Love this site, one of my favorites ever since I discovered you guys through a Google search about the still-terrifying made-for-TV flick DON'T GO TO SLEEP. My question is about another made-for-TV movie, since I know they're a specialty of yours.
Around 1982 or '83, I remember a movie airing that followed a group of soap opera stars as they were being bumped off one by one. I don't remember much about it other than the fact that there were a lot of shots from the murderer's POV, which were usually accompanied by his weird, tuneless humming. The only other thing I remember was that one of the soap's male stars was pushed out the window of an apartment building; the cops in the next scene described how he "splattered" when he hit the pavement, which seemed absolutely crazy to me! I was just glad at the time that they only talked about it, and thankfully didn't show the result.
The movie itself was pretty lame, even to a pretty easily scared kid like myself, but the murderer's disaffected humming totally creeped me out. I think the whole thing turned out to be a hoax–there may have been some sort of movie-within-a-movie twist or something, but I can't really remember.
Any ideas?
— Eddie Quist
UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to kinder-sweetheart AMANDA BY NIGHT for flexing her SUZANNE PLESHETTE prowess and solving it with FANTASIES (1982).
I want to take a stab at this one… Is it Fantasies with Suzanne Pleshette? I don't actually remember the humming or the window thing, but it is about soap stars being stalked by someone. It's got a very slasher feel to it, although it's obviously toned down. Here's the review I wrote:
http://madefortvmayhem.blogspot.com/2008/06/fantasies-1982.html
Sorry there are not photos. I wrote it before I knew how to grab stills… Anyway, real life soap stars play the actors in the movie and all in all, it's quite good, but fairly rare.
I hope this helps!
A,
Funny, when we published this I thought, "Too bad Amanda is out shopping for VHS today, we could really use her TV expertise!" This sounds right and it sounds like a movie I'd like to see too. Love your review.
Oh thanks Lance! I could be wrong, but it gives me an excuse to watch it again. I do enjoy it… Suzanne is SO good as the cold-hearted producer! I hope it's this movie!
Btw, I checked. This is indeed the movie. I caught the tuneless humming and a soap star crashing through a window. The more I watch Fantasies, the more I love. That Suzanne Pleshette… she's awesome!
Thanks for figuring it out for me! I gotta find a copy of this.
By the way, was I right about the twist ending? Some sort of movie-within-a-movie thing?