HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE (1980)
I have a soft spot for 1980s slashers and have been working my way through an IMDB list of them. I have seen the bad, the really bad, and quite a few gems. One of the ones I happily recommend is HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE (1980), which is only ever available on VOD or physical media. However, it rewards you for your troubles by being a surprisingly progressive slasher that speaks to my commitment-phobic little heart.
HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE follows Amy Jensen (Caitlin O'Heaney). She’s a student and a bride who isn’t so sure about her upcoming wedding. Amy soon finds herself the target of a killer who preys on brides and watches as her friends become innocent victims as he tries to get to her. One of the ways this movie sets itself apart from other films is that Amy tries to talk to people about her cold feet. She asks multiple characters if they think she is making a mistake. In a world where most media treat marriage as all that women should aspire to, this is bold.
A final girl who is wondering if she’s ready to give up her independence, last name, and freedom is a rarity. To be confronted with those fears via a killer who is targeting her because she’s attempting to force herself down the aisle is not lost on me. I make it no secret that I have big thoughts about the way society shoves marriage, children, and “traditional values” down the throats of AFAB people. We are told at an early age that being a wife and mother are the titles we should aspire to. Many of us are called selfish for wanting careers or choosing to not procreate. So, seeing a 1980 slasher come in with some weird feminist energy took me aback.
The killer, Ray (Tom Rolfing), targets brides because marriage is a trigger for him. A woman broke his heart, and he killed her on the day she was to be wed to someone else. HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE gives you that because this isn’t the type of slasher that is concerned about mystery. Ray is a stranger to the people we’re about to watch him kill as he tries to get to our final girl. They get to be terrified by this stranger danger, and we get to see their terror. I see Ray as more of a commentary, albeit possibly unintentional, on violence against women. How many women who were turned down for unwanted advances are then murdered? How many women escape from abusive partners only to then become another homicide statistic? No matter how you view it, women are usually the ones harmed by men not going to therapy.
Ray being rejected and then taking it out on his ex tracks. His carrying on and making it every bride's problem also makes sense in this context. Especially when we look at how the legal system and the media treat women who speak up against men. No matter how powerful a man is, or isn’t, people are going to look at his victim and ask what she was wearing. We found out this year that social media will even blame a woman for provoking her husband rather than talk about why he killed her on a live stream. Whether or not it set out to be, HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE is a very timely film and is sadly getting more timely by the day.
While Scott Parker’s script is not perfect, there is enough interesting stuff happening to make it exciting. It’s also refreshing to see a movie where the final girl is being chased because she’s trying to conform to societal standards. She is literally on this killer’s radar because she is trying to be the closest to the pure virginal stereotype that most final girls are. However, if she had followed her own mind and called this wedding off, she could have avoided the harrowing nightmare. This is one of the ways that HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE won me over even before the bodies started hitting the floor. We need more counter-programming to the Hallmark gimmicks where career women give up their lives and forgo modernity to run off with random townies. If nothing else, I recommend this movie if you’re looking for more older slashers that take a stab at gender.
HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE is never on the typical streamers, so it has not become one of the mainstream slashers we love. However, it gets cool points for being Tom Hanks’ first movie, which is a fun bit of trivia. I describe Hanks’ character as the “Randy from SCREAM” type, as he has all the answers in his limited screen time. To be completely honest, it was also the reason I sought it out from the list. So I was pleasantly surprised that this movie ended up being a silent banger.
Director Armand Mastroianni captures some excellent kills, moments of tension, and gives us so many scenes that our favorite slashers borrowed from. I specifically nearly leaped out of my seat for the moment in a theater that was definitely the inspiration for SCREAM 2. Mastroianni confirmed that he and Wes Craven talked about the scene when I interviewed him last year. There are a ton more shots and character names littered throughout the film that I can now trace to so many slashers that came before it. I you are also a genre nerd, you are going to have a great time catching those references while watching people get sliced and diced.
Mastroianni also has a few kills that prove he understands how to suspend tension. Although budget constraints clearly wouldn’t let a few moments be truly great in the third act, you still see the vision. Even those moments help make
HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE that much more charming. After all, what slasher from 1980 doesn’t have a couple of moments that cause accidental laughter or confusion? Is that not part of the reason we keep going back to that bloody well? While those moments seem to come fast and furious toward the end, I still appreciate that we get a bonkers chase scene. This movie is definitely worth the price of rental, and I hope someday one of the regular streamers makes an honest movie out of it. I would love to introduce it to people who haven’t seen it on an app like Shudder.
