Whispers in the Dark

1992 "Deception. Betrayal. Seduction. Murder. Her life depends on every word."
5.6| 1h43m| R| en
Details

Psychiatrist Ann Hecker is ending one relationship and possibly starting an important new one, while finding that some of the sexual exploits her patients relate are weighing on her. Turning to a married friend from her research days for guidance, she finds his help increasingly important when a female patient is murdered and it turns out that her new boyfriend was also seeing the dead woman.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
romanorum1 On the silver screen, psychological mystery thrillers – kinky or otherwise, whether major studio or independent – have always been popular, and the early-to-mid 1990s produced more than their fair share. For example, recognize the following: "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), "Basic Instinct" (1992), "Jennifer Eight" (1992), "Sliver" (1993), "Color of Night" (1994), "Knight Moves" (1995), and "Copycat" (1995). In "Whispers in the Dark," Ann Hecker (Annabella Sciorra), who is ending her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Paul, practices as a psychiatrist in Manhattan. She is told by one of her patients, Eve Abergray (Deborah Unger) – attractive but sexually perverted – about her sexual sado-masochistic/bondage practices with her boyfriend. Ann seems to take it all in with high interest. As Ann seems turned on by her own dreams of sexual bondage, she consults with her former therapist (when she attended college) and friend Leo Green (Alan Alda). Another of Ann's patients, Latino Johnny Castillo (John Leguizano), a sadist, likes to paint sexual fantasies (as opposed to acting them out). Both Eve and Johnny are unbalanced, to say the least, and Ann does not seem to have solutions. On one of the office visits, Eve removes most of her clothing and masturbates in front of Ann. The bewildered psychiatrist can only ogle. Later on Johnny C. breaks into Ann's apartment and hogties her for a short time before freeing her and jumping outside her window ledge. Talk about being just a bit troubled!One day Ann sees airplane pilot Doug McDowell (Jamey Sheridan) on the elevator in her office building. Before long the two are dating, but Doug has some dark secrets. One of these is that he is Eve's sexual partner in bondage! When Eve discovers that Ann is dating Doug, she becomes intractable; she steals some files and tapes from Ann's office that she plans to use against the psychiatrist. When Eve is found dead, hanging nude, Ann's suspicions focus on Doug. Enter Detective Larry Morgenstern (Anthony LaPaglia). Morgenstern tries to get Ann to release her office files to him, but Ann will not agree. Nevertheless, Morgenstern is insistent and dogs Ann at every turn. He tells her that he has found the tapes that Eve had stolen. "Those tapes are my property. I'd like them back," she demands. "No! Material evidence in a murder investigation," sneers Morgenstern. After Johnny C. falls from the window ledge to his death, Ann seeks solace with Leo Green, as she did not realize that the sadistically deranged artist had previously tortured many women. "Oh come on," retorts Leo, "a bright psychopath can fool anybody." What! Later this line will make some sense. When Doug takes Ann to visit his mother, Mrs. McDowell, she tells Ann that Doug was once married. His wife Jenny hanged herself after sustaining severe depression. Doug admits that there was violence in the marriage: Jenny attacked him because of his affair with another. Shocked, Ann confides this information to Leo, who in turns relays it to Morgenstern. Ann is disappointed in Leo's action. Before that, Morgenstern had told Ann that as Johnny C.'s alibi checked out with regard to Eve's death, the unhinged artist could not have killed her. Right after Morgenstern is found dead in the airplane hangar of McDowell Aviation. Suspicions continue to focus on Doug. Meanwhile Ann has returned to get solace from Leo and his wife at the Nantucket seashore. There is no reason to expose the last one-fifth of the feature and major twist to the movie. But it can be stated confidentially that there is one turn too many.The main charters here – psychiatrists, patients, and police – are not particularly likable. But the movie features excellent performances by Alan Alda, Anthony La Paglia (the Italian Aussie), and Deborah Unger; Annabella Sciorra is good enough. Jamey Sheridan is hardly appealing: note his large head. Actually his character is quite dubious. The Manhattan camera-shooting is not really used to any specific advantage; there is an aerial shot of Nantucket. Although panned by critics, the feature is still nicely filmed and is attention-getting despite some script weaknesses and a ludicrous double-twisted ending. Just watch it for its entertainment value.
SnoopyStyle Psychiatrist Ann Hecker (Annabella Sciorra) has two particular patients; artist John Castillo (John Leguizamo) and sexually adventurous Eve Abergray (Deborah Kara Unger). Sarah Green (Jill Clayburgh) and her husband Leo (Alan Alda) are her colleagues. She's Leo's patient since 7 years ago as a medical student. She wants to break up with her boyfriend Paul (Anthony Heald) but he beats her to the punch by moving out. She goes out with new guy pilot Doug McDowell (Jamey Sheridan). She goes to spy on Eve and find Eve's S&M boyfriend turns out to be Doug. Eve explodes after discovering her relationship with Doug. Eve steals her files and then she finds Eve murdered. Police detective Larry Morgenstern (Anthony LaPaglia) investigates.It's an erotic thriller that tries too hard with the cheesy eroticism. It's slow moody music with fuzzy sex dreams. The whole thing moves like molasses. Christopher Crowe is not as good as a director. It doesn't have enough tension. The subject matter is intense and should translate better onto the screen. The movie turns into a nice murder mystery midway through. It gets better going away from the silly eroticism turning into a twisty mystery. There is probably one too many twist but that seems like it was setting up that move from the start. Sciorra's role has some juicier acting choices later on. It's too bad that the first half is so tired.
Jim Johnson (Spoilers) I have to agree with all the negative analysis posted already. Saw this movie on cable last night and it was disappointing (but hey I watched the whole thing).First, it was obvious Alan Alda would be the killer. He was too interested in the psychiatrist and kept meddling in her life. But like every transition in this film, he was revealed in a totally heavy handed way. And how believable is it that he was totally obsessed with her for years, was killing people to protect her, and then when she says he is frightening her that is enough for him to instantly snap and try to kill her on the spot in a rage? Boy he sure got over that crush in a hurry! After committing all these clever crimes he admits to the murders in front of his wife and immediately smashes a wine bottle over her head. How was he going to deal with that? Also, she was such a poor psychiatrist, the best she could do was immediately reveal her revulsion and run away in fear? Not an ounce of cleverness in dealing with an obvious psycho who she knew was in love with her and who she could have manipulated.The way she discovers he is obsessed with her! He tells her to go in the music cabinet to put on a song and there he has his audio notes of all his sessions with her neatly labeled so that she, his wife, anyone, can pick it up and hear him saying he is obsessed with her. The tapes themselves were as corny and unbelievable as his coming back home and just hearing her playing them at full volume.When I say disjointed, the quirks of the detective, the female patient, the boyfriend are never explored they were just weird characters who didn't really fit in the movie. Were we supposed to care about Paglia's detective? Was he attracted to her? All of a sudden we're watching a troubled cop movie (briefly) as if this were a different movie.After Leguizamo obviously thought it was her behind the mirror (Paglia absurdly keeps showing her pictures through the glass and asking her rhetorical questions about psychoanalysis) they just let him go and surprise surprise, he next appears at her place to take revenge. And no one saw that coming? Then we have Leguizamo who has spent his life torturing women, has her tied up and he cant do a thing to her, suddenly we are supposed to sympathize with his troubled character and of course she is completely worried about a psycho who moments ago hog tied her.This is the kind of film that is so cheesy, so illogical, so obvious you really wish they would give you all these stars and a budget and let you make the film because yes most people would have insisted on doing a better job. This was a real waste of potential.Parting shot, the closing scene of her so happy with the boyfriend as if this were a happy ending to a romantic comedy, trivial fake conversation between two people with no chemistry, didn't even need to be in the film. The boyfriend wasn't an appealing character, was too old for her, and it was like saying hey if this movie wasn't corny enough, let's make you watch several minutes more of something pointless between two people who were never believable in their parts.
triple8 There is very little I can add to many of these reviews, criticisms all valid, cheese factor noted and agreed with by this IMDb user. The only thing I will say about this thriller from my past is that 1) I really liked Alan Alda in this and 2)I think this movie reaches on over into the "maybe for the camp value" genre. I read another user's reference to Final analysis which came out around the same time-I actually really dug that one, I rate analysis about an 8.5. I can note similarities in the plot but their basically 2 different movies. Analysis is more eerie, this is campy at times(many times) and very tawdry-I do recall wanting to see it when it first came out and being a bit let down when I did-Was this a book too? I seem to dimly recall that it was, but could be wrong,I'll have to look that up. But this isn't really that much different then a lot of lifetime movies and even some thrillers that have been out this last year and done decent.If you go into this knowing it's pure camp and there's no reality whatsoever to it and there's' a lot of twists that can only happen BECAUSE it's a movie, you might enjoy it. I will admit I didn't guess the end "twist" which all of the watchers of this movie except for I seemed to have known before or shortly after, the movie started, so that's a bit alarming but hey I did guess the twists in other more popular movies so that's a good thing. Basically, this is entertainment and not memorable entertainment either. I wouldn't put it in the IMDb worst movie list but all individuals' negative comments can be understood. Still think Alda was a standout in this though. 4 or 5 out of 10 from me but way higher for Alda.