The Clairvoyant (1982)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Best movie of this year hands down!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Blistering performances.

Ahhh! The Big Apple, New York to say the least . My home state, well enough of that part, there's a strange killer running around. He is coined, "The Handcuff Killer". He put a young model, nude and in the Hudson River. A swimmer gets his ankle cuffed on the bottom rung of the pool ladder. Then to say the least, a ConEd worker get the shock of his life. This killer is methodical. Next you have this detective(Norman Parker) who is not only hard-nosed, hut has a funny side to him. He's a comedian off duty. Then in the film, there's this artist/medium(Elizabeth Kemp) who helps him crack the case. The last big help is this reporter(Perry King, "Riptide" and "Switch"[1991]) to lend a hand. Or so he does. The police department doesn't like him very well. Especially, Det. Weeks. Weeks and Mac do partner up, until Virna stays with him, while trying to piece up the murders. It turns out that Mac was more than just a TV talk show host. The crab claw she visions points out to her. This movie could used more of a twist to it, yet it was all right to watch. 2 out of 5 stars

"The Killing Hour" is an American thriller with Italian giallo ambitions. The murders, the killer's disguise & modus operandi and especially the final denouement – which obviously can't be revealed here – are seemingly taken straight from the screenplay of an early 70's Italian giallo highlight. Even the additional topic of clairvoyance doesn't make it typically American, because near the end of the seventies the Italians were experimenting with supernatural themes, like for example in Lucio Fulci's "The Psychic". This certainly isn't a bad little movie, it's just somewhat unfortunate that the pacing is very uneven and the second half is boring and lifeless. What you can't afford to miss about "The Killing Hour" are the first ten minutes. Imagine if you agreed with some of your friends to watch this movie and you're ten minutes late to the party, well than you're just terribly out of luck, because 99% of the horrific images and carnage are already over and done with by then. In the opening sequences we witness the discovery of a naked girl's body floating in the Hudson river and two highly imaginative murders, one in a pool and one in a road construction site. All three victims wore handcuffs and there's undoubtedly a common element that links them all to the same killer. Whilst copper Larry Weeks and TV talk show host Paul McCormack are arguing about whether or not to keep the story out of the media, a shy young girl reports herself to the police. She's an artist in training but claims that at certain moments her hand uncontrollably takes over and draws the murders as they occurred or will still occur. McCormack sees the girl as a sensational guest for his talk show, but obviously doesn't realize this brings her in great mortal danger. The film starts out as a compelling whodunit full of suspense and curious characters (a cop who's a stand-up comedian in his spare time?), but gradually becomes just another dull and predictable little thriller. There's hardly anything exciting going on in the film's second half and the climax is only original and efficient if you haven't seen a single Italian giallo ever before in your life. As soon as you have, the ending of "The Killing Hour" will leave you underwhelmed and stone cold. Writer/director Armand Mastroianni, who probably has some sort of Italian roots despite being born and raised in Brooklyn, was a competent horror director back in the early 80's. He made the underrated slasher "He Knows You're Alone" as well as goofy horror flicks like "The Supernaturals" and "Cameron's Closet". This was his most serious horror effort, but the result is only semi-successful.

"The Killing Hour" is a surprisingly solid (if not overly surprising) entry in the sparsely-populated annals of American jabs at the "giallo" (a genre rooted in Italian pulp mystery novels, and popularized by the films of Dario Argento, among many others). Armand Mastroianni, who also directed the "Halloween" cash-in "He Knows You're Alone," shows considerable directorial skill with a story that's not nearly as convoluted (or as garishly stylish) as an Argento pic, but builds a fine aura of mystery and suspense nonetheless. When a woman's nude, handcuffed corpse is fished out of the Hudson River and two seemingly random men are murdered soon after (including a very effective sequence in an empty gym swimming pool), an NYC cop (Norman Parker) and a talk-show host (Perry King) become involved with a psychic art student (Elizabeth Kemp) who has a "sixth sense" about the murders. While the pace sometimes slackens due to the "suspicion building" middle act (a necessary evil in most gialli), and the film suffers from offering us only two potential killers (there are a few red herrings so transparent they don't merit mention), "The Killing Hour" is still a satisfying whodunit, complete with a chilling climax that doesn't over-explain things. Recommended.

I saw this on VHS under the title The Killing Hour.This movie starts off really well with several unexplained killings involving handcuffs. A woman is fished out of the river, a man swims alone in a swimming pool reminiscent of a scene from Cat People, a construction worker goes down a manhole. The latter two killings are quite graphic, though without being bloody. Meanwhile, an artist draws strange pictures.A cop who does lousy impressions in his side job as a standup comedian (yet he gets laughs, surprisingly) leads the investigation, leaking information to a tabloid television reporter. Both he and the reporter start courting the artist once they meet her.Some additional deaths occur. The ending may be predictable, since it's possible to make a good guess as to the identity of the killer early on in the movie. Unfortunately, after the strong opening, no other scene quite lives up. Some scenes have lengthy dialog that doesn't serve the plot or characters. Still, not a bad movie by a long shot.