My review was written in January 1991 after watching the movie on Republic Pictures video cassette.
A very sexy lead performance by Adrienne Sachs highlights the farfetched nightmare thriller "In the Cold of the Night". Pic should score in the sex noir video and cable market; it's available in both NC-17 and R formats.
Filmmaker Nico Mastorakis harks back to the 1982 thriller "Blind Date" (one of Kirstie Alley's first leading roles) for a sci-fi thriller plot that has too many holes and is too attenuated for its own good.
Glamor photographer Jeff Lester is haunted by nightmares starring Sachs as a woman (whom he's never met in real life) that he kills. Shrink David Soul can't help much, and Leter's sex life with beauties like Shannon Tweed (a young vet of this genre) is hampered by his violent craziness brought on by the bad dreams.
Sachs shows up in the flesh in the third reel and pic slows down for endless sack time of her with Lester. Though the viewer knows they're headed for an unhappy ending, it's rewarding to watch this young actress. Lester is a bit bland; the role could have benefited from a name actor.
Film's credibility comes unglued with the introduction of Marc Singer as Sachs' boyfriend, who has rigged up a ludicrous mind-controlling experiment involving implants and laser disk recordings. Finale is a confusing anticlimax.
Mastorakis brings plenty of visual style to the thriller genre, and should attract a following in the wake of similar sex-oriented titles "Night Eyes", "Last Call" and "Deceptions". His in-jokes are poor, such as Tippi Hedren guest starring as Sachs' unlikely mom, who "has this thing about birds" or Lester glumly watching laser disks of Mastorakis' films "The Wind" and "Glitch".
A corny musical score, credited to many people, features a wailing tenor sax whenever the Pavlovian sex is about to begin.