The story of the dysfunctional family has been done to death, but this movie takes dysfunction to the point of insanity. Recovering alcoholic husband, one son, Joey, who died in a fire, recent death of grandma and another son, Teddy, in this case played by Johnny Galecki, who's recently been thrown out of school and is a little more unhinged than people would like.
The constant on and off family arguments aside, Teddy's mental balance is put to the test when his grandmother dies as he believes that she was the only one who "got him". Meanwhile, young blonde girls are being picked off and left in grisly, almost artistic poses reminiscent of the "art" created by Teddy. The mother, played by Judith Light, still grieving after the loss of her son and then her mother, just wants to put a silver lining on everything and refuses to accept what's happening around her. How the police investigating this rather obvious mess, didn't pick Teddy up in about five minutes is anyone's guess
Teddy moves into his Grandmother's house as that's the only place he felt welcome and from there just withdraws further from reality. He takes his girlfriend there, goes all Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde on her, the house catches fire, she runs off screaming and Teddy, on seeing images of his grandmother and happier times, ignores his mother's pleas, walks into the burning house and kills himself; but not before informing her that it wasn't her dead son, Joey, that started the previous fire, it was in fact Teddy himself.
The movie is just terrible from start to finish, it's like going to a mystery murder party, finding out the killer in the first 2 minutes and then just sitting around uncomfortably looking for anything else to do. I have no idea why they keep using Judith Light as an actress in anything as she is a horrid, wooden actress, who just can't act to save her life. There's no great story here and there's no real reason to watch it. As the movie progresses you can literally predict with pinpoint accuracy what was going to happen and when you can do this with any movie then it's obvious it doesn't need to be watched.
The constant on and off family arguments aside, Teddy's mental balance is put to the test when his grandmother dies as he believes that she was the only one who "got him". Meanwhile, young blonde girls are being picked off and left in grisly, almost artistic poses reminiscent of the "art" created by Teddy. The mother, played by Judith Light, still grieving after the loss of her son and then her mother, just wants to put a silver lining on everything and refuses to accept what's happening around her. How the police investigating this rather obvious mess, didn't pick Teddy up in about five minutes is anyone's guess
Teddy moves into his Grandmother's house as that's the only place he felt welcome and from there just withdraws further from reality. He takes his girlfriend there, goes all Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde on her, the house catches fire, she runs off screaming and Teddy, on seeing images of his grandmother and happier times, ignores his mother's pleas, walks into the burning house and kills himself; but not before informing her that it wasn't her dead son, Joey, that started the previous fire, it was in fact Teddy himself.
The movie is just terrible from start to finish, it's like going to a mystery murder party, finding out the killer in the first 2 minutes and then just sitting around uncomfortably looking for anything else to do. I have no idea why they keep using Judith Light as an actress in anything as she is a horrid, wooden actress, who just can't act to save her life. There's no great story here and there's no real reason to watch it. As the movie progresses you can literally predict with pinpoint accuracy what was going to happen and when you can do this with any movie then it's obvious it doesn't need to be watched.