SWEET SIXTEEN
Great box cover. So-so movie.
"How do you kill someone with a rake?" asks a girl reading a murder mystery. You can tell it's a murder mystery because it's called "Murder Mystery". Anyway, d'ya think that by the end of the film, we'll see some good rake-to-head action? Yeah, you'd think that...
So what we've got here is a mad slasher knocking off young men as it builds up to Melissa's sixteenth's birthday party. Eyes are cast in suspicion upon Jason, the local Indian stud, which ignites the racial tensions which have presumably always been just beneath the surface, and soon enough, the town's got lynchings to worry about too.
Dana Kimmel - who reached what passes for the apex of her career in Friday the 13th Part 3 - plays the Sheriff's daughter who befriends Melissa and does a little snooping of her own into the mess her town's getting into. Bo Hopkins is pretty good as the Sheriff, who looks like he wants to retire. But what's Patrick MacNee doing here?
This is a not-bad slasher movie with more of an accent on character and mystery than most. Anyone else feels just a little guilty for enjoying the nudity that's supposed to be from 15-year-old girls? (even though the naked actresses were probably closer to 19 or so at the time)
One character inexplicably gets off without a scolding or anything at the end after beating the crap out of a deputy. You'd think that this - coupled with a prison break - would be punishable.
Features a theme song, "Melissa", which is only slightly more entertaining to listen to than one of those "Cats Meow The Songs Of Christmas" CD's. Music by somebody Vig. Not Butch, is it?