''Disconnected'' is a 1984 American
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
produced and directed by
Gorman Bechard
Gorman Bechard (born March 15, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter and novelist best known for his independent feature films ''Psychos in Love,'' ''Friends (With Benefits), Friends (with benefits),'' and ''You Are Alone''; his four r ...
, written by Bechard and Virginia Gilroy, and starring
Frances Raines
Frances Raines (born July 17, 1962) is an American actress who appeared in a number of horror and exploitation films throughout the 1980s, most notably Buddy Cooper's '' The Mutilator'' as Linda, and three directed by Tim Kincaid. Raines is ...
, Mark Walker, and Carl Koch. Its plot follows Alicia, a young
video rental store
A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms a ...
clerk in a small
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
town who is tormented by bizarre, unearthly phone calls. Meanwhile, a string of violent serial killings are occurring amongst locals.
Plot
Alicia is a young woman working as an employee at a
video rental store
A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms a ...
in
Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...
. One afternoon, she is met outside her apartment by an elderly man dressed in black who asks to use her phone. She obliges, but finds after the two enter her apartment that the man has strangely disappeared. While out for drinks later, Alicia recounts the bizarre incident to her boyfriend, Mike, a local
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
, and her glamorous twin sister, Barbara Ann—both dismiss it as a strange coincidence. Meanwhile, a
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
is murdering young women in the town, and the crimes are being investigated by Detective Tremaglio.
While working at the video store one afternoon, Alicia is met by an awkward young man, Franklin, who peruses the store, despite telling her he does not own a video player. He attempts to make conversation with Alicia before leaving. He returns the next day and asks Alicia out on a date, but she politely declines. Later that night, Alicia receives several bizarre phone calls in which she hears Mike and Barbara Ann discussing the romantic affair they are having, apparently unaware they are being listened to. Alicia subsequently has several
nightmares within nightmares in which Mike and Barbara Ann come to her apartment and murder her.
The next day, Alicia phones Franklin and tells him she would like to go on a date with him after all. He obliges, though he says it will have to wait as he is busy; unbeknownst to Alicia, he is lying in bed with a woman's bloody corpse. After their phone call ends, Franklin
has sex with the dead woman's body. Several days later, Alicia and Franklin go on a date to see a movie. At the theater, they run into Barbara Ann, who is also on a date. Alicia, having to work early in the morning, ends her date with Franklin and returns home. Meanwhile, Franklin visits a local bar where he meets another woman and brings her to his house. The two have sex before he
eviscerates her with a switchblade.
Alicia continues to be tormented by strange phone calls, some of which emit unearthly sounds. Despite changing her phone number, the calls continue. Alicia goes to Franklin's for a dinner date, after which the two have sex. In the morning, Franklin prepares to murder Alicia, but finds she has already left for work. The next day, Barbara Ann visits Franklin at his home and seduces him. After she performs oral sex on Franklin, he murders her. Alicia stops by the next morning to visit Franklin, and finds Barbara Ann's body before being confronted by Franklin. Her screams are heard from Tremaglio, who happens to be patrolling the neighborhood. As Franklin declares that he is not the serial killer, he is shot and killed by Tremaglio and his partner.
Distraught, Alicia returns to her apartment where she continues to be bothered by the recurring phone calls, and enters a depressive state. She is further horrified when she hears on the radio that another female murder victim has been found in town, suggesting Franklin may not have been the primary serial killer. Alicia's mental state continues to rapidly decline. She accepts Mike's repeated requests for a date, and the two begin seeing each other again. After dropping Alicia off from an evening date, Mike makes a call from a pay phone. In her apartment, Alicia receives yet another demented call. She proceeds to destroy her phone in a fit of rage, but the ominous sounds persist as blood pours from the phone receiver. In the morning, the elderly man whom Alicia let into her home several weeks prior is seen emerging from her apartment.
Cast
Themes
Journalist Matt Damsker likens ''Disconnected'' to a "
demon
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...
ic slasher film," featuring both slasher and
supernatural horror elements.
[
]
Production
Filming
''Disconnected'' was shot on location in Waterbury, Connecticut
Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...
in the fall of 1983 on a budget of around $48,000.
Music
The film features a soundtrack of several 1980s new wave and rock bands, including "Talking to a Stranger" and "Scream Who" by Hunters & Collectors
Hunters & Collectors are an Australian rock band formed in 1981. Fronted by founding mainstay, singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Seymour, they developed a blend of Pub rock (Australia), pub rock and funk, art-funk. Other mainstays are John ...
; "Complicated Game" by XTC
XTC were an English rock band formed in Swindon in 1972. Fronted by songwriters Andy Partridge (guitars, vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass, vocals), the band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing in ...
; and "Chizoola" by Haysi Fantayzee
Haysi Fantayzee were a short lived British pop band of the early 1980s. Their best known songs are "John Wayne Is Big Leggy", released in 1982 and " Shiny Shiny", released in 1983.
Career
Haysi Fantayzee was an avant-garde, new wave pop proj ...
. Notably, a 19-year-old Jon Brion
Jon Brion is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer. He performed with the Excerpts, the Bats, 'Til Tuesday and the Grays before becoming an established producer and film score composer.
Brion has ...
, who was a member of The Excerpts at the time, had hi
first role
in the film
Brion
is one of the band members performing at the initial bar scene
The band contributed the songs
"You Don't Love Me," "Death in Small Doses," and "I Only Dream in Color."
Release
Critical response
''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' gave the film a middling review, describing it as "a low-budget horror film made by locals in Waterbury, Connecticut, which tries to surmount the clichés of the genre, but emerges as a routine picture."
Brian Collins of '' Birth.Movies.Death.'' wrote that the film "borrows some language from the slasher textbook, but it's also got supernatural elements, police procedural scenes (including a bizarre series of interviews where Capobianco's character talks directly to the camera, usually to fill in gaps in the plot), and a minor psychological thriller flair."[
]
Home media
''Disconnected'' was released on VHS in the United States in 1986 by Active Home Video. Active Home Video re-released the VHS again in June 1989.[
On November 24, 2017, ''Disconnected'' was given a limited edition release on ]Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
by Vinegar Syndrome
Cellulose acetate film, or safety film, is used in photography as a base material for photographic emulsions. It was introduced in the early 20th century by film manufacturers and intended as a safe film base replacement for unstable and highly ...
, numbered at 2,000 units.
References
Sources
*
External links
*
* {{Rotten Tomatoes, id=disconnected, title=Disconnected
1984 horror films
1984 films
1980s serial killer films
1980s slasher films
American independent films
American psychological horror films
American serial killer films
American slasher films
American supernatural horror films
Films about twin sisters
Films set in Connecticut
Films shot in Connecticut
Films about telephony
1980s English-language films
1980s American films