The story of the making of this film is terrific: Amy Holden Jones was an editor who wanted to move into directing; she had worked for Roger Corman, so she got hold of a script by Rita Mae Brown, shot a prologue, told him how much she made it for, he told her she had a future in the business, and greenlit a movie.
The film itself isn’t so crash hot – although it has a great central idea (killer escapes from asylum and runs amok knocking off young women, including some at slumber party). There are some effective murders – a girl yanked into a van and bashing on the window while men walk away oblivious to what is going on, a girl opening a fridge and not seeing a corpse is there. I also enjoyed the bit where one of the girls was watching a murder scene from Hollywood Boulevard, a New World film which Amy Holden Jones edited.
But all too often the killings are nasty. Jones has said the film was meant to be a comedy, but although there are some clever bits it’s too full on to be a yuck-fest. And they don't give the killer much of a back-story or a build up.
None of the cast act particularly well, really, although some are pretty. (I got a shock watching the excellent making-of featurette to discover one of the pretty leads, who plays a good girl, ended up killing herself.) There is some nudity on display (boobs and bums) but it’s done half-heartedly – sleazier directors have more fun with this element.
The film did become a massive hit – although Jones says no one came around offering her jobs. Corman offered to fund a sequel, but she refused, instead offering up an original script, Love Letters – which Corman agreed to make. Two sequels followed some years later.
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