La sombra del crimen

"All American Murder" is a fairly pleasant diversion in case you're looking for a light-headed horror/thriller and keep your expectations to an absolute minimum. I honestly don't see the point of harshly criticizing this modest little straight-to-video flick, since the makers themselves clearly never intended to deliver a groundbreaking masterpiece. The film has a good pacing, fresh faces, a couple of inventive murder sequences and – most importantly – another straight- faced performance from the tremendously awesome Christopher Walken who's still way cooler than any other major actor even if the script is inferior. Also, with a little bit of goodwill and imagination, you could state that "All American Murder" is some sort of tribute to the Italian Giallo of the late 60's and 70's. Most of the Giallo-essentials are well represented: luscious babes in peril, red herrings and far-fetched plot twists, sleazy supportive characters, black gloves and a grotesque denouement. Thanks to daddy's influence, the rebellious teenager Artie Logan is accepted at the respectable Fairfield campus for his absolute last chance at a proper education. He meets the impeccably perfect all- American girl Tally and really intends to make an effort, but then the poor girl is brutally killed when someone sets her entire body on fire. Due to his past and questionable reputation, Artie naturally becomes prime suspect #1, but the witty and seasoned police detective PJ Decker somewhat believes in his innocence and gives him 24 hours to prove it. During his search for the real culprit, Artie quickly discovers that behind Fairfield's prestigious reputation lies a network of perversion, blackmail and corruption. The first half hour of "All American Murder" can only be described as … very, very WRONG! Wrong 90's music, wrong teenage & adult stereotypes (the dominant father and his rebel son? Please!), wrong depiction of college differentiation and extremely wrong attempts at dry humor (Walken's hostage negotiation). The film gets better and even fairly compelling after that, with various murders and interesting enough plot twists. Some of the initial defaults remain throughout the movie, however. For some reason all characters, including the insignificant supportive ones, also insist on narrating jokes and anecdotes that are completely irrelevant to the plot. The acts of violence and sex also remain too brief and decent, but that's probably linked to the fact this is a low-budgeted video production. And Walken is too cool, period!

Listen, I've seen this movie a hundred times, showing it to friends and family as a lark. It's a hilarious buddy-movie/murder-mystery with witty, punny-yet-intelligent dialog ala Clue. No, there's nothing groundbreaking here, and the production values are what you would expect from something that, I believe, went straight to video. But why should that matter? This film is completely unpredictable, and has such classic lines as "The dean has knocked off more undergraduates than Kent State." (Hilarious, if you know some basic American history and get the double-ententre.) Most movies these days require that even simple verisimilitude fly out the window, so suspend disbelief, enter with no expectation, and enjoy. It'll keep you guessing, and laughing, until the very end.

In spite of some charming dialogue and a cast of seasoned professionals, All-American Murder doesn't have quite enough style or panache to thrill much and the pacing lags a bit after the first murder. The final twist is genuinely surprising, but there's not a lot of suspense or thrills on the way to getting there. Christopher Walken seems like a surprising choice for a role like this in a film such as this, but he's one of the more entertaining aspects of the film.

As cheesy and '80's' as this movie comes off as, I think many miss the humour and satire that embodies it all. Think of putting Risky Business, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Halloween, and The Breakfast Club into a blender. The first part is all sweet and predictable. But when the murders start happening, and more is revealed as to the perverted backgrounds of the students to the dean and his wife, it gets pretty deep. Walken's nonchalant character seems un-phased by the goings on, and seems to be a 'Scared Straight' mentor to young Artie to get him to mature and fear for his life. All in all, it does come off as a Made For TV, 80's romp. Yet the dialog, characters, language, and deviant background is memorably far from 'wholesome'. It's a fun movie that will stick with the viewer long after I think.

Here's a thriller which stands completely alone, with great casting and a great twist. And we have the charismatic and handsome rebel, Schlatter, who this time, receives a much higher education, he didn't want. One involving survival. The new kid at school, and falling head over heels for the most popular girl, hot Bissett, he soon becomes the prime suspect in her murder, her burning and charred remains at the campus's footsteps. Walken is fun as narcissistic detective , only one of 2, who believes Schlatter to be innocent, where soon, lone investigator Schlatter, becomes in over his head as acquaintances, like the hot Cassidy he beds, are taken out, so who is the killer. All American Murder is a really fun thriller and juicy entertainment, where an unclad Bissett, makes us see how sexy she really is., with our feasting vision. A couple of red herrings, not enough thrown in, AAM is a low key thriller, but it works, due to Schlatter's charismatic and enthusiastic performance, the film opening up, with such a weird amusing scene or more correctly WTF scene. Good music too, showing the 90's up, for what they were. Some nasty gore too