My review was written in August 1988 after watching the movie on Academy video cassette.
"Perfect Victims", a/k/a "Hidden Rage", is a standard-issue thriller for video release that sports the dubious novelty of a maniacal killer on the loose who has AIDS.
Deborah Shelton, of Brian de Palma's "Body Double", topines for hubby/director Shuki Levy, cast here as a high-powered models' agent who becomes the target of violent nutcase Brandon (Tom Dugan). First Brandon uses his modus operandi of a veterinary drug to knock out two of Heltons's petty clients (Nikolette Scorsese and Jackie Swanson) before raping Swanson.
In the third reel, cop Clarence Williams III announces solemnly the result of a blood test: "the killer has AIDS". This topical touch certainly grabs one's attention, but proves to be irrelevant to the ction. Dugan plays the heinous murderer well, but character's lifelong resentment against women is ably and typically expressed in killings. As demonstrated in a clumsy voiceover ending, pic would play identically without the AIDS gimmick.
Shelton and the supporting cast are effective, with director Levy's self-penned orchestral music score a plus. What's lacking is the visual bravura of the master, Hitchcock, or his pupil, De Palma.
"Perfect Victims", a/k/a "Hidden Rage", is a standard-issue thriller for video release that sports the dubious novelty of a maniacal killer on the loose who has AIDS.
Deborah Shelton, of Brian de Palma's "Body Double", topines for hubby/director Shuki Levy, cast here as a high-powered models' agent who becomes the target of violent nutcase Brandon (Tom Dugan). First Brandon uses his modus operandi of a veterinary drug to knock out two of Heltons's petty clients (Nikolette Scorsese and Jackie Swanson) before raping Swanson.
In the third reel, cop Clarence Williams III announces solemnly the result of a blood test: "the killer has AIDS". This topical touch certainly grabs one's attention, but proves to be irrelevant to the ction. Dugan plays the heinous murderer well, but character's lifelong resentment against women is ably and typically expressed in killings. As demonstrated in a clumsy voiceover ending, pic would play identically without the AIDS gimmick.
Shelton and the supporting cast are effective, with director Levy's self-penned orchestral music score a plus. What's lacking is the visual bravura of the master, Hitchcock, or his pupil, De Palma.