The Fan (1981)

Decent flick which was possibly the first to deal with the whole "obsessive stalker" type thing. A middle aged Broadway actress, Sally Ross, has a bit of an obsessive fan in a young man named Douglas. Douglas is a bit of a loser who works in a record store and has a very unhealthy obsession with Ms. Ross. We know Douglas is a nut because he gets pissed when his sister, concerned about his recent weird behavior, shows up at his apartment and interrupts Douglas's "date". The thing is, Douglas's date is really nothing more than him sitting home alone watching one of Ms. Ross's films on TV! Douglas also writes a shitload of letters to Sally, professing his love for her and how he is different from all of her other fans. Sick of being ignored he starts doing what psychotic loners do best, offing those closest to Ms. Ross till of course he, at the end, comes face to face with his fixation.

This one had a big studio backing it, so the production values and all are pretty good, yet that's not to say that a lot of what happens is not pretty dumb. For such a famous actress why does Sally Ross only have a chain lock on her door? Why does she flee her apartment, which was under police protection to go to a very secluded beach house type place? Oh well. The murders are not really gory as I think this one was trying to be a classy psychological thriller and all, but when you get down to it, is still nothing more than another slasher flick. I did enjoy the performance by the dude that played Douglas. He looked like Luke Skywalker and really convinced me as the loony bastard he was supposed to be. Loved the scene where he's talking to himself in the mirror, hyping himself up to confront his boss at work, only when it comes down to it, Douglas can't deliver on his speech. Sort of an interesting insight as to how pathetic and small he really is. Notice though, how in Douglas's warped mind he thinks he really stood up to his boss. Some parts tended to bog down a bit, and all those musical numbers really got on my nerves after awhile. See the flick and you'll know what I mean. It is interesting to note how relative this flick is nowadays compared to when it was made, what with all the nutzo stalkers and stuff you read about in the papers. A decent flick, though nothing you'll want to watch twice.