Back when they were child chess prodigies, David Willerman (Charles Bailey-Gates) and Peter Sanderson (Christopher Lambert) had a significant match. This match, which ended with Peter victorious and David stabbing him with a pen, had a profound impact on both their lives. It led to Peter’s father leaving and his mother committing suicide, and David’s obsession with his chess board, which he kept in the group homes and orphanages he grew up in.

When Peter grows up, he ascends to the status of a chess grandmaster and becomes a widower, left to raise his daughter, Erica (Katharine Isabelle), alone. The plot thickens when his latest lover, Debi (Kehli O’Byrne, Ginger Snaps), is discovered dead. The police, led by Police Captain Frank Sedman (Tom Skeritt), Detective Andy Wagner (Daniel Baldwin), and psychologist Kathy Sheppard (Diane Lane), launch an investigation, with Peter as the prime suspect. However, the mystery deepens as David, the potential missing link, enters the picture.

Directed by Swiss-born Carl Schenkel and written by Brad Mirman (Body of Evidence), this film, a part of the Giallo genre, features all of Peter’s lovers showing up with their faces painted like clowns and drained of blood. It also takes a page out of The Cat o’ Nine Tails by having Peter’s daughter Erica being best friends with his blind coach, who is played by Ferdy Maine (the devil from Night Train to Terror).

I always wonder how the Giallo police work. In this example, Sheppard goes from psychoanalyzing Peter to being a skewered queen. See, I can make sex jokes about anything! But seriously, defund the Giallo police. Sleeping with a suspect? Well, they were married in real life at the time.

It’s not the best Giallo-adjacent movie I’ve seen, but it’s not the worst. I did like how excited Lambert was when he won at Battle Chess.

You can watch this on YouTube.