Well okay, "Fatal Bond" was an awful film and an incredible waste of time, but at least I got to laugh really hard once, because afterwards when I browsed through the reviews here, I read someone's comment that this is – and I quote – "the best film Linda Blair has been in since The Exorcist". He or she seriously must be joking?!? I'll admit that lovely Linda hasn't appeared in many Oscar-worthy films since "The Exorcist", but this one has got to be one of her absolute worst accomplishments, on par with the dreadful "The Chilling" and "Moving Target". In case anyone is looking for real Linda Blair highlights, check out the awesomely entertaining "Chained Heat", "Savage Streets" and maybe even the crazy "Witchcraft" in which she stars alongside the one and only David Hasselhoff. This thing, on the contrary, is a horribly derivative, predictable and textbook thriller (it feels like a TV-movie although it isn't one) that shouldn't even be available anymore. Produced in Australia, but certainly not representative for the quality cult/exploitation cinema they usually make over there, "Fatal Bond" is full of clichés and dull sequences. Blair stars as the bored 30- something hairdresser Leonie who falls head over heels in love with a mysterious guy she spots in a night club. I can understand why she falls for him, because the bloke (Jerome Ehlers) looks a lot like Robert Mitchum, but it quickly becomes obvious that he isn't a perfect match. The police follow him around everywhere, supposedly for unpaid parking tickets, and he openly flirts with other girls in Leonie's presence. When the young girl he cheated Leonie with turns up murdered, she suspects that he is a dangerous psychopath and yet still remains on his side. Probably the main reason why I hated "Fatal Bond" so much is because Linda Blair appears in such an atypical role for her. I'm used to seeing her as a very strong and independent leading lady (see the aforementioned titles), whereas here she depicts a weak and emotionally unstable housewife! That's not the Linda we know and worship! Aside from that, the film is mostly boring and the director doesn't succeed in generating anything that even remotely resembles to suspense or mystery. The denouement is as imbecilic as it is predictable, and I've seen better plot-twists in my grandmother's favorite soap operas on TV. Linda Blair's heavenly and world-famous breasts are unleashed – or at least one of them – during a brief sex sequences and in the obligatory shower scene. Still, not worth it
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Linda Blair is a hairdresser who takes off with Jerome Ehlers. After a while she becomes convinced he is a serial killer because that's what 73.2% of the male population of Australia is, apparently.
There's nothing actively wrong with this movie, which was described to me as 'Ozploitation'. On the other hand, there's nothing to interest me, except for Miss Blair's peroxide job. Her career seems to have peaked as a child actor spewing pea soup, and while she continues to work, her credits are not in exemplary films. I haven't seen her in a movie theater since I walked out on 1984's NIGHT PATROL; neither does this film make me think I am missing much. -
Leofwine_draca7 May 2017FATAL BOND is an Aussie addition to the run of psycho-thrillers that did tidy business in the early 1990s after the success of FATAL ATTRACTION and the likes of THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE. It's a low budget enough piece of entertainment that nonetheless has some undeniable charm in terms of era and setting, and somehow I always find these 'Ozploitation' movies more enjoyable than their American counterparts, possibly because they're more unfamiliar. FATAL BOND's directed by Vincent Monton, who previously wrote LONG WEEKEND among others.
This one sees imported American starlet Linda Blair (of THE EXORCIST fame, of course, and with a subsequent career in B-movie cinema) playing a young woman who gets a new boyfriend in the form of the edgy Jerome Ehlers. The problem is that Ehlers always seems to attract violence and on top of that a young girl he was seen talking to at the beach is found dead the next morning. Is Blair's new beau a serial killer? You'll have to watch this to find out, but it moves through the genre tropes with ease and provides a slice of switch-off-the-brain viewing material. Ehlers gives a good and mysterious performance in this and I always like Blair although she's not the world's greatest actress. The requisite sex and shower scenes tease nudity although Blair plays it tame for most of the running time. -
jmbegin-1290517 March 2021I wanted to see what became of Linda Blair. Everybody of my age (born in 1963) knows her for we know what. In here she is at the height of her beauty around age 30. But only her cute face and body worth the watch.
This is a VERY cheap production. The filming, the sound is annoying with always either some back ground noises or the cheap music score in almost every scene. Unwatchable!
And the plot. At the very beginning she sees a violent man, protect him from the bouncers, hop in his car right away, make love with him withing five minutes, moves in with him the very same day, stayed with him even if he is violent and maybe a killer... Wow!
Won't tell you what happens after. But be prepared for a cheap production and it's hard to stay all the way until the end.
For die-hard Linda Blair's fan only to see what she can do 15 years after the only movie she will be remembered for... -
BandSAboutMovies10 June 2019We've already covered one Australian Linda Blair movie, 1990's Deep Sleep. Obviously, the next stage in our quest to covered every single movie she's ever been in would eventually bring us to another Down Under Blair effort. Being a completist is kind of like that.
Joe Martinez is a violent drifter who only really loves his car and getting into fisticuffs. He's saved from being arrested one night by an American girl named Leonie (Blair) and they're soon making the kind of love reserved for Cinemax at 2:17 AM. Complicating matters is that Joe might be a serial killer. You know how that happens.
For those interested in the siblings of more famous actors, Mel Gibson's brother Donal shows up.
Look - if the dude you hooked up with in a bar is being followed by the police for unpaid parking tickets and you find the bodies of any woman that he flirted or cheated on you with, chances are you're actually Linda Blair and are trapped in a bad Australian movie. I have no idea how to help you. It will get worse when the father of the dead girl starts hunting you and your potential murderer beau. Truly, no actress has played more beaten down, treated like garbage characters than Linda, yet here I am, wishing the best for her as I watch her roles at 5:38 AM. -
TokyoGyaru2 January 2021Even without the ending you can see a mile away, the boyfriend is an AWFUL person, and his girlfriend Lee (played by Linda Blair) is an utterly moronic, codependent doormat. Lee sees blaring red warning signs in literally the first minute she meets him, but she's apparently so desperate for a man that nothing matters even as he gets worse and worse and it gets to the point where she questions his guilt and she acts in an unlawful way to help him. There's NO explanation for her stupidity or her willingness to stay, as there is no character development whatsoever. Even the final choice in the movie is utterly selfish and possibly unlawful, hinting that the lack of character development is absolute. I don't know if this was Linda Blair trying to distance herself from being a child actor, but that's what the film came across as given the utter lack of depth to her character and the fact she just wants to keep having sex (he's a "minute man," btw, so what's all the fuss?) with her selfish, cheating, criminal boyfriend she suspects of being a serial killer. AND there is NO justification for her to give up her life and her business (!!!) and claim to love him--she even claims it right after saying that she doesn't know anything about him and his family! Good grief!
This movie irritated me. Everything about it was unpleasant and dumb. If you want to watch a film about how stupid women met obvious red flags before the existence of dating apps (I imagine she met him through the MadTV tape dating service, Lowered Expectations), then this is the film for you!
S/N: He keeps littering with gusto throughout the film, usually alcohol-based containers like bottles and cans, even off of her apartment balcony. That's annoying enough to be a red flag that he's an inconsiderate slob. -
bazookamouth-221-89809718 August 2018B List Aussie movie about a patsy hairdresser (Linda Blair) who hooks up with career criminal ( the late Jerome Ehlers) and then proceeds point to point through Australia to get to Ehlers hometown and brother. The biggest irritation was the musical score. It was porno music that droned on the whole music. Linda Blair famous for getting her kit off, didn't in this movie although the trailer suggests much. Ehlers (who died in 2014 of cancer) looks like a cross between Martin Kemp/Jason Isaacs. Acting is woody as usual for a Linda Blair movie post Exorcist. Plot is just silly. So many contrivances. They tried for the twist ending but it didn't make sense at all. The supporting cast were a total joke . Even Joe Bugner turned up the 70s heavyweight boxer. Rating ** 3 / 10 **
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ballouvince19 September 2022At least be honest. You say it's not worth watching but it is, to you because you know Linda will disrobe. It's a lot like when guys call a girl fat, even though they secretly think she is curvaceous but they want to psych the girl into believing she is unattractive, so they can convince all women not to eat, so they look so emaciated. Them the guys convince the girls that emaciated is attractive, all, so of they get rejected by the emaciated girl, they won't feel as rejected, because, secretly, no guy thinks that emaciated is attractive. So, girls, next time a guy calls you fat or a cow, know that they secretly think they would like to see your body type on their favorite downloading site.(You know what that means), and then reject the guy. Watch him have a breakdown. This will prove that fat is the new curvaceous. So is cow. Also, in this world of games, if awards are given to every woman in a skin flick, but one, that one is the guys' favorite. All the aforementioned info applies. In a nutshell, all guys like this movie; especially, if they are Linda Blair fans. And the reason is obvious. They say Linda is fat, in this movie, but they don't think it. And they look forward to seeing proof; movie plot, aside. However, the end of the movie suggests that her latter movies are not that good.
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I love these small known films based on true events, though I know bits would of been slightly altered if that was an understatement. The film stars the late Jerome Ehlers, one of my favorite actors, and I was shocked to hear about his passing. Ehlers, who I consider a good actor, slips into this role perfectly as a dangerous, on the edge, handsome, impulsive, could be, psycho, killing women. He falls in love with a woman (Exorcist's Blair) who starts to suspect, he's not the guy she thinks he is, as their sexually charged relationship intensifies. They take a vacation. Ehler's character, an ex con, who's great at shirking, and outrunning authorities, I must point out, gets involved with a late teen, (it's the bikini) makes out with her that night. The next morning, she winds up dead. Was it Ehlers? Could be? He hardly reacts when seeing her photo in the paper. Ehler's character has violent tendencies, and we see this is his unlawful activities. On the whole, I really enjoyed this movie, that gets very climactic, with a shocking admittance, as the real truth comes out, which I never expected, though I really liked. Blair, I must say I liked too, and there are some funny and tasteful moments, one involving Ehler's attire that a young punk criticizes. He does get quite intimate with the young lass, before her demise, that small time actress, actually a comedian. We have other suspects that come into play of course, where I like how thrillers can be formed from true stories, without trying to be thrillers. I mean, if that's what went down, that's what went down. Truly recommended Aussie pic.
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lavatch22 February 2021In "Fatal Bond," there is one of the most unsavory creatures imaginable in the character of Joe Martinez. It was a stretch to believe that the hairstylist Leonie Stevens would continue to stay with him after she suspected him of two brutal murders.
The filmmakers devised an interesting twist at the end in the attempt to shine a more positive light on Joe, based on what was apparently a true story. The wild card in the equation was the minister, Reverend Anthony Boon. Boon's messianic character holds the key to understanding the death of his daughter Bree.
While the film was never convincing as a love story, it worked as a compelling road show and mystery with good suspense as the walls were closing in on Joe Martinez. The efficient Detective Chenko was tracking both Boon and Martinez, which led to a spectacular climactic scene that virtually took the film into the area of the horror genre.
One positive was the performance of Linda Blair as Leonie. The actress did her best to serve the script in evoking a character who was virtually addicted to an admittedly self-destructive hustler. There was also some colorful seaside location footage in South Australia.
It was never plausible that the relationship of Joe and Leonie would produce seven babies. But, as indicated in the closing credits, that was apparently the outcome of the true story after Joe had paid his debt to society. Which one of the following is the better title: "Fatal Bond"? Or, "Joe and Leonie": A Love Story"? -
sarmatianman20 September 2000I love this movie. I saw it a few years ago on cable. What could be better than Linda Blair in Australia trying to learn Italian while she is dating a hot dark-haired guy? There is something for everyone here: hot scenes of both Linda Blair and Jerome Ehlers (the male lead), nice scenery of Australia, and a sense of mystery. I think overall what helps the movie is the cinematography. Try catching it on cable.
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Scollop10 July 2003This Australian movie is up there with Red Rock West as one of the best thrillers I've seen. It has a great anti hero (Jerome Elhers) who like Nick Cage has a great edgy screen presence. This is the best film Linda Blair has been in since The Exorcist. She captures the character of the girl enraptured in this man on the run from something he won't reveal. A great film, highly recommended.