He Knows You’re Alone (1980)

Making his movie debut in this low-budget slasher flick (filmed entirely on Staten Island) in 1980, the then-twentysomething Tom Hanks was a few years away from turning into a box office superstar and more than a decade away from his back-to-back Oscar wins for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994).

Here, he’s simply ‘Elliot’ (last names have never been a prerequisite for low-budget blood baths) and he doesn’t get to do much.

But He Knows You’re Alone is an interesting curiosity for anyone interested in one of the first slasher films to come out in the wake of the 1978 smash hit Halloween, which created a seemingly endless stream of knife-wielding maniacs in its wake.

Reluctant bride-to-be Amy Jensen (stage actress Caitlin O’Heaney making her movie debut) is stalked by a serial killer (Tom Rolfing) who only kills brides and the people around them.

While her friends are killed one by one, a cop whose bride had been killed three years before (Lewis Arlt) tries to hunt him down before it is too late.

Meanwhile, Amy has to figure out if it is all in her imagination or not, aided by her witty, never-say-die ex-boyfriend, Marvin (Don Scardino), who works in the local morgue.

Lewis Arlt wins the worst actor of the movie award, nudging out Tom Rolfing (who might have won if he had been given any dialogue).

Marvin
Don Scardino
Amy Jensen
Caitlin O’Heaney
Nancy
Elizabeth Kemp
Ray Carlton
Tom Rolfing
Det. Len Gamble
Lewis Arlt
Joyce
Patsy Pease
Prof. Carl Mason
James Rebhorn
Elliot
Tom Hanks
Diana
Dana Barron
Ralph the Tailor
Joseph Leon
Det. Frank Daley
Paul Gleason
Phil
James Carroll
Bernie
Brian Byers
Tommy
Curt Hostetter
Ruthie
Robin Lamont

Director
Armand Mastroianni

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