All-American Murder

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.

This movie is your typical, cheesey, college murder flick, but it's not THAT bad. It is a little predictable, still it was fun to watch in a humorous way. As an huge fan of Charlie Schlatter, it was great to see his early work and to see how he has grown as an actor. I give the movie as a whole a "C," but if you watch it for a laugh, or to see Schlatter, it could easily rate a "B+."

"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!

All American Murder(1992) is an interesting murder mystery not because its a very good film but because it is one of the rare American film that uses many ideas from the Italian Giallo. The writer, Barry Sandler seemed to have a touch of Argentoitis when he did the screenplay. Reminds me in many ways of Four Flies on Grey Velvet(1971) in the sense that someone is playing a game of cat and mouse with the main hero. Combines the giallo with the slasher film, the rebel picture, the detective story, and the love story.

Christopher Walken lifts the film from being lousy to being entertaining. Uses elements from Agatha Christie and Ed McBain novels. Its obvious that All American Murder was influenced by the films of Dario Argento and Mario Bava especially in the use of a well deguised murderer as well as the motif of the deception of human nature that Bava showed in his films. The scene where Artie thinks he witnesses the murder of Tally reminds me of similar scenes from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage(1969) and Deep Red(1975).

Josie Bissett was good in the role of Tally Fuller but I wished that he played in a duel role similar to that of Marisa Mell in One on Top of the Other(1969). Another film that seems to influenced this is Brian De Palma's Body Double(1984). Has small portions of the sleeze, sex, and violence that the Italian Giallo is known for. Unfortunately, the film does not have any of the flamboyant camera movement, the explosive soundtrack, the surreal images nor the artful and stylize violence that makes Dario Argento a genius of horror pictures.

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.