Matty takes a look at a Martin Kitrosser and Pierre David coupling that’s more of a quick fling than marriage material.

The third of four offbeat horror/thriller psychodramas shepherded by veteran script supervisor/talented minor auteur Martin Kitrosser — the second of which produced by preeminent B peddler Pierre David — THE FIANCÉ is mostly as watchable as such pedigree would suggest.

Fundamentally a gender flipped riff on Fatal Attraction (1987), Kitrosser scholars will be hip to what’s really going on: The Fiancé is, in fact, another sneaky remix of his crowning directorial achievement, the nifty Christmas shocker Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991). Obviously, a slumming it Mickey Rooney and a psychotic crotchless automaton are flourishes conspicuous in their absence. Nevertheless, the stalking and slashing is present and correct — albeit tamer — and the same air of weirdness — the quietly eerie suburban setting, the ragged and unpalatable edges to supposedly ‘likable’ characters — that permeates Silent Night, Deadly Night 5 and Kitrosser’s inaugural David joint, Daddy’s Girl (1996), hangs over the film. Impressive are the visual licks employed to accentuate The Fiancé’s themes of isolation and obsession. Kitrosser and fellow David regular, cinematographer M. David Mullen (Daddy’s Girl, Cupid (1997), Captured (1998)), cleverly use space and movement to amplify the severity of unhappy wife Faith’s predicament. Alas, the drama and tension are hindered by lame casting.  

A surprisingly bankable draw on video and cable during the ‘90s, Lysette Anthony’s am-dram style has never worked for me, and The Fiancé fails to buck the trend. The squawking star is as vexing as Faith as she is in her similar role in Mark L. Lester’s slightly superior nerve-racker, Misbegotten (1997). Patrick Cassidy is just as wooden as Faith’s inattentive spouse, Richard: a cad whose disinterest is mirrored by the vacuous hunk of itin playing him, and whose shifty behaviour pushes his harangued Mrs. into the clutches of William R. Moses’ deranged Glenn Close analogue to begin with. 

Though undoubtedly stilted, Moses at least adds a dollop of soapy kitsch as he shuffles about, infiltrating Faith’s life and trying to convince her that he is indeed the ‘Man of Her Dreams’ (per The Fiancé’s alternative title). Happily, the wonderful Christopher Kiesa also crops up in his token bit part. Boasting a resume to rival Kanganis/Mundhra/Ferrin staple Robert Miano in terms of frequent distinguished collaborators, Kiesa’s credits include thirty-one David productions and a wealth of features by German schlockmeisters Ulli Lommel and Olaf Ittenbach.

In line with David’s output deals, The Fiancé was released on video in the U.S. by LIVE Entertainment and in the U.K. by First Independent.

USA ● 1997 ● Thriller ● 88mins

William R. Moses, Lysette Anthony, Patrick Cassidy ● Dir. Martin Kitrosser ● Wri. Greg Walker and Frank Rehwaldt