Sweet Sixteen

This 1983 Texas-made feature is more of a murder mystery, and not a terribly successful one. The problem is that apparently the filmmakers (led by producer / director Jim Sotos) and cast were working from an unfinished script, and it shows: the writing overall is muddled. Still, this has an awfully good cast for this sort of thing, and Sotos and company do try to give the story a little extra something by introducing racism (the poor treatment of the local Indians) into the proceedings. "Sweet 16" also banks a lot on the importance of its central character Melissa and the actress in the role, Aleisa Shirley. She's a hot to trot 15 going on 16 year old who seems to enjoy making trouble and being the centre of attention.

One problem with this is that we seem to be getting encouraged to ogle Shirley at every opportunity, and even though Shirley was older than her character, she wasn't *that* much older, making scenes such as a shower sequence highly uncomfortable.

The tale, written by Erwin Goldman, shows what happens as bloody murders begin to occur as Melissa's 16th birthday approaches. The plodding sheriff on the case is Dan Burke (ever amiable Bo Hopkins), whose mystery junkie daughter Marci (Dana Kimmell, a.k.a. the final girl of "Friday the 13th Part III") is eager for some excitement in her small town and follows her fathers' cases with interest. Meanwhile, Indians such as Jason Longshadow (Don Shanks, a.k.a. Michael Myers in "Halloween 5") and his grandfather Greyfeather (Henry Wilcoxon, in his final film role) are targeted by rowdy racist rednecks Billy (Don Stroud) and Jimmy (Logan Clarke).

At the least, "Sweet 16" boasts solid atmosphere, although some slasher aficionados are likely to be dissatisfied with a very small body count and too much murkiness in the gore scenes. (Still, they may be pleased with the various revealing shots of Shirley.) The cast also includes Susan Strasberg, looking lovely as always, Patrick Macnee (who replaced Leslie Nielsen), Steve Antin ("The Goonies"), Sharon Farrell ("Night of the Comet"), Michael Pataki ("Dead & Buried"), Larry Storch ("Without Warning"), Michael Cutt ("Night of the Demon" 1980), and Glenn Withrow ("The Outsiders").

The music, by Tommy Vig, is good, but viewers may cringe at the ultra-sappiness of Melissas' theme song.

Also available in a directors' cut.

Six out of 10.

This is not a popular title, but I find it an interesting thriller-mystery. I don't know the cast, but I liked them all decently. It is a murder mystery that takes place in a small town where a sheriff investigates the recent brutal knife attacks with all the possibility angle. All the victims were teenage boys, who are associated with the new girl in the town. Definitely you will begin to predict the suspect, that much the film evolves a bridge between you and the contents.

It was a great story, I was stunned for its underrated status and for going unnoticed, but then it ended very cheaply. To me the conclusion ruined the rhythm, otherwise the rest of the film was amazing and worth a watch. I hope somebody would remake it with some changes, especially in the final act and its twist. Overall surely it was a fine film, a mix of the teen theme and the cop story, obviously excluding the bad ending.

6/10

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Sweet Sixteen; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.00 Direction: 1.00 Pace: 0.50 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.00

TOTAL: 4.75 out of 10.00

Sweet Sixteen is one of those films that tries to be different. Sadly, in doing so, its effort is obvious and adds to the list of handicaps within the movie.

The story is your standard mysterious killer on the loose whodunnit. Regrettably, the writers fail to make the murders, the victims, or their stimuli piquant enough. I never cared about who was getting offed or who was committing the murders or their motives for the bloodshed. And induced disinterest is a terrible thing for a whodunnit. One reason for the indifference was the characters. You have your typical cowboys hating on the Native Americans - The customary rebellious Native American and his classic Grandfather figure, who is nonchalant with the whole situation. Another handicap in the story was its structuring. You can guess which person is questioned first by the Sherriff for the killings. Even though the Sherriff is proud to be part Native American, he still pursues Longshadow. In truth, the writers lean heavily towards him being the perpetrator. They could have easily chosen to make a stand about the racial unfairness of the area. They do hint at it a couple of times but never get their gnashers into the meat of the matter. It's a shame as it would have made a good hook and added some much-needed thought-provoking. Then there are the characters who are only around to drive the narrative in the writer's preferred direction - Like Dr John Morgan and, to a certain degree, even the Sheriff. There appears to be a lack of a leading character in this tale.

The direction is your routine affair. Most scenes are point-and-shoot with very little in the way of embellishments. And the tempo is your commonplace saunter. As with most films of this style, a varied pace and imaginative lighting and camerawork would have gone a long way to making the picture more intriguing. I found my attention drifting several times.

However, the most heat in this lukewarm picture is the cast. We have some serious talent in the roll-call. It's a shame the writers couldn't provide a better script and that the director couldn't guide them correctly. They all give their best with their bestowments. And, in some little way, it lifts the movie a tad.

Sweet Sixteen is not a great movie and nor is it ghastly. As such, I'd recommend it for one watch, though only if there's nothing more pressing for you to do, like learning to dance an Irish Jig.

Please feel free to visit my Killer Thriller Chillers lists to see where I ranked Sweet Sixteen.

Take Care & Stay Well.

I won't post a long and detailed review of the movie, because it is a great little horror mystery film and there are several positive reviews already posted that said it better than i probably could have.

An interesting note is that this movie is actually on DVD in a couple of obscure "bargain boxsets". They are from BCI Eclipse, who release a lot of 10-Packs of old generic movies for a bargain price. The name of the boxsets are "Student Bodies" which is a 4-Pack, and also in a 10-Pack boxset called "Toga Party". The odd thing is the description on the boxes for these sets is wrong about the movie, it lists it as being some party movie...but it is not! It is indeed Sweet 16 from 1981 on DVD! The quality is pretty good for DVD too.

Beautiful teenager Melissa Morgan is a bit of a wild child, quickly attracting the attention of most of the local boys; however, those lucky enough to get close to her have a nasty habit of turning up dead.

This rather obscure 80s horror opens in classic stalk 'n' slash mode with a gratuitous shower scene, the 'sweet 16' of the title, schoolgirl Melissa (played by Aleisa Shirley, actually a good few years older than 16), giving herself a thorough wash for the benefit of the viewer. Normally, such a scene would be followed by the young woman, clad in a towel, leaving the shower to be stalked by a masked maniac, or would at least end with a false scare, but here there's no such payoff; it simply exists to get some gratuitous T&A on the screen, as does a later moment when the lovely girl goes skinny dipping.

Not that I'm complaining, because without the occasional spot of nudity from Shirley, this would be a lot less enjoyable, the actual horror content being fairly lame...

There are a number of killings throughout the film, but these are unexceptional stabbings shot in a frenzied manner at night, making them very disappointing for gore fans. The rest of the film consists primarily of dull police procedure, as Sheriff Dan Burke (Bo Hopkins) slowly pieces together clues to discover the identity of the killer, plus some clichéd racial tension between the town's rednecks and local Indians, none of which is particularly thrilling. In short, be grateful for the nekkidness when it happens.

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.