Bad Influence (film)

Bad Influence is a 1990 American psychological thriller film directed by Curtis Hanson starring Rob Lowe and James Spader. In this noirish film, Spader plays a yuppie who meets a mysterious stranger (Lowe) who encourages him to explore his dark side. Bad Influence was the first original screenplay for which David Koepp received a sole screenplay credit.

Plot
A man leaves a naked woman sleeping as he disappears into the city, throwing away a bag of things to cover his tracks.

Michael Boll, a shy, socially awkward doormat, finds important work data missing. He knows that Patterson, his dishonest coworker, has somehow hidden them but can't prove it, let alone bring himself to accuse the man. Frustrated, he hides in his office - only to be confronted by his fiancée Ruth, whose prattling about their upcoming wedding serves to create further anxiety for Michael. He goes to a bar at the beach and buys a drink for a woman who has lost her wallet. Her abusive boyfriend appears and assaults Michael. Suddenly, the man from earlier appears, breaks a beer bottle and defends Michael, menacing the thug until he leaves. Michael turns to thank his benefactor, but the man has disappeared.

At home, Michael’s older brother Pismo borrows money - a frequent occurrence he blames on being unable to get anywhere because of a drug conviction. Michael goes for a nighttime jog and sees the mysterious man from the bar on the pier. He introduces himself as Alex. They go out for drinks and Alex tells Michael he needs to get the best of Patterson. At work, he does just that by doing what Patterson did to him to get his data back and he feels exhilarated.

Over a short period of time, Alex introduces Michael to a life of hedonism, aggression and anarchy. He shows Ruth a video of Michael having sex with his friend Claire to break up the engagement Michael told him he didn't want, creates a distance between Michael and his brother, involves him in an armed robbery and drug-fueled crime spree, ending with an assault on Patterson, though Michael is too drunk and drugged to know what happened.

Eventually, Michael comes to his senses when he learns at work about the assault. He confronts Alex, who tells him in detail about what happened; Michael tells him he's finished with this toxic relationship and kicks him out. At work, Michael wins the promotion he's been dreaming of because Patterson has withdrawn. Michael feels too guilty to enjoy his success. Alex takes it upon himself to convince Michael to reconsider his decision - one way or another. Michael returns to an emptied apartment and realizes Alex is behind it. When he finds him and Alex takes credit for the promotion, Michael tells him to keep the stuff and consider them even.

Alex begins wreaking havoc on Michael’s life. He makes a video of himself murdering Claire off-camera with Michael’s golf club and leaves her body in his apartment. Alex beats Michael and leaves him, taking the tape of the murder. Trapped, and unable to go to the police, Michael enlists Pismo’s help to get rid of the body in the La Brea Tar Pits.

Michael’s secretary transfers to another department because she hates his changed personality. Claire's body is found by the police and Michael finds his golf club in his office - both a message from Alex. Michael enlists Pismo’s help again - this time to find Alex and eliminate the problem.

Michael sends Pismo to the secret floating sex party to follow Alex. Pismo grabs a beer bottle with Alex’s DNA and a bag with the driver's license of the girl Alex is currently staying with. Alex sees Pismo and follows him out of the club. Alex attacks Pismo, but Michael saves him, and Pismo gives him the girl's address. Michael has obtained a gun, lent to him by a security guard from work, and is about to leave to kill Alex when Pismo notices that Alex has rigged the car to blow up. They fix it and Michael changes his mind about killing Alex.

At the girl's apartment, Alex has sex with two women. He prepares to disappear the way he did before. After he grabs a plastic bag with Michael’s bloody jacket, Michael appears and holds a knife to his throat. Alex admits he was going to plant it at Michael’s apartment, and they struggle. Alex prepares to kill Michael, who escapes, running down the pier. Alex traps him at the end of the pier, but Michael grabs the gun, which he has planted there; it's a trap for Alex. He preens and tells Michael his belief that humanity is inherently as evil as him and admits to murdering Claire and beating up Patterson while Michael was unconscious. Michael calls out to Pismo, who has recorded the entire confession with a video camera. Pismo stumbles, distracting Michael, and Alex lunges at him, but Michael fatally shoots him in self-defense. Alex's body falls into the water. Pismo calls the police, who appear on the pier, and Michael walks out to meet them with the evidence.

Production
The film is based on an original script by David Koepp, who had previously co-written the script for Apartment Zero. The script launched Koepp's career.

Director Curtis Hanson stated that the film bears similarities to his earlier movies, The Silent Partner and The Bedroom Window. He said all are about a "character who takes a step out of line. In these pictures the guy is very guilty ... and his guilt gets him in deeper and deeper. Because he's guilty he pays a terrible price, but we feel better because he paid that price and he ends up with a strict moral code he didn't have at the start of the picture."

When Rob Lowe originally read the script, he says "my strongest reaction on a visceral level was to Alex. But I was nervous about playing him because I felt the character didn't go through any sort of arc or metamorphosis. He ended up unredeemed, unlike the villain I'd played in Masquerade." So Lowe decided to play Michael, the protagonist. He then had second thoughts and was persuaded by Koepp to play Alex.

During rehearsals for the film, Lowe found himself embroiled in a public scandal when news broke of a videotape he had made having sex with two women, one of whom was sixteen. "I don't believe in the theory that any publicity is good," said Hanson. "For Rob's sake and the picture's sake, I wish it had never happened. The story broke shortly before rehearsals and my reaction was completely selfish. I kept wondering, 'How does this affect the movie? How does it affect his performance?' It was like a carnival atmosphere around him." It was ultimately decided to keep Lowe in the part.

Filming began in July 1989. James Spader called it "an extremely strange, peculiar thriller, and where you end up is extremely surprising. You really think you know where you're going all the way along, and boy, you're surprised just how lost you are."

Release
Bad Influence was released in the United States on March 9, 1990. On its opening weekend, it came in at 4th place with $3,822,019 at the box office. Worldwide, it grossed $12,626,043 on an estimated $7 million budget.

The film was released on VHS by RCA Columbia Pictures Home Video.

The film was released on DVD on December 3, 2002 by MGM Home Entertainment.

Reception
Bad Influence received mixed to positive reviews from critics. The film holds a 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 20 reviews. 

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, praising the script, direction, and the actors' performances. He wrote the film "is a much superior exploitation of a theme that Koepp used in his screenplay for last year's 'Apartment Zero': A passive hero falls for the spell of a virile man who enters his life under false and deadly pretenses. 'Apartment Zero' was lurid and overwrought, almost a self-parody, while Hanson's direction of 'Bad Influence' makes it into a sombre, introspective study of the relationship."

Vincent Canby of The New York Times also lauded the acting and wrote, "There's a crucial point at which the audience either will turn away from Bad Influence, or consciously elect to stick with it in spite of common sense. Until that moment, Bad Influence is a refreshing exercise in glossy decadence."

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade of B+ and said, "Hanson establishes a ripe sense of temptation. In Bad Influence, the sinful undercurrents aren’t just cheap thrills. They’re luridly topical — they’re meant to subvert a world in which people have begun to organize their erotic lives by Filofax".

In a more critical review, Leonard Maltin gave the film 2.5 out of a possible 4 stars, describing it as a "slick, high-tech variation on Strangers on a Train." He added it "knows what buttons to push and when; Lowe is convincingly creepy, but he won't make you forget Robert Walker."

In a 2017 interview, Rob Lowe said that of all his films, Bad Influence was the project that did not get the rightful attention it deserved. "It was really ahead of its time. I’m really proud of it... It’s sexy. It’s weird. It’s dark. The characters are great... It’s also a great snapshot of underground L.A. at the beginning of the '90s. And yet it doesn’t feel dated."

Curtis Hanson said he was "very fond" of the film but "it was an unhappy experience when that picture got released, because it coincided with that ridiculous Rob Lowe videotape scandal. Rob, who I thought was really good in the movie, had his performance overshadowed by this sort of tabloid approach to him and the movie... There were people who actually wrote in reviews that this picture had been put out to capitalize on the scandal. Which, of course, would have been impossible."