Movie

Blood Run (1994) (aka Outside the Law)

In the wake of Basic Instinct (1992), many erotic thrillers were produced, almost always themed around male detectives getting too close to female suspects. This one has the bonus of a masked villainess, if only for the opening murder scene. When a mystery psycho stabs a woman to death, douses her in gasoline, and sets her aflame, suspicion falls on her drug-dealing boyfriend. But once that red herring is cleared, the next candidate is the victim’s lesbian lover, Tanya (Anna Thomson).

The lead detective is Brad Kingsbury (David Bradley), who has a distanced relationship with his ex-wife (don’t they always), and a school-age daughter he doesn’t see much because of work. Brad’s partner Paige has a thing for him, but not vice versa. Yes, everything happens pretty much as expected for this type of movie. Cops come to blows as the evidence mounts against Tanya, but that doesn’t stop Brad from getting in too deep. A couple of dates, followed by passionate sex. Things move fast in Los Angeles.

Another victim shows up: a Russian guy killed off screen with little fanfare. He exists only to move the plot forward, since he also knows the prime suspect, but he’s barely mentioned afterwards. Of course, there’s an interview scene where femme fatale Tanya smokes a cigarette.

She looks increasingly guilty once the police uncover a backstory involving suspected arson, which fits the MO of the recent killings. Kingsbury protests her innocence, but his conviction wavers as all other plausible suspects are dead. Another cop called Geoffreys is determined to prove Tanya is the killer, and even breaks into her house to compare a button recovered from a crime scene with her clothes.

Villainess

Paige / Felicia (Ashley Laurence)

It’s easy to figure out who the masked killer is given everyone else is too minor a character or likely too obvious. When we find out the arson victim had a sister named Felicia, Paige becomes the prime suspect. There’s an attempt to throw the viewer off by claiming Felicia is dead, but since this comes from Paige anyway, it’s unconvincing. Kingsbury finally pieces things together when a witness contradicts his partner’s story, which leads to an exciting if predictable finale.

Before that, Paige gets a great “unmasking” scene when Geoffreys visits her house hoping for sex, only to discover a buttoned coat that matches his evidence. Too bad the murderess expects this and removes the bullets from the cop’s revolver in advance. No masked killer, but a woman with a silenced pistol who gloats before pulling the trigger is an effective substitute.

Paige breaks into Tanya’s house, takes her hostage, and sets up a sadistic birthday party for the daughter. Kingsbury arrives to get the expected twisted monologue from the killer. The last encounter is rather tame. Tanya recovers the disarmed hero’s weapon, shoots, and misses despite being at close range. All rather contrived, setting up a confrontation where the hero takes down the psycho with a thrown knife.

Honourable Mentions: Silenced Pistol Kills

Act of Piracy (1988) – Laura Warner (Nancy Mulford)

Yet another waste of a great villainess, this is a ponderous action thriller with little action or thrills. Gary Busey – playing a good guy for once – is a Vietnam veteran searching for his children after modern-day pirates kidnap them from his luxury yacht. Arnold Vosloo shows up as a henchman, but the adversaries are unremarkable and the excitement stalls after the opening half hour.

The best character – the treacherous lover – is killed off far too soon. Before that, Laura gets a memorable sequence when she eliminates the yacht’s entire crew with a silenced pistol. Starting with a perplexed guy whom she offs in her cabin. This scene lasts several minutes, with the white-dressed professional assassin sneaking about below decks and showing plenty of intelligence and skill.

Laura single-handedly captures the vessel and almost caps the hero when she surprises him on deck. Sadly, he survives, which gives the chief villain an excuse to toss his henchwoman off a hotel balcony. A stupid course of action, since it brings the police – and eventually the hero – to that location anyway.

Professional Affair (1995) – Heather (Kim Stetz), Sophie (Shannon Elliot)

This review is light on detail, as I could only source a German-dubbed DVD. The plot is easy to follow, with a private detective hired by a mob boss (Robert Z’Dar) to recover money stolen from a henchman. That scene – where a scantily clad escort undresses, pulls out a silenced weapon, and pumps the guy full of lead – is enough to put the film in honourable mention territory.

The prime suspect is a woman named Heather, and inevitably the detective falls in love with her. This is despite her revisiting the crime scene in the same outfit worn by the murderess. She also shows off a silenced gun to her co-worker Sophie (as the detective watches via a hidden camera) and seduces men at every turn. Heather seems to be exonerated when a black-clad figure attacks the PI in his motel room, and that person – after a fight and shootout – is revealed to be Sophie.

However, Heather is the killer after all. She and her detective lover keep the cash after they blow away the mob boss in a poorly staged finale. Guess the money and sex make up for letting a murderer off the hook.