Matthew Patrick directs Gary Busey, Mimi Rogers and Michael McKean in this yuppie-in-peril thriller where a ‘just released from the asylum’ man child moves himself into a family’s dream home attic without permission and then into their lives.

A cheesy movie, unsure of what it wants to be. Mimi Rodgers involvement makes it an erotic thriller even if there’s only very PG softcore action. Busey’s trademark intense, unpredictable style means it is hard to pin down your feelings about his villain. We spend most of the movie in his shoes. You grow to love the hulking unhinged innocent. He spirals from manipulative nut job to unlikely E.T. substitute. I kinda dug the movie more when he was being a better Dad and protector to the family than McKean’s scuzzball. But eventually we are positioned into a big ‘psycho stalks the household’ finale. And while that shifts VHS rental units it feels like the least satisfying route the movie could have potentially taken. A curio.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Desperate Hours (1990)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/