July Darling

This movie is marketed as a Sybil Danning vehicle even though the erstwhile German-American sex symbol is really only in the last half of the movie, and the really memorable performance is by the unknown Isabella Mejia as a disturbed teenage girl whose infatuation with her father (Antonio Franciosa from "Tenebra")leads her to allow an intruder to rape and murder her own mother. She then blackmails the same guy into trying to do the same to her new stepmother (Sybil Danning). The disturbed girl at one point even locks her young step-brother in an old fridge in the middle of a junkyard.

I saw this film almost back-to-back with another, much more terrible Sybil Danning-starrer "They're Playing with Fire". But while that film was a horrid hybrid of a dumb 80's teen sex comedy and an idiotic 90's erotic thriller (featuring Sybil in the sack with the annoying kid from "Private Lessons", and the once great Andrew Prine flushing his career right down the toilet), this film does the burgeoning erotic thriller genre proud (or as proud as you can do that crappy genre). It has a real, if not necessarily highly believable, plot and pretty decent acting. Other reviewers have compared it to "The Bad Seed", but it is actually better than that stagey, melodramatic flick (which ends with the villain literally being struck down by lightning). I'd put it somewhere between that one and a truly deserving classic like "Pretty Poison" (with Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins).

This movie is certainly no classic, but it doesn't really deserve its current obscure status either. It's probably Danning's best (American)movie. Those who watch it just to see her take her clothes off for the zillionth time won't be disappointed of course, but I think they'll also be pleasantly surprised with the rest of the movie.

In JULIE DARLING, Harold and his wife, Irene (Anthony Franciosa and Cindy Girling), are in conflict over their daughter, Julie (Isabelle Mejias). Harold spoils her, while Irene seems to be the only one that's aware of the girl's bad behavior. For her part, Julie prefers her pet Boa constrictor over human company. Her interests include hunting and surgery.

When it's decided to send Julie away to boarding school, mum uses the opportunity to get rid of the snake. She soon dies tragically. Julie and dad mourn for about three seconds.

Enter Susan (Sybil Danning), dad's new wife. Julie hates her and the fact that she has a young son. We know this because she eyes the boy like an owl looks at a field mouse! Harold is, as always, limply oblivious.

When Julie spies on Harold and Susan in bed, things really get weird! Let's just say that Julie's a little too fond of dad!

This is a decent, though rather tiresome thriller, saving most of its twisted action for the gonzo finale (aka: the last 14 minutes). However, it's worth the wait!...

There have been plenty of movies about evil children over the years, but Julie Darling distinguishes itself by being more perverse than most.

Isabelle Mejias plays cherubic teen Julie, who only has eyes for daddy (Anthony Franciosa), but isn't as innocent as she pretends to be. Her wicked streak is evident in the relish she takes in feeding live rats to her pet snake, her joy at shooting birds while hunting with her father, and the cruel pranks she plays on her long suffering mother Irene (Cindy Girling). Julie takes her callousness to a whole new level when delivery man Weston (Paul Hubbard) tries to rape her mother: even though she trains the sights of her gun on the man, Julie doesn't pull the trigger, her deliberate inaction resulting in the death of her mum, who hits her head on the stone floor during the struggle.

With her mum gone, Julie has dear daddy all to herself, or so she thinks: the girl is shocked to learn that her father has a mistress, Susan (sexy cult star Sybil Danning), and now, with his wife dead, he is free to marry her. Worse still, Susan has an irritating young son who is stealing daddy's attention. After Julie wakes to hear a noisy sex session between her pops and his sexy new spouse (during which it becomes very clear that the girl harbours incestuous desires for her father), she hatches a plot to get rid of her new stepmother.

Mejias (actually 21 at time of filming, but looking younger) puts in a commanding performance as the conniving minx, utterly convincing as a cold-hearted psychopath. Franciosa is less credible, especially when doting on stepson Dennis (Benjamin Schmoll), and Danning does what she does best: look sexy and remove her clothes (other gratuitous nudity comes courtesy of Girling, who takes a bubble bath, and Mejias, who is topless during her jaw-droppingly twisted Oedipal fantasy sex scene with Franciosa).

Director Paul Nicholas does a great job in keeping the suspense levels high, constantly surprising the viewer with Julie's lack of empathy: not only does the evil brat blackmail Weston into killing Susan ("And you can rape her all you want before you kill her"), but she also orchestrates the murder of her best friend Michelle. The brutal, bloody climax sees Susan beaten and thrown through a window, Weston stabbed in the crotch with a broken bottle (nasty!) before being blasted by Julie with a shotgun, and Susan proving that she wasn't lying when she said she would do anything to protect those she loves.

Was quite surprised after my initial viewing of this Canadian film as it was really quite good. I was surprised because it is a harder to find horror film and don't think it was ever popular. I must say though that it may not be for all tastes.

Its really the twisted, weird and gets quite creepy story of a 16 year old girl named Julie (wonderfully played by Isabelle Mejias). She's a bit of a bad ass as she enjoys feeding rats to her pet snake, shooting Canada Geese and loves her Nestle Quik. It's really about her relationship with her father (Anthony Franciosa). She watched her mother (Cindy Girling) get killed, did nothing and now steps in the next woman named Susan (Sybil Danning). Guess who wants her dead?

If this does sound interesting I would suggest finding it and giving it a watch.

What a very disturbing film. I began by thinking "What a brat!" Now, I knew she was not a nice little girl, but her incredibly disturbed being didn't enter my mind. She has such a a fixation on her father like no other film I've seen. There are very disturbing scenes. This actress's face is so angelic, and yet the coldest of hearts beats behind it. This is a pretty explicit film with lots of very graphic scenes. There is real violence here. I guess it's really based on total psychosis, because our little heroin is bound to do anything to latch on to her daddy.

As a film there is a great deal of suspense. This happens because only we know this child. She also has had weapons training and is quite the hunter. Talk about arming the enemy. The father never has a clue. Gosh, in addition to losing his first wife, isn't it odd that his new stepson gets put in an old refrigerator. The young rapist/murderer, however, doesn't hold a candle to Julie, which is pretty amazing.