Diary of the Dead

A young Hector Elizondo (of TV's Chicago Hope) stars in this low-key thriller about a harried, unemployed young husband who finally tires of the incessant badgering of his mother-in-law (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and uses his puzzle-solving skills to concoct the perfect murder and get his hands on her inheritance (a mere $80,000). Unfortunately, the old bat's short-term dirt nap only manages to make her even more annoying, and she comes back to torment him from beyond the grave... maybe. Clearly the makers of this low-budget film were inspired by Diabolique and/or the collected works of Hitchcock -- but unlike those films, the endless plot convolutions fail to add up to an enthralling whole, generating more irritation than suspense.