Finishing Touch

1992/USA/82 minutes

A run of the mill erotic slasher thriller from the 1990s, still saved from the predictable kinks of the particular sub-genre through good acting, emotional involvement of the actors in their respective characters' development, and an adequate whodunit premise of 'whether he killed the girls or not ?'.

Sam Stone is a cop with professional and personal problems. He's under pressure for delivering results in serial killings of women who are regular visitors of a night club. His ex-wife Hannah resents his possessiveness, yet she is pulled into the job to go undercover for uncovering the truth, mostly to honey trap the vicious killer. She gets too involved with a prominent artist Gent whose art lies in video graphing his subjects and exposing the conflict between desire to explore sexuality and prudence in society. Most of these 'art pieces' are naked bodies of women writhing and gyrating in pleasure to signify the act of intercourse/screwing.

Stone suspects Gent from the time he sees him at the nightclub picking up a redhead who turns up dead the next day, with the same modus operandi (MO) as the other girl. Both girls have traces of latex rubber in their vaginas which come from a condom branded 'Necessity' and clean incisions on their bodies made with a sharp knife constructed of expensive metal.

Stone's assignment of finding leads, and tracking and apprehending the killer becomes complicated due to jealousy at his wife's sexual involvement with Gent, which go against her code of conduct. One night Stone follows Gent to a warehouse owned by a Japanese company, which distributes cartoon videos. He breaks in, kills a guard in self-defence and then discovers cartons of snuff films, which show various young and beautiful women getting seduced and then butchered by a hidden assailant. The identification of the women shows that they were from cities in which Gent also lived around the same time, namely Washington DC, Los Angeles and Chicago. 

The ex-wife later finds a packet of condom in his washroom of Gent which matches the brand used by the dead women in the city. She alerts the police and Gent is arrested. Although no evidence is found against Gent and thus charges cannot be brought, stone later figures that another loonie called Sorvino who harasses women in the nightclub was earlier assistant to Gent in making pornographic films. He was later fired by Gent due to 'creative differences' (as in which position to place actors in !). This Sorvino seemed to have followed Gent to the same cities at same time, matching with the killing of women in snuff films, he picks up women too, and thus could very well be the killer  ! 

Stone conjectures that Sorvino is trying to frame Gent and thus crashes into hid home just as he is going to slice a woman. Sorvino escapes and in the ensuing pursuit, falls to his death. Though the case is thought closed, Stone and the department doctor conducting the post mortem later find out that the knife used by Sorvino is a cheap imitation of the one found in the bodies of dead girls in the city, which is made of high quality German stainless steel. Stone realising that Gent is indeed the killer, rushes to his house and almost kills him before his ex-wife (who had already reached Gent's place to make up with him) shoots him dead by muttering that she should have never believed him and that she doesn't make the same mistake twice. The credits roll as both Stone and Hannah stand shell shocked at the sudden turn of events.

There is nothing extraordinary about the pacing or story of the film, and after all the movies are meant for enjoyment rather than relating to reality in any manner. The character Hannah is an annoying brag that proves her own principles wrong by getting involved with an obvious creep. I am referring to Gent who has no qualms about disclosing his obsession with women’s anatomy or his multitude of affairs where he is the least emotionally involved. Inspite of his cold demeanour, Hannah is drawn to him and even sympathises with his ‘art’ and his continuous grilling by the police by accusing her ex-husband of ulterior motives. Stone on the other hand is a ‘tough’ guy with a soft heart who has to juggle between doing his job satisfactorily, protecting his wife from an evil guy and battling jealousy at her growing closeness to Gent. The character triats are common to the genre, however the actors have put in their best to confirm to the roles and that is certainly appreciated !