Vinny Durand (Joe Spinell) is a New York City taxi driver who is obsessed with the international cult actress Jana Bates (Caroline Munro), who is known as the "queen of horror films". Vinny returns home to his apartment where he lives with his mother (played by Joe Spinell's real life mother), where he tells her that he's packing to go to the Cannes Film Festival in France hoping to meet Jana Bates and get her to star in his movie as his career start of being a film director. But his mother calls it just another one of his "crazy ideas." The two share the joint as the film ends.