Virginia Madsen

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On Christmas Eve in an unnamed suburbia, 17-year-old Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is busy babysitting the precocious 12-year-old Luke Lerner (Levi Miller). Luke has romantic feelings for Ashley and attempts unsuccessfully to seduce her while watching a horror movie. Strange happenings outside put Ashley on edge, but it ultimately appears to be just Luke's best friend, Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) who has stopped by to hang out. Hearing a window break upstairs, the trio find a brick inscribed with "U leave and U die." Garrett panics and runs out the back door, but is apparently killed by an unknown shooter. Shocked, Ashley and Luke run upstairs and hide in the attic. Ashley almost breaks her neck from a fall but Luke catches her. After they run into Luke's room and hide in his closet, a masked intruder armed with a shotgun walks into the room. Ashley recognizes the mask as one of Luke's and yanks it off the intruder, revealing Garrett. Ashley realizes that Luke was planning to further seduce her by scaring her. Angered, Ashley slanders Luke, calling him mental and saying he needs therapy, and tries to leave. While at the top of the stairs, Luke slaps her with his gun, causing her fall down the stairs and be knocked unconscious. Luke binds Ashley with duct tape, then forces her to play truth or dare. A little later, Ashley's boyfriend, Ricky (Aleks Mikic), arrives at the house after receiving a text message sent by Ashley earlier. When Ricky fails to find Ashley, he realizes that something is wrong. Luke tries to knock him out, but fails. After nearly killing Luke, Ricky is threatened by Garrett with the shotgun. Luke knocks him out and they tie him up beside Ashley. While Ashley uses a shard of glass to cut her binds, Luke tries to show Garrett what happens if you actually hit someone in the head with a swinging paint can similar to the scene from Home Alone. Luke tries to demonstrate with Ricky, but misses on the first swing. Ashley gets free and threatens Luke with a pistol. He drops the paint can and kills Ricky. When Ashley realizes the gun is unloaded, she tries to escape to a group of carolers outside. Luke uses the brick tossed through the upstairs window to knock her out again before she can alert them. After tying up Ashley again, Luke calls Ashley's ex-boyfriend, Jeremy (Dacre Montgomery) to come over to the house, claiming that she wants him to write an apology letter. While Jeremy does so, Luke hangs him from a tree, making the apology look like a suicide note. He kills Garrett for trying to free Ashley. Luke then stabs Ashley in the neck and stages the scene to frame Jeremy for the killings. Later, he goes to bed and waits for the return of his parents, who contact the police when the find the bodies. It is then revealed that Ashley stuck duct tape over the stab wound to stop the bleeding. Luke watches from his bedroom window as Ashley gives him the finger before being wheeled into the ambulance... thus making a lucky escape. In a mid-credit scene, the evil and scheming Luke tells his mom that he is worried about Ashley and wants to go to the hospital (to presumably try another chance to kill her).

Valerie (Seyfried) is a beautiful young woman torn between two men. She is in love with a brooding outsider, Peter (Fernandez), but her parents have arranged for her to marry the wealthy Henry (Irons). Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter are planning to run away together when they learn that Valerie's older sister has been killed by the werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village. For years, the people have maintained an uneasy truce with the beast, offering the creature a monthly animal sacrifice. But under a blood red moon, the wolf has upped the stakes by taking a human life. Hungry for revenge, the people call on famed werewolf hunter, Father Solomon (Oldman), to help them kill the wolf. But Solomon's arrival brings unintended consequences as he warns that the wolf, who takes human form by day, could be any one of them.

Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise. On his birthday, Walter Sparrow, an amiable dog-catcher, takes a call that leaves him with a dog bite and late to pick up his wife. She's browsed in a bookstore, finding a blood-red-covered novel, a murder mystery with numerology that loops constantly around the number 23. The story captivates Walter: he dreams it, he notices aspects of his life that can be rendered by "23," he searches for the author, he stays in the hotel (in room 23) where events in the novel took place, and he begins to believe it was no novel. His wife and son try to help him, sometimes in sympathy, sometimes to protect him. Slowly, with danger to himself and to his family, he closes in on the truth. —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Walter Sparrow is a family-man married with Agatha Sparrow, and works catching dogs in the Department of Animal Control and has a teenager son very close to his wife and him. On the day of his birthday, he is bitten by a dog and comes late to meet Agatha. While waiting for him, Agatha buys a detective book with a novel about the mystery around the number 23 in a bookstore as a gift to Walther. He becomes captivated with the story and obsessed with the number 23, finding many coincidences with his own life, and he decides to find the author, believing the story is about him. His further investigation discloses a mysterious situation that makes Walther paranoid. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Family man Walter (Jim Carrey) comes to find a mysterious red clad book that seem to resemble his life in ways he doesn't expect as his obsession with number patterns always coming back to 23 comes to a head he will frighten the ones that he loves. As the story plays out what will he find? Or does he won't to find it at all? Because of what he finds he could be gambling with his life or his sanity. —Corvus Walter Sparrow is an animal control officer that becomes obsessed with a mysterious book that seems to be based on his own life. As soon as he opens the book, he notices strange parallels between what he reads and what he's experienced. But now he's worried that a fictional murder might materialize. —yusufpiskin

Charles Farmer, played by Billy Bob Thornton, is a soft-spoken, wellliked, small town family man who has spent years building a rocket ship in his barn. As he nears completion of his project, however, several complications appear in his trajectory in the form of government interference and economic problems. Once the media got a hold of the story, the money woes seemed to make less sense to me. Look for Bruce Willis as a former astronaut, who visits Farmer. We spend the film watching and wondering whether these issues can be overcome and allow him to launch, and whether or not he should even try. Virginia Madsen stars as his supportive wife and Max Thieriot is his fifteen-year old son and assistant. (this first appeared on realmoviereview.com)

The film opens with Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) leaving his content, loving wife Beth (Virginia Madsen), two children, and a beautiful house to go fulfill his duties as Vice President of Security at Landrock Pacific Bank in downtown Seattle (actually shot in Vancouver, British Columbia as was most of the film). The day goes smoothly until Jack is visited by a collection agency, claiming that he owes $95,000 in debts to their online gambling site. He trusts a fellow colleague to take care of it (as he is convinced of some form of identity theft) and goes out for dinner with colleague Harry and potential employer, Bill Cox (Paul Bettany). After the meal, Harry leaves in a taxi and Jack gets in his car. Unexpectedly, Cox follows him into the back seat. Cox then goes on to tell Jack that his family is being held hostage at their home to ensure Jack's cooperation. He then points a gun to Jack's head and forces him to drive home. Upon their arrival, Jack sees that, although his family is unharmed, they are under heavy watch by Cox's henchmen. Jack is not told what to do until the next morning, when he is told that he must give Cox $10,000 each from the bank's 10,000 largest depositors ($100 million total). He is outfitted with audio and video devices in the form of a pen and a body microphone, making any intentions to resist useless. Once at work, Cox makes a surprise visit, reintroducing himself as Bill Redmond. Next, Jack gives him a tour of the facilities and security system. On the way back home, Jack attempts to bribe a henchman into betraying Cox, yet this only results in Cox killing the man. The Stanfields attempt an escape, but the plan fails just barely. In retaliation, Cox tricks the Stanfields' son Andy with a cookie containing nut products. Because he's allergic, Andy goes into anaphylactic shock. Cox withholds the treatment, (an EpiPen) until Jack acquiesces to their plan. The next day, Cox forces Jack to fire his secretary Janet Stone fearing she is growing suspicious. Jack downloads the files for the $100 million onto his daughter Sarah's iPod mini hard drive and then initiates a wire transfer to send the money to Cox's offshore accounts. Before leaving, Jack uses an employee's camera phone to take a picture of the account information on the screen. Cox then sets about wiping his tracks clean, deleting security data and surveillance tapes and using a virus to put the network on the entire building into disarray, setting Jack up to take the fall for embezzlement. Returning home, Jack finds the house empty except for Liam, one of Cox's men. Realizing Liam is still around for no reason other than to kill him, Jack turns to survival instinct; he pushes Liam over a chair, grabs a heavy glass blender, and viciously beats him in the head with three blows, killing him. He then tries to call Harry using Liam's unmonitored cell phone but cannot reach his friend. Instead, he sneaks into Harry's apartment to wait for his friend's return. Both Cox and Harry enter. Cox suddenly shoots Harry from behind, using the gun he had earlier confiscated from Jack. Because of this, along with a message planted on Harry's answering machine earlier by Beth as she is held at gunpoint, it appears that Jack killed Harry in a jealous rage over Beth. Jack runs to the only ally he has left: his "fired" secretary Janet. He asks her for help, and she provides him with transportation to a late-night branch of the bank at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. There, he uses the picture from the phone he took earlier to get access to Cox's account and calls him. Jack tells him that theres been a change of plans: he has hacked into his Cayman Island accounts and is stripping five accounts, $20,000,000 apiece. Cox tries forcing Jack to put the money back, but it is a futile threat. Jack informs Cox that he will get his money when he gets his family. Next, Jack tells Cox that he will call him when the banks open to make the exchange before hanging up on him. During the conversation, Jack hears the family dog in the background, and realizes that the family can be located and followed by the GPS tracking unit in the dog's collar. This leads him and Janet to an abandoned house. He leaves Janet on the road to call the police. Cox shoots one of his own henchman (Vel) who had compassion for the hostages and removed the Stanfield's tape gags after Andy begins to suffocate because he is unable to breathe properly with the tape gag over his mouth. Another henchman (Vince Vieluf) chases after Sarah, Jack runs into the chaser with Janet's car, hurling him into an RV, which then explodes, burning the RV, killing him and destroying Janet's car. Cox, seeing that the tide is turning against him, panics and takes Beth and Andy to the upper level of the house. Jack scales the side of the house, destroys a window and comes to rescue his wife and son, tackling Cox to the floor and forcing him to a final showdown. After a long and grueling struggle with Cox, Jack finally gains the upper hand, impaling him through the back with a pickaxe, and wins his family's freedom.

When his daughter is shot just before Christmas, Martin Tillman journeys across the U.S. using the gun's serial number to track down the truth behind Penny's killing. A father who embarks on a nationwide journey to trace the line of ownership of the gun that killed his daughter. Starting with the gun factory, Martin travels to gun stores, trade shows, and individuals, also searching for his runaway granddaughter. —Conrad Gangone

The Haunting (1999) is a remake of the 1963 film, "The Haunting." The movie starts with Eleanor "Nell" Vance (Lili Taylor) arguing with her sister over the house which her recently deceased mother, whom Nell took care of for 11 years, left her sister in the will. After her sister gives her her mother's car, Nell orders her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew to leave. Once she's alone she finds an ad in the local newspaper asking for volunteers to take part in a study on insomnia at an old New England mansion, which Nell decides to join. Elsewhere we find Dr. Marrow (Liam Neeson) discussing with his assistant Mary over which volunteers he should use for his study, which he explains is actually an experiment on how people react to fear. Once Nell arrives at Hill House, she argues politely with Mr. Dudley the caretaker to let her in. After minutes of arguing she finally enters through the gates of Hill House where at the door she finds Mr. Dudley's wife Mrs. Dudley. As Nell makes her way to her room, it's clear that she's instantly drawn to the house. Moments later Theo (Catherine Zeta-Jones) arrives and gives Nell with an awkward homophobic reaction. After the two get to know each other a little better, they both go downstairs and explore, and find the carousel room, then they return to the main entrance and meet Luke (Owen Wilson) Dr. Marrow, and his two assistants Mary and Todd. Once they get to dinner they discuss insomnia issues and find out more about each other, and learn what they'd be doing for the next few days. After dinner, Dr. Marrow leads his guests to a room to tell everyone the story of Hill House and how Hugh Crain had built it for his wife and wished desperately for children, which all died at birth. After Dr. Marrow tells the story his assistant Mary talks about how she can feel the evil everywhere and that there's more to the story. As she goes up to examine the piano one of the strings snaps and cuts her, causing her and Todd to leave for the remainder of the movie. As everyone gets ready for bed Dr. Marrow tells Luke about how Hugh Crain's wife had killed herself, in order to scare Luke. Once upstairs Luke occupies himself with a book and a candy dispenser, while Theo tries to get closer to Nell, and Nell reluctantly asks to go to bed. As Nell and Theo are in bed, Luke decides to wander around, and is met be Dr. Marrow, who decides to talk for a while. As everything calms down for the night Nell is startled by a screaming Theo, in response to a constant mysterious banging on the walls. Nell and Theo cower as Luke rushes to see what the screaming is, although he was unaware of any banging. The next morning everyone tries to talk things out, but Dr. Marrow assures everyone the coldness and noises were all due to the old plumbing. The next night as Nell is asleep the movie encounters it's first visual samples of paranormal activity, and Nell is encountered by ghostly figures taking forms through the bed sheets and curtains. As Nell and Luke are filling out papers for Dr. Marrows research, Luke confides in Nell that Dr. Marrow must be up to something and that he would get to the bottom of things. Luke soon wanders off talking about Theo leaving Nell alone, where she experiences more paranormal events. Everyone quickly rushes in to see what was wrong and finds Nell scared, and concerned over what was happening in the house. While Dr. Marrow and Luke looked around to see what might have startled Eleanor look comes to a frightening observation that the large portrait of Hugh Crain had been vandalized with blood reading, "Welcome Home Eleanor." Eleanor is appalled at the writing and demands to know who did it, but no one confesses, leaving tension between the characters. The group soon makes their way to the green room where they find a large unstable spiral staircase, and a fountain containing a large statue of Hugh Craine, and some more statues of a women surrounded by 6 children. As another night comes we find Nell sleeping, but she is soon awakened by some more sounds. As she looks around she finds a trail of bloody foot prints leading her to a hidden library. In the library she finds logs of hundreds of children that Hugh Craine must have taken in to his house, finding that many of them had actually died working for Hugh Crain. She goes to tell Theo, but Theo doesn't believe what Nell tells her, and goes back to bed. Once Eleanor is alone she starts to brush her hair, but when she stops her hair parts on it's own, and Eleanor is deeply frightened once more. The next morning Nell finds Dr. Marrow's studies, and learns what the experiment actually is. She also finds out that he's interpreting her behavior as delusional. In the statue garden Luke talks to Theo and seems to have also figured out what Dr. Marrow was doing, but when they encounter Nell, she expresses that it's not Dr. Marrow doing everything to the house, and that it's indeed ghosts. She then insists that home is where the heart is. When Nell looks up she sees Hugh Crain's wife hanging, but no one else sees it leading everyone to think even more that Eleanor is mentally unstable and should go home. Nell rushes to the library and finds pictures of Hugh Crain's wife whispering for her to check the fire place. In the fire place Nell finds a skeleton that comes to life causing Nell to run away, following the voices of children. She tries to go through a door but is punched by a hand that formed from the door and soon disappeared. Eleanor rushes to the rest of the group and concludes that Hugh Crain took children from the town to work at the mills then never let them go. As she tells this to Theo, Luke, and Dr. Marrow, they conclude that she's going crazy from emotional distress and fear. As Theo tries talking to Dr. Marrow about her, she finds that they're in an experiment to study reactions to fear, and becomes furious at what the experiment had done to Nell. Once Nell's in bed and Theo finishes comforting her and leaves to bring her tea, the walls form the shape of a face, and everything starts falling apart around her. She runs out and looks in the mirror to see Mrs. Crain's face, and then runs away again to the carousel room. She's then extremely frightened and runs to the green room. Theo, Luke, and Dr. Marrow go searching for Nell and finally come to the green room to find Nell climbing the spiral stair case. Dr. Marrow goes to save her, but the stairway starts to unhinge, causing Dr. Marrow to desperately and quickly bring Nell to safety. Dr. Marrow goes to the green room to examine and take notes, and is grabbed by the statue of Hugh Crain, which them starts to fountain out blood. He runs to Theo and Luke, to go check on Eleanor. Eleanor's bed cages her in metal beams, and Theo, Luke, and Dr. Marrow desperately try to get in to help. Once they get in everyone else finally observes the paranormal aspects of Hill House for the first time. As soon as they get Nell out they try to leave, but Hill House makes sure that there's no way of escaping. Nell then runs back to the house knowing that she's meant to save the children. Everyone runs in looking for her, so they can leave, and they finally find her. Even after Theo tries to compromise with letting her by letting her live with her, Nell refuses to leave until she saves the children. Luke, Theo, and Dr. Marrow still try to escape now that they can't leave the house, but can't find anyway out. Luke then falls into the fire place, and as he's trying to get out he gets decapitated by a stone lion. The house is now coming to life, and everything that can is trying to attack the current occupants. Finally the ghost of Hugh Crain comes out for a final battle, but as his ghost is being sent to the walls Eleanor goes along with it crashing her body against the stone door. She then falls to the ground dying. As Nell dies the children's spirits are release along with her's. The movie ends with the Dudleys returning and a final shot of the house

The life of people frequenting The Florentine, a local bar, in the days leading up to the bartender's sister's wedding. The bar in an old Pennsylvania steel town, housed with many of life's losers and disillusioned men, is the main setting for this slice-of-life film. Michael Madsen is the bar owner, who is deep in debt to the town's book-maker and loan shark Burt Young. Chris Penn is one of the bar's main inhabitants as he hides from his failing marriage to Mary Stuart Masterson. The bartender's sister (Virginia Madsen) is about to be married, and her former fiancé (Tom Sizemore) shows up in town, after leaving her at the altar years before. Con man James Belushi runs a con on Perry to steal the money for the wedding caterer. As every plot in this multi-layered story seems to be at its worst, things look up because of an unlikely hero. —John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>

Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) is a graduate of the University of Memphis Law School. Unlike most of his fellow grads who get high paying jobs due to their family connections, he has no high-paying employment lined up and is forced to apply for part-time positions while serving drinks at a Memphis bar. There were just too many lawyers in Memphis. Desperate for a job, he reluctantly goes to an interview with J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone (Mickey Rourke), a ruthless but successful personal injury lawyer, who makes him an associate. To earn his fee, Rudy is turned into a veritable ambulance chaser, required to hunt for potential clients at a local hospital. Bruiser's associates only get paid by finding cases and working them up for trial. Rudy will be paid $1000 per month, and the firm gets to keep 33% of all the awards from the cases, and Rudy gets a percentage of that. Soon he meets Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito), a less-than-ethical former insurance assessor turned paralegal who has failed the bar exam six times. Deck is resourceful in gathering information and practically an expert on insurance lawsuits. Rudy is taking his bar exam in 3 weeks. Rudy manages to get just one case, concerning insurance bad faith against a company called Great Benefit. It could be worth several million dollars in damages, which appeals to him as he is about to declare himself bankrupt. He rents a room in the home of elderly Miss Birdsong (Teresa Wright), who in return could use some advice on what to do about greedy relatives eager to inherit when she dies. Deck finds out that Birdsong did inherit a couple of million dollars from her 2nd husband, but after lawyers and IRS, she is left with about $40,000. When Birdsong's son comes to visit, Rudy tells him that his mother got a large inheritance, and this gets him to take better care of his mother. Deck asks Rudy to sign the Great Benefit clients and Rudy visits the family of Dot, Buddy and their son Buddy. Dot shares all the correspondence from Great Benefit with Rudy, in which they deny Buddy's claim for Leukemia. Great Benefit claimed that Leukemia was not covered in the policy as it was a Pre-existing condition, even though they had taken all the premiums. In one of the letters, they call Dot stupid. Rudy passes the Tennessee bar exam but is not yet properly licensed to stand as an attorney. When Bruiser fails to show up for court for the Great Benefit case, Rudy attempts to argue the case, but Judge Harvey Hale (Dean Stockwell) scolds Rudy and tells him to first get his license. Defense attorney Leo F. Drummond (Jon Voight) offers to stand for Rudy as Rudy is sworn in before the judge. Drummond is a showman attorney who uses unscrupulous tactics to win his cases and heads a group of experienced and devious lawyers from a large firm. Drummond offers Rudy $75,000 to settle the case out of court. Bruiser's offices are raided by the police and FBI on suspicion of racketeering. Rudy finds that Bruiser has disappeared. Before fleeing, Bruiser gave Rudy and Deck $5000 each. Not knowing what else to do, Rudy and Deck set up a two-man practice themselves, without so much as a secretary for help. They file a bad faith suit on behalf of a middle-aged couple, Dot (Mary Kay Place) and Buddy Black (Red West ), whose 22-year-old son Donny Ray (Johnny Whitworth) is dying of leukemia but could have been saved with a bone marrow transplant, denied by their insurance carrier Great Benefit. The original judge assigned to Rudy's case, Harvey Hale (Dean Stockwell), is set to dismiss it because he sees it as one of many so-called "lottery" cases that slow the judicial process. But a far more sympathetic judge, Tyrone Kipler (Danny Glover), takes over when Hale suffers a fatal heart attack. Kipler, a former civil rights attorney, immediately denies the insurance company's petition for dismissal. While preparing his case, Rudy gets to know a young woman he met at the hospital, Kelly Riker (Claire Danes), a battered wife whose husband, Cliff (Andrew Shue), has beaten her so savagely with a baseball bat that she was hospitalized. Bruiser had sent Rudy to the hospital to sign her up as a client, but he got attracted to her instead. Cliff only spent one night in jail for his violent assault in Kelly. Kelly got pregnant at 18, got married to Cliff, and had a miscarriage probably because Cliff beat her. Rudy knew she was a loser, but wanted to protect her. Kelly still wasn't able to leave Cliff. After a particularly violent attack, Rudy persuades Kelly, to whom he is attracted, to file for divorce. Going to Kelly's home to pack her belongings, Rudy and Kelly are confronted by Cliff. After Cliff is injured in the fight, Kelly insists Rudy leave. From outside, Rudy can hear Cliff being hit with his own baseball bat. To protect Rudy from being implicated in Cliff's death, Kelly tells the police she killed her husband in self-defense. Rudy promises to defend Kelly if the case goes to trial, but the district attorney declines to prosecute, knowing Kelly would never be convicted. Donny Ray dies, but not before giving a video deposition. The case goes to trial, where Drummond preys on Rudy's inexperience. He gets Rudy's key witness, Jackie Lemanczyk's (Virginia Madsen), vital testimony stricken from the record, and attempts to discredit Donny Ray's mother (Mary Kay Place). With help from now Caribbean-based fugitive Bruiser (with whom Deck is connected by intermediaries), Jackie's testimony and the Great Benefit Employee Manual are finally admitted into evidence, to Drummond's dismay. Due to Rudy's single-minded determination and skillful cross-examination of Great Benefit's unctuous president, Wilfred Keeley (Roy Scheider), the jury finds for the plaintiff with a monetary award far exceeding all expectations. It is a great triumph for Rudy and Deck, at least until Keeley attempts to flee the country and Great Benefit declares itself bankrupt, thus allowing it to avoid paying punitive damages to the Blacks, as well as any future judgments in class-action lawsuits. There is no payout for the grieving parents and no fee for Rudy or Deck. Dot Black expresses satisfaction that at least they put Great Benefit out of business and is now unable to hurt other families like hers. Convinced his success will create unrealistic expectations for future clients, Rudy abandons his practice to instead teach law with a focus on ethical behavior instead. He leaves town with Kelly, wanting to retain a low profile and protect Kelly from any possible retribution by Cliff's vengeful relatives. He leaves the legal profession after just one successful case.

Helen Lyle (Virginia Masden) is an affluent young woman who is working with her good friend Bernadette "Bernie" Walsh (Kasi Lemmons), on a master's thesis involving modern folklore. Her husband, Trevor Lyle (Xander Berkeley), is a university professor, of whom she suspects infidelity with one of his younger students, and we suspect her home life isn't quite satisfying, despite the fact that she seems to be very much in love with Trevor. Helen and Bernie have been interviewing numerous people about various 'urban legend' type stories. One young woman tells them a story about "Candyman", a mythical being who has a hook instead of a right hand. The legend goes that Candyman will appear behind you if you say his name five times while looking in a mirror. Clara (Marianna Elliott) dares rebel other-boyfriend Billy (Ted Raimi) to repeat Candyman's name five times in front of the mirror while she's babysitting the Johnson family's baby. Billy only repeats it four times but when she is left alone in the bathroom, getting ready to lose her virginity to Billy and not Michael, her "too good" boyfriend, Clara repeats the name a fifth time. Then, she turns off the light and right behind her, Candyman's appears and kills her with her hooked arm. As Helen reviews the recorded conversation in an empty classroom one night at the university, a cleaning woman overhears the story about Candyman and pays special attention to it. Henrietta Mosely (Barbara Alston) calls in another cleaning woman, Kitty Calver (Sarina C. Grant), who tells Helen about the murders that have taken place in Cabrini-Green, Chicago, the low income housing project where she lives. The people of Cabrini-Green have attributed the deaths to Candyman, as the victims have been butchered with a weapon determined to be a hook. The mention of the murders leads Helen to research it in archived newspapers, and she finds out the names of the victims. Even more intriguing to her is the fact that her own apartment building was designed exactly like Cabrini-Green; she learns that it was intended as another housing development, but eventually the idea was scrapped when the developers realized that the location was too desirable; Helen and Bernie theorize that the white developers relocated the housing project to a more forbidding area that would keep the ghetto separated from the rest of the city. Helen is aware that the units in her building are connected to one another through the medicine chests in the bathrooms; when removed, they reveal a small space that links the apartments together. Helen knows that Cabrini-Green's apartments must be the same, and that the stories of Candyman coming out of the medicine chest could indicate a human assailant who had also made this discovery. With Bernadette in tow, she visits Cabrini-Green and finds the apartment of one of the murder victims; on the other side of the medicine chest is a strange lair, with holes in the wall and elaborate graffiti-style artwork depicting a large man's head with a hole in the wall for a mouth. Helen is fascinated by it, as well as the fact that an altar appears to have been constructed there as well, with candy left behind as an offering. Helen and Bernie meet Anne-Marie McCoy (Vanessa Williams), the neighbor of the deceased victim. Anne-Marie is initially hostile to them, as she feels the presence of white people in the all-black housing development indicates nothing but trouble (Bernie herself is black, but Helen is white, and the tenants they meet on the way inside mistake them for police officers). But eventually Anne-Marie softens and invites them into her apartment. Helen is taken by Anne-Marie's baby boy, Anthony (Lanesha Martin & Latesha Martin) admitting she would like to have a child of her own one day. Anne-Marie says that she is determined to make a better life for her son, one that does not involve Cabrini-Green or the drug-dealing youths that loiter on its grounds. While at dinner one night with Bernie, Trevor, and a few of Trevor's colleagues, Helen makes the mistake of baiting Philip Purcell (Michael Culkin), a snobbish folklore expert, by mentioning her thesis project. Philip attempts to belittle Helen by telling her that he's already written an essay about Candyman. Philip shares with her Candyman's strange back story, revealing that he was the son of a slave who had come into a great deal of wealth due to an invention that became hugely successful. Candyman grew up well-schooled and comfortable, and was a prodigious artist who was in high demand among the wealthy to paint their portraits. Eventually Candyman had an affair with the daughters of one of his wealthy white clients, and when she became pregnant the man exacted a horrible revenge on Candyman. He sent hired goons to attack Candyman, cutting off his right hand, stripping him nude, and smearing him with the honeycomb of a hive of angry bees. He was killed by the numerous bee stings. Philip claims that it all took place on the site where Cabrini-Green now stands. Even more intrigued, Helen returns to the building on her own. When she finds Anne-Marie is not home, she meets a young boy named Jake (DeJuan Guy) who gives her more information. Another death in the project was attributed to Candyman, the brutal castration of a young boy (Kenneth A. Brown) who entered a filthy public men's room only to meet an attacker who cut off his genitals, resulting in his death. When Jake takes Helen to the site, she goes inside and starts taking photographs, but a group of young toughs enters after her. One man (Terrence Riggins) approaches her and announces that he is Candyman, and his is carrying a large hook, which he uses to beat Helen's face, knocking her unconscious. Later in a police lineup, she identifies her assailant, much to the satisfaction of Detective Frank Valento (Gilbert Lewis), who informs Helen that the young man who beat her was suspected of the previous murders. He had been using the legend of Candyman to frighten the residents of Cabrini-Green into silence, and Helen's testimony will help to put him away. Helen meets Jake there at the police station, and she thanks him for his help, explaining that her attacker was human and that Candyman is not real. Jake almost seems disappointed. Some time later, Helen and Bernie have a discussion where Helen reveals that she is unsettled by the fact that the two murders, both of which featured black victims, went practically unnoticed, while her own mere assault caused a lock-down of Cabrini-Green, presumably because she was a white victim. Bernie surprises her with slides from her camera, which Helen had assumed was a complete write-off after the attack in the men's room. On the way back to her car, Helen looks at the slides, when suddenly she is confronted by a strange figure, a tall black man wearing a long coat and speaking in an unearthly voice. She realizes this is Candyman, although she can barely comprehend how it is possible. Candyman urges Helen to become his victim, almost as if he were speaking to a lover. He tells Helen that because she has exposed the real killer at Cabrini-Green, she has caused a sudden rift in his world; the belief in him by hundreds of people is what allows him to go on living. Helen's incident has caused this belief to drop, and now he is in danger of ceasing to exist entirely. Candyman intends to kill Helen, which would then give rebirth to his legend and cause belief to surge once more. Helen swoons and loses consciousness. When she awakens, she is disoriented, and realizes that she is somehow in Anne-Marie's apartment. She is covered in blood, and Anne-Marie is screaming hysterically in another room. A meat cleaver is lying next to Helen, and she picks it up, terrified at what she may find going on in the other room. She finds Anne-Marie's dog, decapitated, its blood everywhere. Anne-Marie is screaming over the empty crib of her son, who is now missing. When she sees Helen approaching her with a cleaver, she immediately thinks Helen is responsible, and she rushes at her, attacking her. When it seems as if Anne-Marie may kill her, Helen strikes her with the cleaver, wounding her shoulder, just as police break though the door of the apartment and surround Helen. At the precinct, Helen is subjected to a strip search in a humiliating way by a rude policewoman (Rusty Schwimmer) who would not even get close to her, only bluntly asking her to take off all her clothes. Later, Detective Valento appears, this time speaking furiously to Helen. It is clear that everybody thinks she is responsible for the attack and kidnapping of Anne-Marie's child. She makes a phone call to Trevor, only to discover that Trevor is somehow not home, even though it is 3am. The next day he comes for Helen and takes her home, helping her though a throng of reporters and news cameras. Her lawyer (John Rensenhouse) tells Helen that the prosecutors seem to have released her because they think the child's body will turn up and they will then charge Helen with murder 1, which he thinks is unlikely to stick. Helen is somewhat comforted, but she still cannot comprehend what has happened to her. She questions Trevor about where he was at 3am, and he claims he was home, sleeping. The next day, Helen looks more at the slides she took at Cabrini-Green, and in one shot she is able to see Candyman standing behind her, even though he was not there when she took the shot. He then appears to her once again, emerging from her medicine chest, then seemingly everywhere at once. She cannot escape him. He talks to her again, saying she belongs to him and that she will be immortal if she surrenders to him. She is paralyzed with fear, but she hears Bernie knocking at the door to her apartment, carrying a spray of flowers, presumably to cheer Helen. Helen tries to scream and warn her, but Bernie enters and is killed by Candyman. This time Helen awakens under much more dire circumstances. Trevor enters the room and she watches bloodied Helen holding a knife asking him to help her. She gets handcuffed to a gurney and being given injections. She breaks free from her police guard and rushes into the other room to see Bernie's mutilated corpse. As Helen is taken away in a police car, she hears Candyman's voice, and she begs him not to hurt the baby. Helen is taken to an institution and strapped down and injected, but when she is alone, Candyman appears to her again, hovering in the air over her. He tells her that her life is over and that she belongs to him now. When she screams for help, medics come in and of course, they cannot see Candyman, only Helen. Helen is eventually taken to see Dr. Burke (Stanley DeSantis), who informs her that he is working for her defense. Helen is astonished to learn that she has been in the facility for an entire month, under heavy sedation. When they breach the subject of Candyman, Helen "calls" for him by looking into a mirror and saying his name five times. Candyman appears and kills Dr. Burke, then slashes Helen's bonds. He levitates through a window and disappears, smashing the glass. Helen uses the window to escape, edging her way to another room and knocking a nurse unconscious, stealing her uniform and ultimately escaping the hospital. Helen goes home to her apartment and is in for an even greater shock: Trevor has moved his young student in, and they are in the process of completely redecorating the apartment. They are terrified to see Helen, as she has been accused of savage crimes. She tells Trevor he was all she had left in the world, and then she leaves, much to their relief. With nowhere else to go, Helen goes to Cabrini-Green and seeks out Candyman's lair. She finds him asleep and tries to kill him with a hook, but he awakens and tells her to surrender to him. He promises Helen that the pain of her death will be "exquisite", and that she needn't fear the afterlife, as she will be immortal like he is. He tries to kiss Helen and bees swarm out of his mouth and his body, stinging Helen, and she swoons. Helen regains consciousness and finds that she is alone. Looking at the walls of the lair, she realizes, through paintings he has done on the walls, that she herself is the image of Candyman's lost love, the young woman that he lost his life over many years before. Wandering outside, she hears the baby crying from somewhere nearby, and realizes that Anthony is inside the large pile of scrap wood and garbage that the resident of Cabrini-Green intend to burn for a bonfire. When she goes into the pile to rescue him, Jake awakens and sees her scrambling among the garbage, with a hook in her hand. Mistaking her for Candyman, Jake alerts a group of other residents and together they go outside with gasoline and torches to burn Candyman alive on the bonfire. As the flames spread, Helen reaches the baby inside the bonfire, but Candyman appears to restrain her from escaping. He encourages Helen to stay with him and be burned alive in order to fuel their own legend. Helen fights back, impaling Candyman with a burning shard of wood, and she manages to crawl out of the fire while protecting baby Anthony. Anne-Marie sees them and is overcome, both by finding her child alive and realizing that Helen has delivered him safely out of the burning wreckage. Badly burned by the fire, Helen dies. At Helen's funeral, Trevor a few others are the only mourners, until suddenly they look up and see a huge group of residents from Cabrini-Green marching among the gravestones, making their way to her grave site. Anne-Marie and Jake are at the forefront. Anne-Marie is carrying baby Anthony triumphantly. Jake removes Candyman's hook from under his coat, apparently pulled from the ashes of the fire. He drops it into Helen's grave. After the funeral, Trevor and his new girlfriend Stacey (Carolyn Lowery) are at their apartment, the same apartment where Helen used to live. Trevor has isolated himself in the bathroom, shaking with grief, while the young girl angrily waits in the kitchen, seemingly annoyed that Trevor is grieving the loss of his wife. Sobbing, Trevor looks in the mirror and mumbles Helen's name and over and over. Suddenly, Helen appears behind him, a ghostly apparition holding a hook. She uses the hook to murder Trevor, gutting his body and leaving it lying in the tub for his new girlfriend to find. Her own legend has just begun.

A young woman from a Catholic school and a young man from a nearby prison camp fall in love and must run away together to escape the law, the church and their parents. In this fact-based melodrama, Joe Fisk is a juvenile delinquent who falls in love with Lisa Taylor, a Catholic girl's school student, in an Oregon forest. The two meet by chance when the troubled young man stumbles upon her while being chased by his peers in a training exercise, sees the lovely young girl floating in a small lake as she works on a photography assignment. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but neither of their custodians encourage contact of the opposite sex. However, when their relationship is discovered there's trouble all around, forcing the young lovers to flee. The question then remains: Will they be able to escape the law and other authorities long enough to find happiness? —Bambi Ross <mgross@fuse.net>

Smitten by a female stranger, new graduate student, Boris Lafkin, follows the girl into the University Medical Center. There he catches the eye of Dr. Harry Wolper, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist who is seeking a student assistant. Harry promises to identify the girl if Boris forgoes his assistant position with Harry's rival colleague, Dr. Sid Kuhlenbeck, and comes to work for him. Harry vows to teach Boris "the big picture" while under his mentor-ship. When Boris accepts, Harry takes him to his off-campus laboratory and explains his experiment, "Lucy," named after his deceased wife. For the past thirty years, Harry has been cultivating her cells, attempting to bring her back to life. Although Harry does not really know the name of Boris' love interest, the boy still grows to admire his new instructor. When Harry needs a "sequencer" to continue his experiments, the two steal one from rival Dr. Sid Kuhlenbeck. Later, Boris learns that his father has passed away, and Harry attends the funeral with his grieving young protege. As Harry shares stories of his wife, Lucy, Boris expresses admiration for the doctor. With their partnership secured, Harry reveals that he has learned the name of Boris' flame: Barbara Spencer. In time, Boris sees Barbara on the street, and helps her carry a refrigerator to her new apartment. When Boris meets her roommate, Larry, he assumes the two are a couple, and becomes despondent. As Dr. Kuhlenbeck pries Boris for information about Harry's secret experiment, he reveals his intention to have Harry removed from his leadership position at the university, and transferred to an outlying facility where the elderly scientists teach. Meanwhile, Harry posts fliers seeking a female ovary donor to further his experiments. When he later consoles a crying young woman named Meli, who believes she may be pregnant but cannot afford medical testing, Harry offers to perform a blood test at no charge. Learning she is not pregnant, the grateful girl offers Harry one of her eggs and moves in to Harry's home. When Boris meets Meli and learns she donated an ovary, he believes Harry has gone too far. In turn, Meli confides her intention to marry Harry. Sometime later, Barbara seeks out Boris and explains that she no longer wants to live with her roommate, Larry, after he made sexual advances toward her. Boris offers Barbara temporary accommodations at his apartment while she looks for a new place to live. Feeling comfortable with her new friend, Barbara accepts his offer. Elsewhere, Harry asks Meli for a second egg, and she agrees, on condition that Harry gives their budding relationship a chance. At Boris' apartment, Barbara settles in, and the young man struggles to restrain his attraction to her. Later, Meli proposes marriage to Harry, but he refuses to take the young girl seriously. At a faculty dinner party, Harry introduces his colleagues to Meli, and the girl is mesmerizing. When Dr. Kuhlenbeck attempts to seduce her, Meli rejects him. Harry later shows his home lab to the chairperson of the Biology department, Paul, and shares his progress with resurrecting "Lucy." Paul, a close friend of Harry's, advises him to keep his ludicrous experiment to himself. In time, Harry invites Boris and Barbara to his beach house, where they fall in love. Boris proposes marriage while making love to Barbara, and she accepts. Back in Harry's lab, "Lucy's" fertilized egg begins to grow in a test tube. Paul and Boris congratulate the doctor on his achievement, but Meli is not pleased. Later, Barbara develops morning sickness, and she fears she is pregnant. Later still, Dr. Kuhlenbeck discovers the stolen lab equipment at Harry's house, and university officers repossess the contraptions, destroying the "Lucy" fetus in the process. However, some of her cultivated cells remain intact. Due to the incident, Boris anticipates being expelled and blames Harry for leading him astray. Meanwhile, Meli fights with Harry over "Lucy," chastising him for not accepting his wife's death. Heartbroken, Meli leaves her companion. Later, Harry accepts a transfer to the isolated research facility within the university, but first fulfills his obligation to give a presentation for Biology department financiers. Dr. Kuhlenbeck is furious when Harry successfully procures a large grant from the financiers, and learns the research funds will go with Harry to the outlying facility. Later, Boris takes Barbara to the hospital after she suffers pains and fainting spells. There, Dr. Kuhlenbeck examines her, and rushes her into emergency treatment when she falls unconscious. Barbara's parents arrive at her bedside and tell Boris how much Barbara loves him. Dr. Kuhlenbeck reveals that Barbara suffered a stroke and can no longer breathe on her own. Although she could remain alive in a coma for several years, Dr. Kuhlenbeck recommends that her parents remove her from life support. Devastated, Boris vows to protect Barbara, but her parents give permission to let her die. As Boris begs Dr. Kuhlenbeck to wait, claiming Barbara is not brain dead, Harry arrives to intervene. Bearing a letter from the university dean, Harry is given permission to conduct tests on Barbara for two more days, and enlists Boris' help. Ultimately agreeing with Dr. Kuhlenbeck's grave assessment, Harry extracts some of Barbara's cells and offers to use them to bring her back if she dies, but Boris is determined to accept her death, if it occurs. Forgoing science, Harry and Boris turn to prayer and the power of love to save Barbara. When Boris tells his mentor that he failed to learn "the big picture" because he was too caught up in his love for Barbara, Harry suggests otherwise. Harry leaves Boris to sit vigil at Barbara's side and searches for Meli, posting fliers around town declaring his desire to marry her. Harry speaks aloud to his deceased wife, and finally bids her farewell. Sometime later, Meli finds Harry at his beach house, and he throws the last of Lucy's cells into the ocean. They express their love for each other, and Meli agrees to marry Harry. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Boris pleads with Barbara to live. As Dr. Kuhlenbeck pulls Boris away, Barbara squeezes her lover's hand, proving she is still alive. When Dr. Kuhlenbeck removes her breathing machine, Boris is enraged, then realizes Barbara is breathing on her own. Looking for Barbara's parents to notify them of Barbara's recovery, Boris sees Harry, and the friends embrace. Sometime later, Boris returns to the hospital carrying armfuls of presents for Barbara. In the final scene, students flock to follow Harry to his new outpost within the university, and Meli tells him she's expecting a baby.

At Vernon Academy, a prestigious boys' preparatory school in Illinois, Jonathan Ogner (Andrew McCarthy) arrives on campus to begin his senior year. Upon entering his dormitory, he is greeted by his new roommate, Squire Franklin Burroughs IV (Rob Lowe), who is nicknamed "Skip." Following a brief chat, Skip coerces Jonathan to dress in women's underwear as part of senior-class ritual, then locks him out of the building, exposing him to ridicule by the other students. Later, Skip apologizes for the prank, explaining it as a school tradition. Jonathan endures the taunts of his classmates until lunch the next day, when he runs from the cafeteria in tears. Skip returns to his room and discovers Jonathan hanging from the ceiling. The horrified student fetches Mr. Kennedy (Remark Ramsay), the headmaster, but when they enter the room, Jonathan's body has been replaced with a mannequin bearing Kennedy's likeness. The prank earns Jonathan the respect of Skip and his classmates. That night, over a bottle of vodka, Jonathan admits that he cheated on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, believing that his "life depends" on being accepted to Harvard University, even though he has always been an exceptional student. He and Skip sneak out of the dormitory to meet Lisa (Virgina Madison) and Susan (Deborah Thalberg), who attend Vernon's sister school, Foxfield Academy. Jonathan ruins the evening by vomiting in the backseat of Skip's car. Sometime later, Skip appoints Jonathan as secretary to the school's dance committee, which travels to Foxfield to meet with Headmistress DeBreul (Fern Persons) and several students, including Lisa and Susan, to plan a Halloween dance. Jonathan's clumsiness in the presence of the women causes a series of mishaps, including the baring of Lisa's breasts and the destruction of a vase given to the school by Eleanor Roosevelt. Jonathan is banned from Foxfield for life, denying him the only source of female companionship within a hundred miles of Vernon. Skip directs Jonathan to the Free and Easy Club in Chicago, Illinois, where he is likely to meet a sex partner. Skip also instructs Jonathan to return to school with a pair of panties as evidence of his conquest. At the club, Jonathan endures two awkward encounters before he meets Ellen (Jacqueline Bissett), an older, uninhibited English woman in her late-thirties. Taking Skip's advice, Jonathan lies about his age, saying he is a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University. Afraid of further embarrassing himself, Jonathan leaves the bar and hails a taxi. Ellen joins him and directs the driver to her hotel, where she and Jonathan make love in an elevator. Two days later, Jonathan returns to Vernon with a pair of Ellen's panties, and word spreads quickly of his sexual prowess. During a subsequent tryst in Chicago, Ellen asks to visit Jonathan at Northwestern the following weekend. When Jonathan claims that he will be attending a conference in New York City, Ellen offers to meet him there, leaving Jonathan no choice but to make travel plans. In a Manhattan clothing store, Ellen inadvertently sees Jonathan's student identification card and (seeing that he is underage and lied to her about himself attending Northwestern) runs from the store. Before Jonathan can stop her, she speeds away in a taxi. Jonathan returns to Vernon in a state of depression, resulting in a decline in his health and his schoolwork. Skip tries to lift his roommate's spirits, but makes no progress until Jonathan is notified that he has been accepted to Harvard. Over the Christmas holidays, Jonathan visits Skip at the Burroughs family's lavish estate. While the boys converse with Mr. Burroughs (Cliff Robertson) in the den, Skip's mother, who happens to be Ellen, appears. Following a brief introduction and an awkward pause, Ellen retires to her bedroom. At dinner, Ellen drinks heavily while Jonathan struggles to hide his discomfort. Afterward, when Mr. Burroughs scolds Ellen for her behavior, she seeks comfort from Jonathan, who declines her advances. Jonathan leaves the next day at Ellen's request. Upon returning to school, the students of Vernon learn that they are under investigation by a man named Balaban (Stuart Margolin), whom they believe to be a drug enforcement agent. After flushing several pounds of marijuana down the school's toilets, it is revealed that Balaban is targeting students who cheated on the SAT. Over the next few weeks, Jonathan receives several desperate phone calls from Ellen, until he finally agrees to meet her in Chicago. Skip asks to join him, but Jonathan insists on going alone, purportedly to mourn his ill-fated romance. In Chicago, Ellen and Jonathan exchange angry words before falling into each other's arms and making love. Meanwhile, Skip arrives in the city with friends from Vernon and Foxfield with the intention of surprising Jonathan, but when they burst into the hotel room, Skip is appalled at the sight of his mother in bed with Jonathan and runs from the room. Back at Vernon, Skip tells Jonathan that he is not upset by the affair, but is unable to hide his anger, and shows little emotion upon learning of his mother's commitment to a mental hospital. Later, in the cafeteria, Kennedy introduces Balaban to the students, and announces that each of them will be interviewed as part of the investigation. Although Jonathan manages to hide his guilt from Balaban, he worries that Skip may betray him as an act of retribution. When Skip is summoned by Balaban, he defies the investigator and utters an obscenity as he leaves the room. The incident makes Skip a hero among the students, and exacerbates Jonathan's guilt. He tries to instigate a conversation with his roommate, but Skip remains silent until Jonathan makes a provocative statement about Ellen, and a brawl ensues. The boys take the fight into the wooded area behind the school, and then into the dormitory. When both are exhausted, Jonathan explains that he was truly in love with Ellen, but promises never to see her again. Skip offers his forgiveness.