Through the Eyes of a Killer (1992)

Laurie finds out her boyfriend has cheated on her and moves out. She finds a rundown apartment, and hires a builder Ray to renovate the whole interior. Soon they're embedded in a steamy sexual affair, but her continuous troubles with men eventually comes back to hurt her. But Ray is one not to let go so easy.Whoa… now I can rip on Richard Dean Anderson's mullet, but for a made-for-TV presentation it's professionally directed, grippingly written and resourcefully acted. That's what counts. Now onto the mullet… only kidding. The story's outline is basic, if no-frills (yep melodramatic lifetime feel), but it's the twisty developments that helps it cruise along. When you think you got it penned out, if offers another surprise and it can be rather over-the-top (just waiting for the climax!). One thing though, it could've gone without trying to hand-feed us the possibilities and concentrating on them when we've already figured it out. There are some vague plot devices evident, and the open-ended conclusion is sort of creepy. Anyhow it's evocatively penned (even with some implausible occurrences), and can be a tense psychological exercise. Commendably directed by Peter Markle who models it with lavished touches, free flowing camera work and an arrestingly enticing (Hitchcock-like) music score. He constructs an eerie vibe with some quite suspenseful spurts and images. That glass carved eye pyramid in the window is something that's hard to forget, and especially how it's used it the dying minutes of the film. The sexual current is passionately intense, but obviously being a TV movie it's kept under wrapped. Marg Helgenberger is believably good and Richard Dean Anderson's sullen performance is terrifically projected. He's serious about his work, and it shows! David Marshall Grant, Melinda Culea, and Joe Pantoliano offer solid support.

After discovering her boyfriend (played by Pantoliano) has had an affair, Helgenberger moves into a dilapidated apartment and has Richard Dean Anderson renovate it. Predictably, she becomes casually involved with Anderson, but he has other ideas. I should also mention there is a mysterious piece of glass in an eye symbol that is etched into one of her windows of which she (and Anderson) seem to be in awe.Helgenberger is very beautiful in this suspense thriller and she is a good actress. Richard Dean Anderson plays the volatile builder and David Marshall Grant does a fine job in the role of Helgenberger's friend. This is good made-for-TV material and I recommend watching it, as it is a little different that more of the pedestrian ones I have seen lately.

Macgyver sucks. Marg Helgenberger (?!?) is horrid. The plot is predictable. But the eye? The eye is AMAZING! I tell you, when Lifetime Movie said that this was on following ROTOR, I was already looking for something else faster than you can say "Snap Dandy". The camera work looks like a first time college student at a rave, especially the first outdoor scene on the patio where I suspect the viewer is meant to feel motion sickness (or maybe it's the dialogue doing that). Overall, I completely suspected that this was intended to fulfill some cock-en-eyed television contract of Macgyver's.But then the eye came on the scene, and I was all eyes myself. Helgenberger is looking for a cheap apartment in the Big Apple when she comes upon yet another rundown sleaze-hole. But just as she is planning to give it up, she perchances upon the eye pyramid in the window. She stares at it just long enough, and then...the sun shines through and mesmerizes her. She MUST have the apartment. And then Macgyver sees the eye, too.And it all gets better from there.P.S. Beware the Guillotine Room!

I have seen this movie 5 times, and I like it. I wouldn't give it top points, but it is worth watching. The plot has great potential, but falls short in places. Anderson and Helgenberger are very convincing in their parts, and are not the reason the movie gets 2 1/2 stars instead of 4, for example. It is a good thriller, and has a really suspenseful ending.