Raw Nerve (1991)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I'd read somewhere that David Prior was a bad director, but I find he falls somewhere in the middle. His films are made well enough, star people you've heard of, but it's the stories themselves that make you do a double take and think 'that doesn't make much sense'.This one stars Glenndon Fordham, Sandy Bermanster, Traci Lordy Lordy, Micheal Vincent Van, and Tex 'Randall' Cobb. Them are all folks caught up when a crazy killer type person starts going around shooting women in the face with a shotgun. Don't expect gore here though, because there's none. No boobs either.Ted Prior is Jimmy, a stock car driver who starts getting visions of the killings. His sister is Traci Lords, whom he's overly protective of (no wonder!). When Jimmy starts seeing the visions and goes to the police, they don't believe etc etc.As this is a David A Prior film, there ain't much action but there are plenty of twists, so I never found myself bored throughout. Loads of interpersonal drama threaten to sink the film, but Prior knows when to speed things up a bit. Not too bad.

A journalist (Sandahl Bergman of 'Conan' fame) believes Jimmy (Ted Prior), suspected of several murders, is innocent. The cop in charge (Jan-Michael 'Airwolf' Vincent) doesn't believe her, but he has personal reasons, while his boss (Glenn Ford) never trusts anyone, anyway. So it is a difficult job for her, and also she needs to keep an eye on Jimmys younger sister Gina (Traci Lords) who is in danger to become the next victim of the killer, whoever that is.Well, despite the famous cast, this could as well be episode 99 of a good quality TV series. It is OK to watch, but not outstanding; I don't think I'll remember it next month, especially since movies about psychopathic killers are 'a dime a dozen'. It's rather mild for this kind of subject, by the way: no nudity, minimum violence which is over very quickly, could almost pass for PG instead of R in my opinion.

I'm surprised this movie was released in 1991. It looks much more dated than that, except for the blonde haired sister, Gina, who looks just fitting with the decade.'Raw Nerve' is another one of those thrillers where mild-mannered ordinary joe starts having visions of murders, tries to convince the police that he can sense where their suspect is, and then winds up becoming a suspect himself. In a small Texas(?) town, there is a killer on the loose. Seven murder in fourteen days and the cops haven't got a clue or a suspect. That brings us to Jimmy Clayton, a thirty-something guy who lives with his younger sister, Gina. Jimmy starts having these painful brief blackouts in which he sees brief moments of the murder which occured moments before, if not days before.Brainiac that he is, he goes to the cops and tries to explain the visions for him, but they don't buy it for a minute, although they probably should've investigated at least something he said (that they didn't already know) because they didn't have any leads anyway. But, they give Jimmy the boot and basically tell him to stop wasting their time. Nobody listens to Jimmy.Well, one person does. An eager investigator (Aka snooping reporter) who thinks Jimmy's story will make great headlines for the local paper. And Jimmy actually spills his guts about the flashbacks or whatever they are about the murder with the red shoe foot fetish, though he doesn't know he's talking to a reporter (because he's an idiot).The murders are still happening, and it look like Jimmy's said his peace, but nothing is being done about it (and he doesn't seem bothered by it). So the omniscient, totally credible detective supposes Jimmy is the murderer and now the cops are after him unless he can prove his innocence. Actually, the captain just calls it a "hunch," a legal term for, we got nothing, so arrest that guy. Certain things in this dumb story just don't add up, including the good-but-soon-stupid twist at the end. This might've been at least a half decent movie if the acting wasn't so bad, especially some late timed dialogue by reporter Gloria and do-gooder Jimmy in addition to the stonewall John Wayne School of Acting troupe, Jan Michael Vincent (as the primary detective) and Glenn Ford (as the police captain). It really stinks up the place. Thumbs down.

This is an incredibly bad movie. I didn't expect anything of it and I still felt short changed. Not the worst £1 I ever spent but it's close. Ted Prior has to be the worst actor i've ever seen. I have to say the ending was a surprise but it still dumb. Traci Lords was okay for a while but her performance goes downhill. Anyone else think Jimmy and Gina were a little too 'close' for family members? It's a shame Sandahl Begman and Traci Lords had to make movies like this. They'd both been in far better movies than this (Conan and Cry-Baby, respectively). I wouldn't watch it again and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. 1/10.