GIRLY
Unbearably childish
You've gotta love box art as lurid as this one, featuring a leggy, busty chick in a little girl's dress, Raggedy Ann in one hand and axe in the other. Too bad the movie's tame and irritating.
There isn't much of a plot here - foxy teenaged Girly and her camera-wielding brother Sonny bring home various men to "play the game" with, which at first consists of running in circles and usually ends up killing the silly bastards. One day, they find a married couple, knock off the wife and bring the man home to Mumsy and Nanny to be their New Friend.
There's not really much of a horror flick here - life with these people looks annoying as hell, but not particularly difficult. I mean, they're not Hell's Angels - one whack with a pool cue should be anough to take them down, so escape can't be too tough. This guy makes pretty much no effort to escape his captors. He must be enjoying the game, at least more than I did.
The primary problem here is the unrelenting childishness. No matter how cute Girly is, it's annoying as hell to listen to her endlessly spout off these made-up-on-the-spot nursery rhymes while doing marginally violent things. One thing so many horror writers just don't understand is that just because something rhymes doesn't mean it's scary. (take In Dreams) (no, leave it)
I did, however, like how New Friend subtly puts a plan together to turn some of his captors against each other, even if it seems like an inefficient effort when it would take so little to escape. Then again, since his staying allows him to have sex with Girly, maybe I can't blame him.
This one's tame as hell too, alas. The cover art had me expecting something pretty raunchy, but alas, with one scene of suggested cunnilingus and very little violence, it could have squeaked by with a PG.
Ah well. I liked the "Tony Chestnut" scene.
Directed by he of the gayest name ever, Freddie Francis.