Earl Brooks is a successful businessman, husband and father, and he's pretty adept at serial killing too. Goaded on by his conscienceless alter-ego Marshall, wonderfully played by William Hurt, he stalks his victims and meticulously plans their murders, posturing the corpses and photographing them for posterity. However, when Earl finds himself entangled in the twisted agenda of an opportunistic bystander, as well as hunted by the unorthodox and tenacious Detective Atwood, he finds his carefully find out more...

It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...