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MENTAL ILLNESS TAKES THREE STEPS BACKWARDS

Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 03/24/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Here's what PHOBIC is about (basically): A young man witnesses the brutal murder of his sixteen year old sister by a maniacal serial killer. They had just come home from the grocery store, and he is supposed to help her in with the bags, but he's so excited about seeing a "big football game" he runs in leaving her outside in broad daylight where said killer confronts her and stabs her. He runs out and sees him, runs back in the house and locks the door. The killer ominously says, if you ever come back out, I will get you too. So he conveniently develops agoraphobia and won't go out of the house at all. He has on-line therapy sessions with a doctor, and he keeps having awful nightmares about his sister's murder. They capture said killer but Joey doesn't think he's the right one, that the real killer is still after him. In the finale, he confronts his fears and the serial killer in a tangled web of psychobabble nonsense.

Now, this is one bad movie. Billy Parish as Joey has to be one of the worst performers I've seen in recent filmdom; the girl who plays his 16 year old sister acts like she's ten, and the actress has to be at least 35 and looks it. The killer, played awfully by Anthony Azizi, is about as menacing as Irene Ryan in the Beverly Hillbillies. The whole movie is a mishmash of misguided horse doody! Don't waste your time. It's not even laughable enough to be a good "B" movie."