He Knows You're Alone (1980)

HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE (1980)

Dir: Armand Mastroianni

7/31 #31daysofhorror

Mastroianni began his filmmaking career with He Knows You’re Alone. He went on to The Clairvoyant (1982), The Supernaturals (1986), multiple episodes of Friday The 13th: The Series, The Celestine Prophecy (2006), and dozens of TV movies. One look at his filmography and it appears He Knows You’re Alone is his most famous work, at least for us genre fans.

I’ve had a love / hate relationship with He Knows since I first saw it in college. During my academic years I deluged myself in slasher fare for my thesis. It was a hobby that continues today. While it is my favorite sub-genre of horror, there were rules I once followed to determine the slasher film’s ‘greatness.’ To me, there had to be a Scooby-doo mystery to the endeavor. All the POV shots were used to cleverly cover up who the killer was. My slashers were ones with red herrings throughout to make you incorrectly guess. The last fifteen minutes would include a reveal of who the killer is, the pursuit of a final girl and the death of the killer. A story similar to that of Friday The 13th (1980) more so than Halloween (1978). Both of which were inspired by Italian Giallo films where the killer wore a mask. I include all this information because this is why I hated He Knows when I originally saw it. We see the killer’s face in the opening kill.

Now, apt horror aficionados, particularly my wife, will call me out by pointing out that we follow Joe Spinell’s Frank Zito throughout the runtime of Maniac (1980). And she’d be right. Maniac follows its own set of rules. Without the bravery of Maniac, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) would have never been made. That’s exactly what these films are, portraits of killers. He Knows, knowingly rips-off Halloween, even to the point that it had no qualms stealing the theme music. There’s never a moment in He Knows You’re Alone that we spend any time alone with the killer to learn his wants or desires. When A Stranger Calls (1979) even attempts a psychological profile on the child murderer in a forgettable second act of the film.

Enough time has passed, that I was excited to purchase the Scream Factory Bluray and revisit the bride-to-be murderer. I knew all-to-well that I’d see his face, and I braced myself. I was going to look past this detail, because at least it’s not one of those supernatural slasher films of the late eighties. This was a good ole fashion knock-off of Carpenter’s masterpiece.

The film is best known for the first on-screen appearance of Tom Hanks. His scene is the best in the film. He’s a psychology student at the university, and he pontificates on the necessity of scary stories and catharsis. Mastroianni gives Hanks the self-referential meta moment of the film. Hanks was so well liked that the creators decided to not kill off his character. He was so damn sweet they couldn’t do it. Everyone else was fair game.

The story is simple, even though the script tries to make it more complicated than it needs to be. A serial killer, who is triggered by brides-to-be, kills any soon-to-be bride. Sure, the love of his life ended up marrying someone else, and on her wedding day he killed her. And now he’s destined to destroy every wedding he stumbles across. The killer is relentless, a characteristic learned from Michael Myers, who in turn learned it from Yul Brynner in Westworld (1973). A trait that will live on in horror until the end of time. It is still impressive to see the lengths in which a villain will go to obtain their prey. Our bride killer with the weakest villain’s name, Ray Carlton, pursues our final girl Amy almost to the point that it’s laughable. Entertaining, but laughable as the killer hops on a moving car or stumbles around the hospital trying to get one more kill in.

After many years without this film in my life, I can say I thoroughly enjoy it now. The opening of the film is directly referenced by Kevin Williamson in Scream 2 (1997). I am always a fan of a horror movie within a horror movie. It is a perfect way to show, “We know how sh*tty horror films can be, but don’t worry, we’re not making a sh*tty one.” And the creative talent behind the He Knows You’re Alone is right, they didn’t make a sh*tty horror film, even if it takes twenty years for you to rid yourself of illogical spite.

Sidenote: the film within a film retelling of The Hook urban legend stars that blue-eyed Adonis Russell Todd, who genre fans will know from Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) and Chopping Mall (1986).