A sick, obnoxious, and poorly motivated kill the bitch thriller, written and directed by Nicholas Kazan (who also wrote Reversal of Fortune). In order for this tacky piece of male hysteria to work, it’s necessary for starters that James Spader’s version of a yuppie narcissist not make your teeth ache; I guess it also helps if you think the symbolic interludes set in a carnival sideshow should be taken seriously, likewise the villainess (Twin Peaks’s Madchen Amick) whom Spader decides to marry for some dumb reason. Spectators who instinctively feel that women are lying, scheming monsters probably will have a ball. With Bess Armstrong, Fredric Lehne, Larry Miller, and Kathleen York. (JR)