The movie follows a typical 80's slasher framework for the first two acts. This cliched, predictable structure allows plenty of opportunity to explore the issues mentioned above.

In the third act, beginning with a grisly bathroom discovery, the slasher movie genre stutters. Expectations here would be for a frantic, exciting chase, with the tables ultimately turned on the killer. We don't get that - really - and this has led some to judge the film as a failure.

Instead, Cammell explores more fully the relationship between the husband and wife. In a hugely unsettling sequence we see their original courtship, the closeness between them now and their reluctance to function in the world apart from each other.

It might be risky, but Cammell pulls it off - just - to make a film that is compelling, disturbing and absurdly romantic. The epilogue, on the surface lifted directly from the 80's straight-to-video handbook, contains an elegance and poignancy which throws this movie in a wonderfully uplifting light.

Performances from the two principles, particularly Moriarty, are peerless. Cinematography and editing are of a similar high standard to Cammell's other work. For some, the movie will be stylistically a period piece, but it is none the worse for this.