head as it become apparent that the true life killer is a photographer, but in the giallo style, just about every male character wields a camera at some point, from Wilde and his brother, the local barman, the psychiatrist and a gay colleague of Wilde's. Some of the killings seemingly take place in Wilde's dreams, and although the gore level is low the nasty level is quite high, especially when one model has her head forced into a bin bag that contains a snake. So, is Wilde a nutter or is there some other utter nutter muttering in the background (with a camera shutter covered in butter)? I'll leave that up to you to find out, but I enjoyed this film, although I'm kind of getting fed up watching middle aged men getting it on with the chicks, like.

First time I saw this film many years ago, I thought it was a pretty fair slasher film, but on second recent viewing, it's waned a bit - while Callan is okay as the central character, a men's magazine photographer suffering from bizarre and murderous apparent dreams, Jim Stacy as his knock-about brother, maimed in an auto-accident, is perhaps the film's highlight. The switch in dominance between Callan and Stacy's characters is interesting to see evolve, but it's a transition that's made difficult to follow due to the film's erratic narrative. Joanna Pettet gets undressed and even has a "When Harry Met Sally" moment with Callan in the back of his camper-van, as the only woman with whom Callan's emotionally fragile character can consummate.The violence is pretty extreme at times, with sado-masochistic homicide the flavour of the early eighties slasher film getting 'double exposure' here, full-frontal female nudity, mud-wrestling, even Cleavon Little in a minor supporting role as a cranky police chief. It's eclectic. The cast has surprising depth with producer Callan managing to assemble an enviable cast that includes big Bob Tessier as a bar manager, Pamela Hensley as a ball-breaking detective, Seymour Cassel as Callan's shrink, Misty Rowe as Stacy's squeeze, Sally Kirkland as a voluptuous hooker and blink-and-you'll-miss Terry Moore in a flashback dream sequence.Lairy wardrobe, colourful dialogue, pulsating synthesisers and tricky cinematographic effects momentarily distract you, but the narrative is so inconsistent and the editing (or perhaps scene sequence and continuity) so incoherent at times, that it never maintains any momentum. Highly stylised, the bold concepts and loud motifs (not to mention the substantial cast) should have made for a better movie all things considered, and yet, it's still no Brian DePalma psycho-thriller.