'WHISPERS IN THE DARK'....IT'S THE 90'S.....KINKY IN BED? YOU'LL END UP DEAD.....

 Whispers In The Dark (1992)    Let us now gather round and fondly remember that long lost genre that flourished in the 1990's......the glossy, twisty psychological sex thriller....

          Oh how we couldn't get enough of these.....kicking off with Sharon Stone flaunting her genitals in "Basic Instinct" and followed by an overheated landslide and imitators and knockoffs. You could find them on the big screen starring the A-listers of the time, or pick up any one of hundreds of rock-bottom, direct-to-VHS wanna-be copycats.....

           'Whispers' as you can see from the cast, falls into the big screen category with recognizable stars and top-of-the-line production values. The tropes are all in place.......weird kinky sex, multiple red herring suspects, and twists designed to make you gasp out, "...didn't see THAT coming...."

            Now let's take at the peek at the couch of sweetly empathetic shrink Ann Hecker (Annabella Sciorra). And what a pair of prime whack-a-doodles she's analyzing.......hot-to-trot Eve (Deborah Unger) whose unidentified boyfriend helps her enjoy being tied up and hung up like a beef carcass, and former stalker-abuser John (John Leguizamo), now working out his obsessions in his popular gallery portraits of naked women.......

            While all this transpires, Ann stumbles into a meet-cute with seemingly perfect private pilot (and gentlemanly studmuffin)  Doug (Jamey Sheridan, behaving like he's trying out for 'The Bachelor'). But things go awry when Eve's found permanently hung for real.......and puts Ann in the crosshairs of relentless homicide cop Larry Morgenstern (Anthony LaPaglia). Larry's determined to pin the murder on creepy little John, putting pressure on Ann to give up her confidential patient note

           So what's a troubled, conflicted shrink to do? (Especially when supposed stalwart Doug isn't quite as practically perfect as he first appears).As the twists (and bodies) pile up, Ann seeks solace and advice from her own shrink, her sympathetic professor and long time mentor Leo Green (Alan Alda).

          I've tried to lay this stuff out minus the various shocking reveals and deaths that transpire to bedevil poor Ann.....after all, why else would anyone watch a film like this?  But fair warning, if any of you have seen other psycho-thriller movies of this era, the HUGE SURPRISE of the finale is ridiculously obvious......and easily telegraphed if you're paying close attention. 

         But here at BQ, we couldn't care less.......we positively reveled in the bonkers, over-the-top,            so-called surprise, which gives the actor involved a golden opportunity to chew the scenery as if the furniture's made out of Twizzlers.  When it comes to the perp showdowns, nobody familiar with these movies expects restraint, or for that matter, even a smidgen of believability.

       The cast ably performs what's required of them, but we feel a bit sorry for Jill Clayburgh, who was coming to the tail end of her reign as a star of major films......more than the equal of the other actors on board, she's sadly wasted here in a minor throwaway role. 

        If you hold any cherished memories of films in this genre and haven't seen 'Whispers', put it on your viewing list right away.....(we caught it on Hoopla, where you can watch it free with your library card). If the dumb twists and feverish hysterical performances appear silly to you, then pas it by.....

        As in love as we are with dumb twists and feverish hysterical performances, BQ stood helpless to resist....2 & 1/2 guilty pleasure stars (**1/2).