A
psycho in a Ronald Reagan mask likes to stalk scantily clad runaways from a
school for wayward girls. He wraps them
in a straitjacket before walling them up behind a brick wall. A new teacher (Karen Witter) comes to the
school and almost immediately starts having weird visions. She thinks she sees John Carradine coming out
of the walls (and toilets), but no one, not even the head shrink at the school
(Robert Vaughn) believes her. More girls
disappear, and she soon fears she’ll be next.
Produced
by Harry Allan Towers and directed by Gerard (Edge of Sanity) Kikoine, this
uneven (and very loose) Edgar Allan Poe adaption at least has the benefit of an
awesome cast. In addition to Robert
Vaughn and John Carradine, we have Donald Pleasence (with a bad German accent
and even worse wig) as a creepy teacher, Ginger Lynn (as the school’s resident
bad girl), Nia Long, William Butler, and Arnold Vosloo. Although all the plot developments are predictable,
their efforts are enough to keep you watching.
Kikoine
gives us a handful of effective freak-out scenes that feel like they came out
of an Elm Street sequel. (The breathing
wall effect is pretty cool.) The rest of
the movie is something of a disappointment, especially considering how warped Kikoine’s
Edge of Sanity was. The kills aren’t all
that graphic and are a letdown for the most part, but I did like the scene
where one of the girls uses a mixer as a makeshift curling iron. (Naturally, it ends badly.) There’s also a decent shower initiation
scene, although the nudity is rather fleeting.
Kikoine films it all in an atmospheric manner, giving us plenty of odd
camera angles along the way. Too bad much
of the second act is plodding and the final reel is mostly a washout.
AKA: Lost Girls.
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