After his acclaimed two-part adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot in 1979, Tobe Hopper returned to the made-for-TV feature format in 1990 with I’m Dangerous Tonight, this time drawing from an uncharacteristic short story by crime writer Cornell Woolrich about a malefic gown. Amy (Mädchen Amick) is a shy college student who, while out hunting for props for her school’s drama department, stumbles upon a sensuous red cloak at an estate sale. Originally worn during Aztec ceremonial sacrifices, the garment has the power to possess those who wear it, drawing out the erotic and violent impulses that they’d rather keep buried.
Fearful of the cloak but held in its sway, Amy fashions a dress out of it and goes from shrinking violet to strutting vamp, much to the chagrin of her ailing grandmother (Natalie Schafer), who she inadvertently kills in a scuffle. Though Amy gives up the dress after falling under its spell, the diabolical raiment soon draws the attention of Amy’s covetous cousin (Daisy Hall), a cocaine-addicted mortuary assistant (Dee Wallace, the film’s Cher-bewigged MVP), and an antiquities professor (Anthony Perkins).
For the contemporary viewer, comparisons to Peter Strickland’s In Fabric will be inevitable, but I’m Dangerous Tonight is a more workaday affair. The crewmembers behind the camera—especially cinematographer Levie Isaacks—do what they can to stretch the modest TV budget, but little of Hooper’s presence is felt on screen. A massive comedown from the slaphappy excesses of his Cannon-era work (Lifeforce, Invaders from Mars, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), the film feels less like a confident paring back than a sheepish stripping away—the exact kind of project you’re stuck with after doing a three-picture belly flop at the box office.
Naturally, the demands of the television format are famously different than that of theatrical film, but even Salem’s Lot had its stretches of drabness punctuated by moments of unforgettable, stylized terror that are celebrated to this day. If that miniseries was Hooper driving full-throttle toward the artistic and commercial peak of Poltergeist, I’m Dangerous Tonight was his first project with his greatest successes already in the rearview, and it shows.
Image/Sound
Kino Lorber presents I’m Dangerous Tonight in a brand new 2K master that brings out the blue hues in the film’s noir-inflected interiors and autumnal tones in the outdoor scenes. The color balance is off at times (a gray cat is pitched dangerously close to green in the opening minutes), but it’s mostly just right, with the central cursed raiment cutting an incandescent crimson swath across the film’s sober visual palette. Details on the disc’s audio track are minimal, but the score’s ghostly rattles and late ’80s drum machine beats have strong presence and are well balanced against the presentation’s crystal-clear dialogue and sound effects.
Extras
Kino has assembled a very generous selection of extras for this release, including two new audio commentaries, one featuring Kristopher Woofter and Will Dodson, editors of American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper, and one featuring filmmaker and historian Michael Varrati. Two very different flavors of film analysis, both commentaries provide welcome insight into I’m Dangerous Tonight’s position in Hooper’s filmography. Also included on the disc are interviews with cinematographer Levie Isaacks and Dee Wallace, a making-of featurette that consists of behind-the-scenes footage with optional commentary by videographer Stan Giesea, a trailer, and a new video essay by programmer Chris O’Neill.
Overall
I’m Dangerous Tonight has looks to kill on Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray.
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