He is a magician with the scalpel. Apparently, Dr. Gary Vincent can do no wrong under the brights lights of surgery. But he has a little problem with his obsession with Sarah Crenshaw, which defines Dr. Gary as the pervert that he truly is.

Sarah has had bad luck with men. While on the ski slopes, she observes her fiancé flirting with a young woman. As Sarah moves into her slalom, she turns back to see her beau grabbing the woman's fanny. Sarah then suffers a horrific leg injury as she tumbles through snow on the down slope.

After Dr. Gary performs the miraculous surgery on Sarah's leg the true nightmare begins. The doctor's obsession leads him to prescribe a weak pain killer to keep Sarah in a state of dependency on him. As she is starting a relationship with her physical therapist, Jake Drummond, Dr. Gary intercedes to drive a wedge in the budding romance.

A problem with "The Doctor Will Kill You Now" (a.k.a., "Doctor Death") was how slow Sarah was in catching on to the sick behavior of her doctor. Other characters sense his depravity, and the film became a real downer when Dr. Gary killed the likable Rosalind "Rosie" Golding, who was trying to warn Sarah. An even more disturbing killing occurred when the good doctor crushed poor Jake Drummond under the weight of an enormous barbell.

The sagacious Rosie recognized the "God complex" that exists with some doctors. Dr. Gary's grandiosity was apparent when he blurted out to Sarah, "I gave you life!!!" It was only due to the intervention of Nurse Paige Lambert and Dr. Randolf that Dr. Gary was stopped from using his circular saw in performing a needless amputation on Sarah's leg.

Sarah Crenshaw became both a pill popper and a lush in the course of the film. Yet, the denouement that finds a perky Sarah back on the ski trail seemed a bit hollow for the nearly catastrophic physical and psychic experience she had endured with Dr. Gary.