1983
Starring: Aleisa Shirley, Bo Hopkins, Susan Strasberg, Dana Kimmell, Steve Antin
This movie has a hard time dealing with establishing shots that actually build on the story. It begins with Melissa (Aleisa Shirley) taking a shower. Yeah, boobs within the first couple of minutes. Even though the actress is obviously not 15, it's creepy to think that she is supposed to be and the first view we get of her is her naked body, yuck. I'm totally for nudity in crappy movies, but not when it's supposed to be underage. The we cut to a bar fight! This small Texas town makes it obvious that they only have a couple native American Indians living there, but they hate them. Melissa is then seen trying to pick up dudes in the parking lot of the bar, but there is some sort of presence that follows her around. The dude she makes out with is then mysteriously stabbed multiple times.
It turns out that Melissa's dad is an archaeologist who is working on a dig near the town, so he relocated his family there. His wife (Susan Strasberg) used to live in the town but moved away long ago. Melissa is a total horn dog, trying to have sex with every dude she meets. I know she's suppose to be lonely and beautiful, but she's pretty terrible and dull. Every guy that Melissa tries to have sex with ends up dead. The sheriff (Bo Hopkins) begins to investigate these murders and immediately blames Greyfeather, one of the two Indians who live in town. Greyfeather is so distraught by this that he hangs himself. So they move onto pinning the blame on Jason Longshadow (Don Shanks) the younger Indian dude.
The sheriff has two kids Marci (Dana Kimmell) and Hank (Steve Antin) who are the same age as Melissa. Marci is a junior sleuth who tries to help her dad find the killer. They ride around town trying to figure out who did it. Marci calls Melissa out at the funeral for the two boys who were murdered, then she becomes Melissa's friend for some reason. The next week is Melissa's sweet sixteen BBQ and the whole town is invited. Meanwhile the sheriff has been doing his job investigating the murder, while this lady is trying to marry him. He checks out microfiche of some murders and a suicide that occurred in the town some years ago but have some similar patterns to the current murders. It all culminates at the super sweet sixteen BBQ. Hank and Melissa go off skinny dipping, but then Melissa runs out of the water for no apparent reason. She is then almost raped by some perverts. Hank tries to help her, but he's useless and gets knocked out. Luckily the murderer comes out of nowhere and saves Melissa. SPOILER: the murderer is Melissa's crazy mom! Apparently Melissa's grandfather was a nutjob who either molested or tried to kill Melissa's mom. Anyway so Melissa's mom had been killing all those guys as a way to protect her daughter, she kept seeing her father in them. The movie ends with Melissa's mom being captured, but then Melissa walks into the house with a knife and a crazy look on her face. I'm not sure if you're supposed to assume that Melissa is just about to kill herself or that there will be a sequel with Melissa as the killer.
I had a fun time watching this movie. Marci has an amazing double take reaction shot when she first uncovers a body. There are some awesome hairstyles and a crazy custom song about "Melissa." The dvd did have some super killer trailers on it from Code Red DVD. I can't wait to find Stunt Rock and Nightmare!
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