Thriller-author Frank De Felitta expanded Joyce Selznick's story and also directed this low-budget, warmed-over Hitchcock wannabe, its plot originally meant for a TV series. Hysterical, virginal 26-year-old woman (Sharon Stone, pre-"Basic Instinct"), in therapy for her frigidity, is attacked in her apartment elevator by a man with a red beard. Her neighbor, a polite television actor who wears suits, comes to her aid and finds her attractive, but his handicapped twin brother harbors a psychotic side. This is merely the first-half of the plot. The second-half involving Stone in a locked room with no exit is practically a different movie altogether. Quite a comedown for De Felitta, who displays no talent whatsoever for character development or in mounting sequences for suspense--only in stirring his plot with red herrings. This must have been an embarrassment for budding starlet Stone, who has vacant eyes and an artificial-sounding voice. * from ****

****SPOILERS**** When Angie Anderson, Sharon Stone, was attacked in the elevator of her apartment building by this red bearded and scuzzy looking man all her fears of men as well as her childhood started to resurface with shocking clarity. It was in fact the pretty and very attractive Angie's first experience with a man sexuality that screwed up her head in her not having any normal relationships, sexual or otherwise, with members of the opposite sex. It's Alex Morgan, Steve Railsbeck, Angie's next door neighbor who took the time to help her out in this crisis that had Angie eventually fall in love with him. This had Alex's live-in twin and wheelchair bound brother Cole, also played by Steve Railsbeck, develop a deep resentment of Alex since he was having his eye as a peeping Tom on Angie since she moved into her apartment.It's when Angie sought help from her psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Carter, Ronnie Cox, that by trying to help her overcome her phobias about men as well as her recent attempted rape experience he brought out things about her past, or childhood, that started taking over her life in her for so long suppressing them. This lead Angie to slowly lose control and becoming paranoid in both her private as well as public life. This paranoia lead her, after getting an invite, to the Bailey Building where she sought, I would assume, to get a job there as Mr. Bailey's private secretary. It's there that Angie found herself locked in with what seemed like real-estate developer Mr. Bailey found stabbed to death, with a scissor, lying in the bedroom! With his pet black bird Jimmy accusing Angie, over and over, that she's the one who killed him!. ****SPOILERS*** Almost the entire second half of the movie has to do with Angie locked in the Bailey Building with Alex desperately trying to save her. It's then that Alex's twin brother, the evil twin, Cole shows his true colors as well as his ability to walk,It's a Miracle! It's a Miracle! he screams, and clobbers him and leave him unconscious as he then joyfully takes off to celebrate his getting even with his twin brother to the nearest ginmill in order to get himself smashed. That in his twin brother Alex ending up getting the better things in life, like Angie, compared to failed artist Cole getting the sh*t end of the stick. It's at the very end of the movie with Angie by now almost completely insane that the truth comes out to who's behind this plan in driving her off her rocker. And it didn't have anything to do with her at all but the real-estate developer Mr. Bailey. And he, Bailey's killer, had a big surprise coming himself when he tried to pin Bailey's murder on Angie that ended blowing up in his face!

This film was made in 1991, and it is sort of odd. Sharon Stone however, looks great (she is more understated, young and fresh). Steve Railsback ("Helter Skelter", and the more recent "Ed Gein") is strange and menacing.The film itself has some odd cinematography and sets, including the apartment where Stone is abducted. Sort of a cold, Los Angeles modern look to it. It was marketed as suspense/horror. Probably more suspense/mystery. Ronny Cox as Stone's psychotherapist and Michelle Phillips as his politician wife, so there is a message somewhere lost in the script. It is not the worst, and Stone looks beautiful, so it's worth a shot. 6/10

During most of this film, Sharon Stone is trapped in a weird, large room and we, the viewers, are trapped along with her, forced to witness her slow descent into madness. She portrays it fairly well, but this whole effort just isn't a particularly enjoyable one. And when we reach the finale, expecting some sound psychological explanations, we get only generalities and trivialities (you guessed it:the key secret is another - SPOILER! - Childhood Trauma!). Didn't the director watch "Marnie" and learn his lesson? (*1/2)