Terrore al luna park

THE NEW KIDS is top-of-the-line moviemaking with a gleefully sleazy gloss.

Cunningham, director of the first FRIDAY THE 13TH and the godawful DEEP STAR SIX, really does himself proud in this Southern-set rape/revenge thriller.

Two kids, whose parents have died, start a new life at their uncle and aunt's luridly low rent carnival.

Lori Laughlin, who plays one of the kids, becomes the target of sociopathic Dutra (James Spader in his best perf ever) and his gang of disgusting miscreants because she's so damn delicious looking. Essentially, the boys want her booty and will break any law to get it.

The film succeeds so well because it embraces its exploitation elements (sex, drugs, violence, teen lust, guns, vicious dogs) with such relish and delivers on its promise unpretentiously but stylishly. It is extremely well directed and acted and moves at a peppy clip.

You really do care about the characters and the film's Lalo Schifrin score nails the drama like a whore to a floorboard,

The carnival setting is a doozy and a triumph of production design; and the film's final scene has a black, perverse feel to it that had me nodding with approval.

A classic, and I'm not going to follow that with "of it's genre" because I'm tired of reviewers singling out films like this as less noteworthy because they're nasty.

Nope, a classic piece of cinema in anybody's book and titled STRIKING BACK in some markets.

Sean S. Cunningham (the man behind such films like 'Friday the 13th', 'A Stranger Is Watching ' and 'Deepstar Six') takes a stab at a routine (but gutsy) revenge/vigilante thriller set in the good ol' south of Florida with a group of feuding teenagers at the core. The plot is familiar in structure, but the bold dialogues and sweaty developments make it rather amusing.

Loren and Abby are brother and sister, who go to live with their uncle Charlie in a small town in Florida, after the death of their parents. Their home would be in a rundown carnival park, which their uncle has plans of restoring. Abby catches the eyes of the psychotic Eddie Dutra and his group of scummy thugs, but after constantly turning down their advancements. The bullying starts to rear an ugly head.

What transcends is sleazy, unsavory and completely nasty, but Cunningham (whose direction is energetically serviceable) pulls it off tremendously well delivering a complete (and versatile) package of humid drama and impulsive action. The tension is pot-boiling, as all these little encounters (with a very dangerous quality streaming through them) go on to spill over in one almighty, gang-busting climax of violent rage set in the amusement park. Even though how all of this eventuates takes some coming to grips with, but as furious exploitation found within this decade (like 'Class of 1984') it's hard to pass. Lalo Schifrin's textured score pumps along; infusing with the authentically rural atmosphere and the pacing throughout is reasonably zippy.

The cast is a strong one and well-suited across the board. The lovely Lori Loughlin and valiant Shannon Presby create supportable characters. While at the other end of the spectrum. James Spader is hard to forget with his slimy, reptilian presence and sudden jolts of violence. Eddie Jones adds a lively colour to his role as Uncle Charlie. In small roles are Eric Stoltz and Tom Aktins.

This very interesting but sadly underrated gem directed by Sean S. Cunningham ("Friday the 13th") offers an original variation of both the revenge thriller and vigilante action movie, since it has ordinary common high school teenagers in the lead roles. Basically this means the film begins with harsh but fairly harmless bullying but yet ends with extreme violence and relentless murder. The transition obviously isn't very plausible, as mean bully kids don't just turn into mad dog killers overnight, but "The New Kids" is nonetheless a competently made and occasionally very suspenseful thriller with tons of action, likable performances and an irresistibly charming 80's atmosphere. Following the sudden death of their beloved parents in an accident, athletic siblings Loren and Abby McWilliams move to Florida to help restore their uncle's ramshackle amusement park. They promptly run into conflict with the local school's gang of bullies because Abby refuses to accept an invitation to the dance from the tough leader Eddie Dutra. The mutual mockeries and paybacks gradually escalate into pure terrorizing until, one night, Dutra's entire gang invades the theme park with the intention to kill. Cunningham professionally builds up a tense and ominous atmosphere towards a highly explosive and grisly climax with some ultra-brutal killing sequences and engrossing make-up effects. The extreme violence will undoubtedly appeal to fans of 80's slashers as well as cheap and sleazy exploitation flicks of the 70's. The film benefices from an exceptionally great cast, with veteran B-movie stars as well as upcoming talents. Particularly James Spader is excellent and genuinely uncanny as the sleazy leader of the pack. Highly recommended to all type of cult movie fanatics.

The New Kids is probably best for fans of the cast or anyone satisfied by mediocre teen 80s movies. This is one of those movies about a bunch of psychotic weirdos trying to do as much damage as possible to two innocent victims, leaving you to wonder what the heck these kids did to push the antagonists so far over the edge.

Here, our innocent victims are Abby (Lori Laughlin) and Loren (Shannon Presby). After their parents died, the brother and sister go to live in an amusement park (how awesome is that?) where their relatives (surrogate parent-types) live and work.

The psychos are led by Eddie Dutra (James Spader) a sadistic albino, and his gang of merry men (one of which is the excellent John Philbin who 80s fans will remember as 'Turtle' from the surf adventure, North Shore). Anyways, Eddie wants Abby, and what Eddie wants, he gets. But when Abby pushes him away after several forceful advances, sadistic control-freak Eddie doesn't want it to look like he let a girl weaken him. He and the gang go after Lorren, Abby, and their family, in a do or die situation.

Despite having a decent finale of chases and destruction, the movie has a very simple story. Unfortunately, it can also be quite sappy during those brother-sister inspiration talks. Abby and Lorren are willing to fight back against Eddie and his gang once and for all after so many of his vicious acts against them and their family, but for such tough kids (especially Abby), they do seem to come off as bitterly sappy sometimes.

Unfortunately, too, the movie has a very simple story. I watched it on the Spanish Channel (I don't understand Spanish) and I figured everything out alright. It's a generic story, but one you'll like if that's what you're into or if you're fans of the actors in this film.

Brother and sister Loren (Shannon Presby) and Abby (Lori Loughlin) find their lives turned upside down when their parents are killed in a car crash. Off they go to live with eccentric Uncle Charlie (Eddie Jones) at his rundown Santa's Funland amusement park in Florida. Naturally, they become the target of the local bullies led by Eddie Dutra (James Spader, with bleach blonde hair, horrific shirts and ridiculous accent). After slaughtering teens in Friday THE 13TH (1980), producer-director Sean Cunningham took it easy on them in SPRING BREAK (1983). Since that didn't deliver Friday level returns, he jumped back into the dead kids genre but with a 80s revenge motif rather than stalk-n-slash. This is about what you would expect from the time period save a nasty mean streak of violent death that sets it apart from something like bully classic THE KARATE KID (1984). Cunningham goes out of his way to make sure you never see the heroes kill anyone directly. I guess that is why they are the good guys? The film ends with the ridiculous coda of the Uncle's theme park thriving because of the shootout that happened there and a younger sibling of those offering a stare that can only mean THE NEW KIDS II. It never happened.