This movie was filmed in three weeks on a very small budget and it shows. An easy way to save money is to film the movie in the dark, so naturally the plot calls for the store's lights to be off the whole time. But, even with that explanation, this film is extremely dark. This film is so dark that much of the action is nearly impossible to make out (this likely served to save money on special effects). But, every 1980s slasher movie needs nudity, so there is magically adequate lighting whenever the actresses take their clothes off. Next, the film saves money by generating a lot of jump scares by having the kids try and scare each other and by throwing in some mannequins to throw the audience off. The female mannequins are particularly intimidating in this movie as the killer likes to dress up in woman's clothing.
This 1980s slasher is notable because of its smaller body count and that there are a full four survivors from the original group of eight kids instead of the genre-typical sole female survivor. The Director, Skip Schoolnik, is very familiar with this slasher-film cliché (single female survivor) as he edited Halloween II in 1981. Skip Schoolnik does a decent job of building suspense by having the killer dress up in his victims' clothing as a trap to lure his next victim,. The killer makes use of the wigs from the store mannequins, and at one point puts on the lacy black lingerie one of the girls had brought to surprise her boyfriend. Oh he is surprised! Most of the scenes in which the killer darts past another character while obscured by shadows are scary, and the Killer's high pitched squeals of laughter makes things even creepier. There is also a tense scene of the kids banging on the glass store display window trying to get someone's attention and help.
John Ross' score is interesting and is reminiscent of the haunting score from The Terminator, pulsating and futuristic.
One of the problems with this movie is that the kids don't seem to have any individual personalities or motivations. Randy's whole personality is is buzz cut haircut. Craig and John are your typical meat-head jocks and Shawn' is a nerdy virgin. Kim and Bonnie are young foxes. Melissa and Judy (the chunky virgin) are supposed to be the two less attractive girls, yet most of the budget for this film seems to have been spent on all four girls' hair and make-up. I thought the kids in this film were smarter than their slasher-film contemporaries: (1) once they determined that there was a killer in the store with them they stayed together as a group; (2) rather than hide they gathered weapons and realized they outnumbered the killer and hunted him; and, (3) they tried to bring help into the store.
I heard that this film had a twist ending. I am here to tell you though that M Night Shyamalan has nothing to fear from this film's writer, Michael Kelly. The twist was not all that shocking and it certainly did not make sense. The kids think that Fred, the ex-con who works and lives in the basement of the store, is the killer. The kids even beat Fred's ass and tie him up because they think he is the killer. But "shockingly" the real killer ends up being Fred's gay prison lover, Zack, whose motivation for killing the kids is....he thinks that the kids will come between him and Fred?!?!? Yes, the kids who are only staying in the store overnight and trying to couple up and have sex are somehow a rival for Fred's affection in Zack, the Killer's, mind. So why did the homosexual killer, Zack, open the movie by picking up a female prostitute, have sex with her in an alley and then killing her? She could not have possibly been a rival for Fred's affection.
There is a lot of homo eroticism in this movie. The Killer, Zack, wears drag and bondage gear and is gay. There is a scene where one of the young couples is lying in bed naked and the killer comes into the room dressed as the young nerdy boy he just killed. The killer gives the naked couple the middle finger and then bends over and exposes his naked male buttocks. So, naturally, the supposedly heterosexual young jock leaves his hot naked girlfriend behind in bed and chases after the naked male ass of what he thinks is the young nerdy guy. Early in the film, this same jock is lifting weights with his muscular friend and then tells his friend to meet him in the showers, and then takes a seductive bite of his banana. These two are not at school or a gym but rather in the backyard of a single family home....so the "showers" are going to be a real tight squeeze. Then there is the climax where Fred and Zack fight to the death and as the innocent Fred lies dying he tells his boss, the kid's dad who owns the store, "I tried to be straight. I'm sorry, Mr. Robbins." Did he mean he tried to go straight, with a legitimate job? Or did he mean he tried not to have sex with guys?
This 1980s slasher is notable because of its smaller body count and that there are a full four survivors from the original group of eight kids instead of the genre-typical sole female survivor. The Director, Skip Schoolnik, is very familiar with this slasher-film cliché (single female survivor) as he edited Halloween II in 1981. Skip Schoolnik does a decent job of building suspense by having the killer dress up in his victims' clothing as a trap to lure his next victim,. The killer makes use of the wigs from the store mannequins, and at one point puts on the lacy black lingerie one of the girls had brought to surprise her boyfriend. Oh he is surprised! Most of the scenes in which the killer darts past another character while obscured by shadows are scary, and the Killer's high pitched squeals of laughter makes things even creepier. There is also a tense scene of the kids banging on the glass store display window trying to get someone's attention and help.
John Ross' score is interesting and is reminiscent of the haunting score from The Terminator, pulsating and futuristic.
One of the problems with this movie is that the kids don't seem to have any individual personalities or motivations. Randy's whole personality is is buzz cut haircut. Craig and John are your typical meat-head jocks and Shawn' is a nerdy virgin. Kim and Bonnie are young foxes. Melissa and Judy (the chunky virgin) are supposed to be the two less attractive girls, yet most of the budget for this film seems to have been spent on all four girls' hair and make-up. I thought the kids in this film were smarter than their slasher-film contemporaries: (1) once they determined that there was a killer in the store with them they stayed together as a group; (2) rather than hide they gathered weapons and realized they outnumbered the killer and hunted him; and, (3) they tried to bring help into the store.
I heard that this film had a twist ending. I am here to tell you though that M Night Shyamalan has nothing to fear from this film's writer, Michael Kelly. The twist was not all that shocking and it certainly did not make sense. The kids think that Fred, the ex-con who works and lives in the basement of the store, is the killer. The kids even beat Fred's ass and tie him up because they think he is the killer. But "shockingly" the real killer ends up being Fred's gay prison lover, Zack, whose motivation for killing the kids is....he thinks that the kids will come between him and Fred?!?!? Yes, the kids who are only staying in the store overnight and trying to couple up and have sex are somehow a rival for Fred's affection in Zack, the Killer's, mind. So why did the homosexual killer, Zack, open the movie by picking up a female prostitute, have sex with her in an alley and then killing her? She could not have possibly been a rival for Fred's affection.
There is a lot of homo eroticism in this movie. The Killer, Zack, wears drag and bondage gear and is gay. There is a scene where one of the young couples is lying in bed naked and the killer comes into the room dressed as the young nerdy boy he just killed. The killer gives the naked couple the middle finger and then bends over and exposes his naked male buttocks. So, naturally, the supposedly heterosexual young jock leaves his hot naked girlfriend behind in bed and chases after the naked male ass of what he thinks is the young nerdy guy. Early in the film, this same jock is lifting weights with his muscular friend and then tells his friend to meet him in the showers, and then takes a seductive bite of his banana. These two are not at school or a gym but rather in the backyard of a single family home....so the "showers" are going to be a real tight squeeze. Then there is the climax where Fred and Zack fight to the death and as the innocent Fred lies dying he tells his boss, the kid's dad who owns the store, "I tried to be straight. I'm sorry, Mr. Robbins." Did he mean he tried to go straight, with a legitimate job? Or did he mean he tried not to have sex with guys?