In the 1980's Thriller Video took episodes from a 70's British television series entitled Thriller and released them in their video catalog. The Next Victim is an episode from the final season of that series. It follows a woman who is confined to a wheelchair and left alone at her apartment as she is stalked by a psychotic strangler.
As a made for television film from the 70's, you can probably guess that this isn't going to be a gore heavy slaughter fest. The Next Victim has to rely on suspense and tension to draw the viewer in. The problem is that it's not very tense or suspenseful. The final 15 minutes kind of pick up. But even then, you'll probably have a hard time caring.
Carroll Baker does a decent job in this. But her character isn't really interesting. The only character that really grabbed my attention was the head detective on the strangler case. He's a complete asshole! He'a constantly insulting his partner or falling asleep on the job.
The Next Victim is totally awful. It won't be drawing any comparisons to Hitchcock, however. If you're looking for something a little more suspense driven to fulfill your blood lust, you should probably look elsewhere. Word on the street is that earlier seasons of Thriller actually had some great episodes. Maybe check there.
Body Count:3
SideNote: I'm not sure how many Thriller episodes Thriller Video released. I own One Deadly Owner. Hopefully it's better than this. ,
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