A Cry in the Night (1992) starring Carol Higgins Clark, Perry King, Annie Girardot, Chris Wiggins, Amy Fulco, Brigid Tierney, Matt Cooke, Vlasta Vrana directed by Robin Spry Movie Review

A Cry in the Night (1992)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Carol Higgins Clark in A Cry in the Night (1992)

Perry Does Psycho

Divorced mother of two Jenny (Carol Higgins Clark) meets artist Erich (Perry King - Fatal Love) when the gallery she works for puts on an exhibition of his artwork. Attracted to the pretty Jenny he charms her and within a month of meeting asks her to marry him. Despite feeling a little unsure she agrees and moves to his home in Quebec which he inherited from his mother. But soon the cracks begin to show as Erich starts exhibiting some strange behaviour especially when it comes to his home which is a more of a shrine to his mother who died on his 10th birthday. But that is nothing compared to when people begin to die and Jenny feels that she is in danger from her controlling husband.

Look certain writers have a specific style and when their novels get turned into movies the style often still shines through. As such "A Cry in the Night" is exactly what I expected from a movie which is an adaptation of a Mary Higgins Clark novel and as such will probably appeal to those who enjoy her easy to comprehend novels and movie adaptations. But for those who don't care of the Mary Higgins Clark style of story "A Cry in the Night" is not only obvious but corny. For me despite having watched other adaptations of Clark's novels I found "A Cry in the Night" under whelming due to its obviousness which at times ended up comical.

Perry King in A Cry in the Night (1992)

Now I try not to do this but I had better say right now that I am going to give spoilers away during this movie review so if you do want to watch "A Cry in the Night" without the knowledge then leave now.

So what we have here is a movie which basically runs with a similar idea to Hitchcock's "Psycho" as we come to discover that the perfect Erich not only keeps his home as a shrine to his late mother but puts on her cape and enjoys a bit of killing. The thing is that this is incredibly obvious and whilst the story is written to be mysterious and in classic style gives us a few characters who are supposed to raise are suspicions it is too obvious that Erich is behind all the bad stuff which starts happening. As to that everything well we have murders and deranged behaviour but all of it is done in an obvious manner to just back up our suspicions long before the movie ever gets around to confirming them.

Now the reason for this, well most people would suggest it was the acting which to be honest is at times shaky but in truth I put it down to the direction which lacks the subtlety to make the mystery really work. Oh there is also the dialogue and when you have dull dialogue combined with some dodgy acting the end result often feels amateurish and even corny.

What this all boils down to is that "A Cry in the Night" might appeal to those who love the Mary Higgins Clark's books and their movie adaptations but it will be hard work for anyone else as it will all be too obvious.


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