The Carpenter (1989)

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This nutty low-budget thriller initially resembles a kind of suburban Repulsion, with harried, neurotic housewife Alice Lynn Adams returning from a brief stint in a psychiatric hospital after chopping her smug husband's Bill Blass suits into itty bitty pieces. Upon her release, her husband sets her… More This nutty low-budget thriller initially resembles a kind of suburban Repulsion, with harried, neurotic housewife Alice Lynn Adams returning from a brief stint in a psychiatric hospital after chopping her smug husband's Bill Blass suits into itty bitty pieces. Upon her release, her husband sets her up in their nearly-completed new home, where she is visited by mysterious nocturnal handyman Ed (Wings Hauser, perennial "B"-movie psycho-man) who completes the work botched by the lazy, inept contractors and lashes out against anyone who wrongs her. Just when it's becoming apparent that the carpenter is a figment of her imagination, he is revealed to be the ghost of the house's previous owner, who was sent to the chair for murdering agents of the bank who foreclosed on him. From this point forward, the film shifts into slasher-horror mode, with Ed having at Alice's tormentors with his power tools. This amusing blend of horror themes comes across a bit muddled at times but still delivers the gory goods. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi