Slasher Stop Off - He Knows You're Alone (1980)

“He Knows You’re Alone” (1980), for me, is just okay. It isn’t a total waste or a trial/chore to get through, but it just lacks energy, a vitality that simply doesn’t course through its veins and/or pumps the audience with adrenaline-packed thrills. It doesn’t have a particular style or aesthetic that grabs your or even a score that chills the bones.

I have no reason to believe that when you are going through the first five years of the 80s (as I currently am, some revisits like this one, others brand new to me…), this particular slasher will imprint itself deep within and remain. I have seen so much worse that Armand Mastroiani’s quickly shot Staten Island slasher, and his lead is pretty and photogenic, so she’s not too bad an anchor to depend on when the camera is devoted to her.

The killer isn’t exactly memorable. Nothing against the sweaty-forehead, intense-eyed Tom Rolfing, pursuing bride-to-be Caitlin O’Heaney, killing her friends, for whatever reason (I could only guess because they were associated with her?) or anyone else that is in his way. Don Scardino, of a fun creature feature set in Georgia directed by Lieberman, Squirm (1976), is a mortician (and student of forensic medicine) and ex to O’Heaney who wishes she would ditch her fiancé and marry him.

The conclusion of the film is located at the local morgue where O’Heaney hopes Scardino will protect her after Rofling climbs on the roof of her car, trying to grab her. Lewis Arlt is given a thankless role of obsessive (and sickly) cop out for revenge because his fiancé was murdered by jilted Rolfing the day of their wedding. Arlt—despite a role that has him handkerchief  to nose and face constantly, pale-faced and holding himself up when it would appear he could collapse at any moment—makes chicken salad out of chicken shit, tasked with getting his dogged cop over as a serious character despite minutes-long scenes investigating crime scenes (and reporting back to The Breakfast Club’s own Paul Gleason, given a couple scenes himself).

Folks might see Tom Hanks in the cast and perk up their intrigue but he gets one good dialogue scene at the Staten Island Amusement Park as a psyche major getting acquainted with Elizabeth Kemp (best friend of O’Heaney), “evaluating” O’Heaney’s claims of seeing Rolfing, figuring her “hallucination” might concern sex or guilt, offering the upcoming marriage and the ex-boyfriend as reasons behind what she’s going through. Hanks—if he had been a victim as intended could have been quite a slasher hallmark—does a lot with his brief time on screen, tripping Kemp early while jogging on a path in the woods, and trying to sweet-talk her into an evening date.

Kemp does the honors with the nude shower, later dropping a record in the player, rolling up a joint, with a glass of wine, sliding on the earphones, and getting her head cut off…her decapitated head prop in the fishtank is hilarious. Patsy Pease (later known for her soap opera work) is the fellow friend of Kemp and O’Heaney sleeping with a professor (played by a young James Rebhorn). Dana Barron, as O’Heaney’s sister, is known for “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983). Pease has “lust” for Rebhorn, playfully keepaway while the wife is away…too bad Rolfing won’t give them the chance to naughty themselves between the sheets.

The opening is probably my favorite scene: a couple making out in a car are disturbed by a maniac in stocking mask, but it turns out that this is a film watched by the first victim of Rolfing’s in a theater. The guy trying to grope the girl and being denied because she wasn’t wanting him to go past first base is played by Russell Todd of “Friday the 13^th Part 2” (1981). I thought the film within a film approach was quite clever, and that trick wasn’t so abused in 1980. And when the bride-to-be goes to the bathroom, returning to her seat, there is a nice false diversion (will she get stabbed in the stall?) where she makes it back to her seat in the theater by her friend, only for Rolfing to stab her in the back. I liked how the victim jerks then gradually collapses into her friend’s lap…she had been begging her friend to leave the theater.

Mastroianni obviously takes inspiration from how Carpenter and Cundy shot Michael Myers in “Halloween” (1978) with how he frames Rolfing…he is often emerging from the dark or sneaking up on his victims with a shiny, sharp knife. The violence is very toned down, with those stabs never visually seen with next to no blood even. He’s savage with the knife, for sure, with his face fixed in maniacal expressiveness…the best example of this is the kill scene involving Rolfing and a bridal store owner he can’t stop stabbing.

 The Staten Island locations filmed in about two weeks in 1979 might be of particular interest to those who lived there 40 years ago…there is one scene where O’Heaney goes for a walk, to get ice cream and visit the bridal boutique, among other places, and it is maybe a refreshing change of pace from the typical locations of summer camps and college campuses.

I don't want to fail to mention that Scardino, very personable and chipper, with good timing and full of personality, has great chemistry with O'Heaney. It's obvious they are meant to be despite her efforts to shake off her affection for him.

The ending is just a bit too ironic and maybe should have been avoided; the need to go for another case of jilted lover gone mad just felt a bit too cute. I actually own the MGM DVD touted as Out of Print a few years ago, but you can easily find it streaming somewhere these days. I like the cold seasonal feel of Staten Island and the Seaview Hospital at the end where the killer pursues the final girl through concrete tunnels was really a cool final chase location…too bad Arlt’s cop was so easily distracted and disposed of, swift and discarded by the film leaving his character seriously misused. I also liked when Rolfing is trapped in a sealed room, breaks through the window grabbing for O’Heaney. The “iconic” image of O’Heaney, with folded fingers and hands pressed into her fear-stricken face, is at the very end when she finds her friend on the morgue slab. Look for Steve James in a brief scene as a theater goer interviewed by Arlt and Gleason, with no good news for them. 2.5/5