My review was written in January 1986 after watching the movie on Active video cassette.
"Disconnected" is a low-budget horror film made by locals in Waterbury, Connecticut, which tries to surmount the cliches of the genre, but emerges as a routine picture. One-man filmmaker Gorman Bechard shows some style, especially in flashy insert shots, but needs to come up with more original material.
Frances Raines toplines as Alicia Michaels, a young woman who works as a sales clerk at Valley Video, a home video store. She's had a fight with her deejay boyfriend Mike (Carl Koch), accusing him of having slept with her twin sister Barbara Ann (also played by Raines), and now a young guy Franklin (Mark Walker) keeps hanging around Valley Video trying to get a date with Alicia.
Meanwhile, the cops are investigating a series of slasher murders, with evidence (shown to the viewer but not known to the cops) implicating Franklin. Alicia is plagued by annoying phone calls that feature harsh noises. She also becomes involved romantically with Franklin.
Although Bechard plants some interesting clues in the opening reel, plotline goes haywire when Franklin is seduced by twin Barbara Ann, murders her and then, in a poorly designed scene (it's largely omitted, referred to verbally later) is killed by the cops. The killings continue after Franklin's death with an open-ended finale ponting at the real killer.
Bechard's exposition scenes, particularly with the lackadaisical cops, continually mock the rigid format of slasher films, but ultimately his picture lapses into these cliches, such as the overuse of he phone call gimmick. Leading lady Raines, who has been featured in many B-films of late, is impressive in her dual role, combining vulnerability with the ambiguity of possible madness necessary in a "Repulsion"-type heroine.
