Despite a superficial cinematic cleverness from Fred Walton, who directed the spine-tingling WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (1979), DEAD AIR is done in by papier-mache characters and the credulity-straining universe they inhabit.
Former LA hot-shot disc jockey Jim Shepard, now known as Mark Jannek (Gregory Hines), slows down to low gear in the desert boondocks after the shooting death of his lover. Unfortunately, a deranged listener peppers the radio personality's airtime, including a weekly mystery show, with threatening
messages.
After his one-night stand, Judy (Gloria Reuben), phones in a panic and winds up shot to death, the cops investigate Mark's past while safeguarding his present well-being. Mark starts to do a little detective work himself. When he opens his heart to Karen (Debrah Farentino), Mark doesn't realize
that her psychology-student identity is a cover for her true purpose; she's the sister of his deceased girlfriend, and she's not satisfied with the LAPD's resolution of the case.
A rigged rifle blast seems to prove Mark's innocence, even after his assistant, Susan (Laura Harrington), joins the morgue list, and suspicion begins to point toward Karen and radio station personnel. But the mystery is dispelled when Karen sneaks into the station in the wee small hours and finds
a timing device and tapes of faked call-ins. She is surprised by split personality Mark, whose trigger finger grows ever itchier. Reviving Mark's decent impulses, Karen is shocked when Mark positions her hand on his weapon and forces her to put him out of his misery.
Replete with casual sex and vocational homicide, DEAD AIR flails about as it strives for a smoky nocturnal ambiance where talk is not only not cheap--it can cost you your life. Wasting too much footage on Hines's radio mystery program and leading the spectator down too many false alleys, this
whodunit never disguises the true killer's identity. In this one-man show, Hines clearly is the most suitable candidate; the audience is not fooled by that mechanically altered voice, a ploy at least as old as MIDNIGHT LACE (1960). With no other suitable candidates in the serial killer line-up,
all the film can do is spin its wheels. The result is both a tensionless murder yarn and an unerotic doomed romance. (Graphic violence, adult situations, profanity.) leave a comment