Beyond Bedlam

Jean's second feature (after Leon the Pig Farmer) is pitched somewhere between a psychological thriller and an out-and-out horror movie. In his cell, thanks to Dr Hurley's mind-control drug experiments, 'Bone Man' Allen amuses himself as a dream-invading serial killer. Alerted by a string of suicides at the block of flats where Hurley lives, cynical cop Fairbrass soon realises that she's been experimenting on herself too. Sucked into a dream world where reality and illusion blur, Fairbrass must confront not only his old criminal nemesis, but the guilty memories lurking in his unconscious. The film ends with a brutal punch-up in which Fairbrass finally faces the seemingly indestructible Allen. Like the film as a whole, this scene is skilfully shot, creatively designed and well edited - but it also undermines the story's premise, that the killer's power now lies in his ability to manipulate the unconscious rather then to punish the flesh.