Young bachelor Babee is looking after his dead mother's estate when married couple Keith and Vera move in. Babee becomes attracted to them by the beautiful Vera and the risk taking Keith. However at a party Vera crashes her car, putting Keith into a coma. When Keith comes out he is in a semi-vegetative state and must rely on Vera to look after him. Keith can't move or speak but reveals to Babee that he can still talk and starts to kill those that wronged him with Babee's help.This starts reasonably enough - it looks like a femme-fatale type deal. However after the accident (early on in the film) it all gets a bit silly and doesn't make sense any more. The main problem is the ridiculous idea of this man totally paralysed rolling into people in his wheelchair to kill them. The fact that the innocent Babee, so attracted to Vera, would assist him to do things in secret is even more unlikely. And the ending is just absurd - not only the set-up but the conclusion.Virginia Madsen is quite good in the role of Vera. Likewise Thomas Newton and Vanessa Dorman are good as Babee and Elle respectively. However Hauer seems to have lost any ability to pick good roles - Bladerunner and the Hitcher were clearly early flukes. He spends most of his time in a wheelchair and looks stupid as he pretends to be a vegetable, he really has a thankless role.Overall this is a sloppy film. It has several good performances but the plot is very thin - at times it feels like no one knows what they're doing. What plot there is (paralysed man in a wheelchair bumps people off) is stupid and badly handled. Overall, an occasionally embarrassing mess.

This is an abysmal film, totally lacking in suspense and peopled by characters I couldn't give a flying fig about. The actors move and speak like marionettes, as if they can't wait to get off-camera. Not surprising really, since you can hardly see them in the murky photography. Add insipid music and silly plot development and you have the kind of movie experience it's well worth the trouble of avoiding. Rating: 1/10

Some nice little surprises here! Very well acted and an interesting story. You definately need to view this film more than once to appreciate it fully. The casting was great and the dialogue quite believable. This is a dark and yet delightful movie,,,Well done!

Although I'm not sure this film works as a thriller, it is an effective character study. Babee is the reclusive son of a late television star who lives alone in a large, somewhat decrepit, Hollywood mansion. His only friend is a beautiful young neighbor who grew up with him. His life changes drastically when a troubled couple (Rutger Hauer and Virginia Madsen) moves in next door. Hauer's amoral character, Keith Miller, decides to tutor Babee in the finer things in life (drinking, gambling and women). After Miller is severely brain damaged in an accident, Babee becomes his caretaker. When Miller's enemies start dying, however, Babee becomes convinced that Miller is faking his injury. Although most people could predict the ending around the beginning of the movie, "Lying in Wait" is well made and the acting is very good.