Impulse (1984)

Following a minor earthquake, an entire small town starts behaving strangely. Civility ceases to exist and people speak their mind and act out hostile thoughts and emotions. Into this madness, a dancer (Meg Tilly) and her doctor boyfriend (Tim Matheson) enter when her mother (Lorinne Vozoff) attempts suicide. Directed by Graham Baker (ALIEN NATION), this is a good idea poorly handled. The film should have the paranoid immediacy of something like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS but instead, it moves forward in a jerky and often confusing fashion. It needs to be tighter rather than taking side trips which contribute nothing to the narrative and only diffuse the necessary tension. Matheson is a rather nondescript "hero" but Meg Tilly generates enough good will that she's the only character you really care about. With Hume Cronyn, Bill Paxton, John Karlen and Anne Haney.