Die eiskalte Clique

I saw this DVD last night and it was okay, kinda like I Know What You Did At the Mental Hospital Last Summer. But when it was over I was playing around with the special features and brought up the second audio track with a running commentary by Susan Ward and Lori Heuring. For 90 minutes these two talked about hair styles, dresses, breastages, sweating, fake Cosmopolitans, toenail polish, and whatever else entered their minds. I was rolling on the floor. So if you want to see a mediocre thriller turned into an hilarious comedy, get the DVD, go to special features, and be prepared to laugh your butt off for an hour and a half.

This beach-club teen murder mystery was pummeled by the critics and lasted about three weeks in theaters before beating a hasty retreat to the rental market. Like all films that foster extreme comments and establish preconceived expectations, this one failed to live up (or should I say down) to them. It wasn't great, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as its critics say it was.

The story was actually good, in a puerile way. What I liked about it was that it accurately portrayed the immature backbiting and excessive preoccupation with superficialities that are common among teens. In certain ways, the story was predictable. It was easy to foresee that Adrien (Lori Heuring) was kidding herself if she thought there was no ulterior motive behind Brittany's (Susan Ward) open acceptance of an outsider into the group. What was cleverly presented and not so obvious was Brittany's motive.

The production was TV quality. Director, Mary Lambert has mostly TV credits on her resume and didn't push the envelope. The acting was mediocre at best. Both Lori Heuring and Susan Ward were passable but unpolished and they lacked subtlety. The rest of the cast was far worse.

This film will probably find a niche with teens and twenty-something young adults, but I don't think it is camp enough to attain cult status. I rated it a 5/10. It's not terrible, but it really doesn't distinguish itself in any meaningful way.

I remember watching this movie on pay per view back in 2001, I remember liking it because an attractive woman was a serial killer. I had long forgotten about this film until I caught it on HBO a few weeks ago, After watching this film for the first time in 11 years I never knew how lifeless the actors and actresses were and how predictable the plot is. The story was interesting it was about a girl named Adrien who was just released from a mental hospital to work as a housekeeper at a country club/resort type place, where young, beautiful college kids lay around in the sun, play tennis, etc. She meets Brittany Hodges or actually more like saves her, when Brittany tries to fake like she drowned. So Adrien and Brittany become friends, and some strange things happen at the club. One of Brittany's so-called "friends" warns Adrien to go away, and to leave the huge mystery that happened a year ago alone, but Adrien knows something's up. Brittany's games are a little too much to handle sometimes. And after learning about Adrien's "history" she seduces Adrien's therapist while wearing Adrien's dress, then kills the therapist at a party later, and then Adrien goes to jail because they think she was the one who had sex with him, and killed him. It could have been a much better movie had the script really been tweaked, but tweaked it was not so good this is not.

The In Crowd is your basic teen thriller with lots of trashy girls and bad lines & acting and a mediocre script, but it was tolerable. Actually, it was more than tolerable, it was actually fairly good, not the acting, by any stretch of the imagination, but it served its purpose. In my opinion, it's a great movie to watch on a slow/rainy weekend evening. I went into this film with little to no expectations and ended up being pleasantly surprised. I was sure by the reviews that it would be terrible, instead I found myself thoroughly satisfied. While TIC is no "Cruel Intentions", it's of the same genre. Spoiled rich kids, doing bad things to each other and sucking in the lowly outsider in the process.

"In Crowd" has the same atmosphere and draw as any soap opera today, but the cheesy drama of soaps seems to translate well to a certain niche, but it DOES have a niche. Expect nothing more than a two hour version of "All My Children" and you won't end this film angry. I say give it a chance. If anything it'll end up on your guilty pleasures list.

Sloppy, bad movie. But, and it's a big but, it is a curious glimpse of how mind-bogglingly oblivious some people can be to how lucky they are, of how treacherous young women can be when it comes to their territory, of how stupid young men can be, of how a social group can be seen as responsible for the abuses of one individual within that group, especially when that group is the one in power.

But, and this is another big but, there are far more satisfying explorations of such topics, that offer something beyond prurience.

Too bad, because I have been hopeful of Mary Lambert ever since Pet Sematary which, though not a highwater mark in any genre, did explore in a gratifying way how deep people's needs and wants can run, and how that can sometimes manifest in absolute and utter resentment within and between the sexes.

It also had a neat sense of humor underlying it all, which does not always balance well in a horror flick.

Come on, Mary, where's the good stuff?