After a death of a young woman in a movie theatre, the pattern continues of a serial killer targeting brides-to-be before the night of their wedding. Amy is the next one who's got the killer's eye and he begins to follow her. She starts picking up on the coincidences and soon worries for her well-being as her big day draws closer. On the case is a cop (who's been after the guy from the very beginning) has tracked down killer's next victim, now it's a matter of time just who gets to Amy first.

Standard post-Halloween low-budget slasher with a smart title that really has no relation to anything in the film, but gains topical interest for being the starting point of a young charismatic (it was there from the get-go) Tom Hanks in a tiny role. Oh my god, oh my god it's Tom Hanks! Hey it's really nothing new, as how many stars have began in low-rent horror films. Now we got that out of the way, let's stick to the movie.

No surprises, as it's systemically written, but well illustrated and organised in its clichés to keep one amused. There's a nasty, violent side there, but it never goes that far or do anything with an imaginative gist. Instead of being graphic and exploitive, a 'Psycho' vibe melted with 'Halloween' is demonstrated. An old-styling of giving the situations more weight and colour nicely breaks up the stalk n slash elements. The side-story of the cop tracking down the killer is underplayed, but works better for it. While the motive (quite an obvious, if not particularly convincing one) of the bride killer is suggested in a flashback scene… or that's what it seems. No hiding the fact who's the killer, as we see him and wielding a blade as he openly takes out his first victim that closely resembles the opening of Wes Craven's slasher hit 'Scream 2 (1997)".

Armand Mastroianni (The man behind little unknown horror oddities such as 'Cameron's Closet (1989)', 'The Supernaturals (1986) 'and very good 'The Clairvoyant (1982)') fashionably controlled direction is all about placement and build-up, despite the sparse atmosphere and at times mishandled suspense or the lack of it. Few set-pieces work and some neat location choices (carnival setting to morgue),and they come off during the latter end and the pace never slouches within the tight time-frame. Sound FX is effectively sourced and Alexander and Mark Scardion's music score (with a touch of Halloween) packs a sting amongst its unusual cues. The lead heroine comes off well-rounded and enforcers a head of steam thanks to the perky confidence of Caitlin O'Heaney. Don Scardino is likable as her ex-boyfriend who still has feelings for her and Elizabeth Kemp as one of her colourful friends. Lewis Arlt productively gets out a worn-out cop routine and Tom Rolfing's lurking presence makes for a modest killer who's good at slicing and dicing with little to no blood being spilt (truly class- work!) and staring down his victims.

With a title like this and a trend of mindless slashers just burgeoning in the early 80s, one might think this film would have little to offer. I was mildly pleasantly surprised how fairly well-put together the film is. The story is not all that inventive about a loose murderer who having killed at a wedding now kills girls about to be married. The opening murder in the movie theater is one of the most effective scenes in the whole film as it sets the tone for the film and, with slasher film playing during murder, firmly plants tongue in cheek making fun of itself. I can respect any film doing that at the beginning. The story then sets up with one girl in particular being preyed upon by the killer shortly before she is intended to be married(isn't that death enough?)What sets this film apart from the many clones that follow and the shorter than you might suspect list of those filmed beforehand is that this film has some talent in it. Not great talent but talent nonetheless. Armand Mastroianni does an effective job behind the camera creating some pretty chilling scenes despite having virtually no budget. His approach to filming Tom Rolfing as the murderer was a good choice; have the killer lurking but rarely ever seen fully. His presence is felt through much of the film creating tension. Nice move. The director also was very good at pacing the action in the film. The actors are all decent(with the exception of a policeman working on the case prior to the new prey - Whew! he is bad). A very young, unknown Tom Hanks has a small role, and one can see some obvious talent in his unimportant role. One flaw in the direction might be the overuse of the eye close-up of virtually everyone in the film. I cannot remember seeing so many eyeballs so close, but some of these also help aid the suspense. A little goes a long way though. Again, not a great film but an entertaining one in the sub-genre of the slasher film. It is miles ahead in almost every regard over tripe like Friday the 13th.

HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE (1980) is one of many slashers copying the look and style of the Carpenter classic HALLOWEEN, but this is by far the biggest rip-off I've seen so far. The autumnal streets are shot identically, there's a piano score that copies Carpenter's famed synthesizer music, and plenty more similarities besides. Sadly, the killer is far less interesting and perhaps should have been wearing a mask to make him more intimidating as the actor they've picked looks very, well, ordinary.

The story sees the youthful Amy preparing for her wedding to her gone-away boyfriend but getting stalked by the town's killer who has returned to the area and set his sights on her. Before long Amy's friends are for the chop, but her ex-boyfriend and a vengeful cop are around to help. There's a lot of near bloodless kills in this one, but the killer seems to strike at random and his motives remain murky. A lot of padding too which doesn't help with the suspense much although the ending picks up some. Novelty arises from seeing Tom Hanks pop up in his first role alongside a couple of other familiar faces. I didn't find it very scary.