Michael and Karen Carr are a couple living in an upscale part of Los Angeles. Their peace of mind is upset by an coming in through their skylight one night. The intruder briefly takes Karen as a hostage, before dumping her in the swimming pool and making his escape. The Carrs call the police, one of whom, Pete Davis, takes extra interest in the couple's case. He cuts through department red tape and expedites speedy installation of a security system in the Carrs' house. When Michael expresses an interest in getting revenge on the intruder, Pete invites him on a "ride-along" with his partner, Roy Cole. After dropping Cole off, Pete takes Michael out to arrest the man who broke into the Carrs' house, offering Michael a chance to take some revenge using Pete's nightstick. Michael declines, but Pete administers a vicious beating to the intruder, leaving Michael deeply suspicious of Pete's mental stability. He suggests that Pete get some professional help and, especially, stay far away from him and Karen in the future. Pete takes neither suggestion. Instead, he begins to stalk the couple, particularly Karen, with whom he's obsessed. Pete even appears in the couple's bedroom one night while they are making love, just to "check that everything's okay". When Michael files a complaint against Pete's unwanted attentions, Pete uses his police connections to destroy Michael's business reputation. Encountering bemused apathy from Pete's superiors in the LAPD, Michael turns to Cole, who orders his partner to cease his obsessing, see a shrink or face suspension. Pete then murders Cole, blaming it on a known criminal. Pete then frames Michael on drug charges by planting a supply of cocaine in the Carrs' house, leaving the way clear for him to move in on Karen. Putting his attorney's finances on the line, Michael gets out on bail and takes matters into his own hands. Back at the Carr house, after finding that Pete has brutally murdered her friend, Karen rejects a now distraught Pete, who, on branding her a tease for leading him on and kissing him, goes berserk and attempts to rape her. Michael returns home and Pete attacks him and Karen. Pete and Michael fight. Outside of their bathroom, Pete is able to hold Michael at gunpoint. Karen then bursts out of the room and attacks him, allowing Michael to gain the upper hand. Michael punches Pete and knocks him down the stairs. After regaining consciousness, Pete taunts Michael one last time, before he is finally shot dead by Michael. Michael and Karen go outside and wait for the police to arrive.
The film was released in the U.S. on June 26, 1992, opening at #2 in 1,511 theaters, an average of $6,662 per theater. Grossing $10,067,609 in the opening weekend, it went on to gross $57,138,719 in the domestic market. It was a box-office success, and brought back its $23 million budget.
Critical reception
Unlawful Entry received positive reviews from critics, as it holds a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 33 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert praised director Jonathan Kaplan for giving the film's story a sense of realism with its locations, characters with "unrestrained realism" from the actors and having "undertones of a serious social drama" when confronting fears about a delusional police authority. Varietys Todd McCarthy wrote that despite being another film that follows in the mould of Fatal Attraction, he called it "a very effective victimization thriller", praising both Liotta and Russell's performances and Kaplan's direction of the script into "areas of social and class-structure observations" when dealing with unhinged police figures in an urban setting. In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin was critical of the three main leads lacking depth and substance in the motivations of their characters but gave credit to Liotta for giving "complexity" to his role, a solid supporting cast and the "level-headed" direction Kaplan takes with the plot, even as it stretches credibility.
