Impulse

Meg Tilly gives a wonderful lead performance in this little-known sci-fi chiller directed by Graham Baker (Omen III: The Final Conflict, Alien Nation) and produced by Tim Zinnemann (Straight Time, A Small Circle of Friends, Tex). Tilly plays a ballet dancer named Jennifer who, after getting a disturbing phone call from her mother, drives back to her rural hometown with her boyfriend, Stuart, a doctor played by Tim Matheson. They arrive to find her mother hospitalized after attempting to kill herself. As they settle into the small town, they discover that most of the citizens have started to act out in bizarre ways ever since a minor earthquake hit the area. As the townsfolk's odd behavior begins to grow more aggressively violent and sexual, Stuart believes there must be some kind of virus causing the residents to lose their societal censors and start acting upon their darkest impulses. Even Jennifer's old friend Margo (Amy Stryker) and the kindly old doctor (Hume Cronyn), who is taking care of her mother, don't seem entirely trustworthy.

The screenplay is by TV writer Don Carlos Dunaway and Nicholas Kazan (Elia and Molly Kazan's son who would go on to write the fact-based films At Close Range, Patty Hearst, and Reversal of Fortune). The story has the feeling of being inspired by a real, unexplained event, and the film has a creepy, modern-day Twilight Zone vibe to it. It is notable for an early supporting performance by Bill Paxton as Jennifer's brother, one of the great actors' first eye-catching, unhinged, yet controlled performances.