Lovers Lane
It’s been thirteen years since the Valentine’s Day murders at Lovers Lane, Sheriff Tom Anderson summoned to the scene only to find his wife Harriet was one of those killed, her body sat in the parked car next that of Ward Lamson, husband of Penny who is now principal of Quinly Senior High School whose son Michael is in the same class as Tom and Harriet’s daughter Mandy and Chloe Grefe.
The daughter of Doctor Jack Grefe, Sheriff Anderson’s half-brother and author of Portrait of a Killer, for all these years he has attempted to extract a confession from the hook-handed Ray Hennessy, a prisoner in the Meston Mental Hospital who has now escaped and returned to the Washington State town where he has become a local legend of retribution for unfaithful lovers.
Intended for cinema release but ultimately sent straight to video when Blockbuster made an offer which offset the majority of the modest production budget of half a million dollars, Lovers Lane was a slasher released in the final days of 1999, written by Geof Miller and Rory Veal and also produced by them when they became frustrated of working at the behest of others, their regular employment on television movies having vanished with the stroke of a pen by a network executive.
Now restored from the original 35mm camera negative and presented on Blu-ray by Arrow, the limitations of the shoot are obvious, the lighting of the night scenes as bad as beer carrier Doug’s driving, but despite being built upon a raft of cliches with the campfire tale backstory of deformed psychotic killers, the “ugly” pretty final girl and the frequent stupidity of the characters, the career of Deputy Schwick curtailed by his inability to handle a torch and a firearm simultaneously, with hindsight the final act shows the setup to have been smarter than Jon Ward’s flat direction captured.
The cast including Drive’s Riley Smith, Chuck’s Sarah Lancaster and Entourage’s Anna Faris as Michael, hot mean girl Chloe and cheerleader Jannelle while Matt Riedy and Suzanne Bouchard supposedly represent authority as Sheriff Tom and Principal Penny, though their failure to suggest a curfew when their local killer escapes is on a part with the lax security of Richard Sanders’ Doctor Jack whose “therapy” sessions entailed badgering his uncommunicative patient with leading questions.
Presented in both 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 aspect ratios alongside the original trailer and an extensive but unimpressive photo gallery largely composed of blurred action shots which showcase little more than Smith’s Backstreet Boys haircut, the new edition of Lovers Lane (inexplicably released in some territories as I’m Still Waiting for You) carries a commentary from the writers who also feature on the accompanying retrospective documentary alongside Riedy and Carter Roy who played opening scene victim Jimmy.
Lovers Lane will be available on Blu-ray from Arrow from Monday 24th April
