Knight Moves

1992

Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller

18
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 41% · 6 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 41% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 9763 9.8K

suicide chess chess champion serial killer grandmaster polaroid camera

Plot summary

A chess grandmaster is in a big tournament, and when his lover is found painted up and the blood drained out of her body he becomes a chief suspect. After he gets a call from the killer urging him to try and figure out the game, he cooperates with police and a psychologist to try and catch the killer, but doubts linger about the grandmaster's innocence as the string of grisly murders continues.

Director

Carl Schenkel Photo
Carl Schenkel

Top cast

Diane Lane Photo
Diane Lane as Kathy Sheppard
Frank C. Turner Photo
Frank C. Turner as Doctor
Mark Wilson Photo
Mark Wilson as Newscaster
Don Thompson Photo
Don Thompson as Father
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
958.57 MB
1280*544
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 2
1.83 GB
1920*816
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 9

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by bronsonskull72 5 / 10

* *1/2 OUT OF FIVE

Christopher Lambert stars as Peter Sanderson a master chess player who is targeted by a serial killer who is killing women and blaming it on Sanderson, Captain Frank Stedman(Tom Skerritt) and Detective Andy Wagner believe that Sanderson is behind it all, while a Dr.Kathy Shepperd unwisely falls for Sanderson in this entertaining yet confusing thriller. The ending while a good twist, is somewhat disappointing. However Knight Moves works fairly well most of the time.
Reviewed by Lechuguilla 8 / 10

Excellent Suspense Thriller

A psychopath uses the game of chess as a blueprint for a series of brutal murders, in this stylish 1992 film directed by Carl Schenkel. Cinematography, sound effects, scary music, and sparse dialogue combine to create an atmosphere of terror, suggestive of the "giallos" of Dario Argento.We see the killer's black gloved hands; we see the flashlight shining in the darkened room of the next victim; we hear the killer's breathing through a mask. And in these scenes, absence of dialogue amplifies the surreal, menacing presence of the killer.Suspense scenes alternate with scenes of mundane normalcy, which gives the viewer a chance to select the murderer from a pool of suspects whose behavior appear more or less normal. But beware; there are plenty of plot twists and false clues. The whodunit element kept me guessing and unsure; the film's suspense kept me fully engaged.Acting quality is average. Diane Lane gives perhaps the most convincing performance of the bunch. My main criticism is the screenplay. In any murder mystery, the viewer needs enough information to have a fair chance at solving the whodunit puzzle. But in "Knight Moves", crucial details are left out. Also, several characters are poorly defined; we know almost nothing about them. Moreover, in several key scenes, the behavior of one of the main characters is not credible, given the story's underlying premise.As a result, it's going to be almost impossible for the viewer to identify the killer, based solely on the plot. A script re-write, with more emphasis on character development, combined with the deletion of superfluous scenes would, I think, have made for a more satisfying whodunit puzzle.Even so, I recommend "Knight Moves" as a most frightening and spine-tingling suspense thriller. For maximum effect, try watching it alone, in a mansion, at night with the lights turned out, during a thunderstorm.
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