***SPOILERS*** Picking up a stranger on a row boat, from what looks like a deserted black schooner, off the Australian coast a couple of vacationers Rae & John Ingrem, Niclole Kidder & Sam Neill, give him water and a place to stay until they can sail to shore on their yacht.
The stranger Hughie Warriner, Billy Zane, tells the Ingrem's this story about him being the only survivor of the "Orpheus" with the other four people on the ship with him dying from food poisoning. Later when Hughie is asleep below deck in a bunk-room John decides to row out to the "Orpheus" by himself and see if there's anyone else on the ship and if Hughie's story checks out. On the ship John finds that the four people on the boat where women who were murdered during the making of some porno flick with Hughie being the cameraman.
John from first finding the bodies locked up in some storage room and seeing some footage from a video tape that Hughie took during the trip that the woman were on has John convinced that Hughie murdered them. John now terrified that he left Rae alone on the yacht with only their little dog Benji to protect her from a dangerous mass murderer begins to feel panic setting in. Rowing back as fast as he could and with Hughie getting on deck and attacking Rae John tries to jump onto the Yacht but misses and ends up injuring his shoulder on the yachts propellers.
With John getting back to the row boat the yacht then takes off into the open sea with Rae alone and at the mercy of "Crazy Hughie". John rows back to the "Orpheus" and tries to fix the radio so he could get help while on the yacht there's a deadly cat and mouse game being played between Rae and Hughie in the middle of nowhere in the vast Pacific Ocean.
The film started with John, an officer in the Australian Navy, coming home for the Christmas holidays only to find out that both Rae and his 4 year-old son Danny were in a car accident, the the boy died on impact and Rae ended up in a coma. Rae needing a lot of medical treatment and rest later decided, together with John, to take a sea cruise on their yacht the "Saracen" that in the end almost coast them both their lives.
Some of the scenes in the movie were very hard to believe with Rae always seeming to get away and having the upper hand when it came to fighting off the dangerous Hughie. Yet she never manages, or wants, to kill him even though Hughie is a mass murderer who would think nothing of killing her. "Dead Clam" has more then it's share of suspense and the brilliant photography in the way that director, Philip Noyce, uses colors in the movie is so striking that at some point in the film you stop caring what the story is all about and just sit back and watch the scenery.
Billy Zane was very hard to gage as the psycho killer Hughie Warriner because he came across more clownish then anything else, even the Ingrem's pet dog Benji liked him. "Dead Clam" has more then it's share of heavy breathing too with both the actions of Rae and Hughie on the yacht and with John on the "Orpheus" when he was trying to keep from drowning in a below deck compartment. To keep from going under John sucks on an underwater pipe to get air. Even the movie's theme song at the end had heavy breathing in it mixed with the music.
The ending was a bit too much with the movie making Hughie into someone like Michael Myers of Halloween where no matter what you did to him you couldn't kill him! Hughie finally get his by exploding, from being shot by a flair gun, like he was a Roman Candle shot out of a rocket launcher on July 4th.
The stranger Hughie Warriner, Billy Zane, tells the Ingrem's this story about him being the only survivor of the "Orpheus" with the other four people on the ship with him dying from food poisoning. Later when Hughie is asleep below deck in a bunk-room John decides to row out to the "Orpheus" by himself and see if there's anyone else on the ship and if Hughie's story checks out. On the ship John finds that the four people on the boat where women who were murdered during the making of some porno flick with Hughie being the cameraman.
John from first finding the bodies locked up in some storage room and seeing some footage from a video tape that Hughie took during the trip that the woman were on has John convinced that Hughie murdered them. John now terrified that he left Rae alone on the yacht with only their little dog Benji to protect her from a dangerous mass murderer begins to feel panic setting in. Rowing back as fast as he could and with Hughie getting on deck and attacking Rae John tries to jump onto the Yacht but misses and ends up injuring his shoulder on the yachts propellers.
With John getting back to the row boat the yacht then takes off into the open sea with Rae alone and at the mercy of "Crazy Hughie". John rows back to the "Orpheus" and tries to fix the radio so he could get help while on the yacht there's a deadly cat and mouse game being played between Rae and Hughie in the middle of nowhere in the vast Pacific Ocean.
The film started with John, an officer in the Australian Navy, coming home for the Christmas holidays only to find out that both Rae and his 4 year-old son Danny were in a car accident, the the boy died on impact and Rae ended up in a coma. Rae needing a lot of medical treatment and rest later decided, together with John, to take a sea cruise on their yacht the "Saracen" that in the end almost coast them both their lives.
Some of the scenes in the movie were very hard to believe with Rae always seeming to get away and having the upper hand when it came to fighting off the dangerous Hughie. Yet she never manages, or wants, to kill him even though Hughie is a mass murderer who would think nothing of killing her. "Dead Clam" has more then it's share of suspense and the brilliant photography in the way that director, Philip Noyce, uses colors in the movie is so striking that at some point in the film you stop caring what the story is all about and just sit back and watch the scenery.
Billy Zane was very hard to gage as the psycho killer Hughie Warriner because he came across more clownish then anything else, even the Ingrem's pet dog Benji liked him. "Dead Clam" has more then it's share of heavy breathing too with both the actions of Rae and Hughie on the yacht and with John on the "Orpheus" when he was trying to keep from drowning in a below deck compartment. To keep from going under John sucks on an underwater pipe to get air. Even the movie's theme song at the end had heavy breathing in it mixed with the music.
The ending was a bit too much with the movie making Hughie into someone like Michael Myers of Halloween where no matter what you did to him you couldn't kill him! Hughie finally get his by exploding, from being shot by a flair gun, like he was a Roman Candle shot out of a rocket launcher on July 4th.