I really like this film. It is probably my most watched 80's slasher film in my extensive horror movie collection. I find it to be highly entertaining, original in it's attempts, and decently acted.
A group of teens decide to spend the night in a creepy old furniture store, which is owned by one of their fathers, to celebrate their graduation. Of course, a killer shows up, locks them in, and begins killing them off one by one during a game of Hide and Go Seek. While this film is far from a masterpiece, I think what I admire about it is that tries to be different from the other slashers pics that were released around the same time. It breaks the mold so to speak. So many slasher films released around this time stuck to the "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" formula of a looming, silent, indestructible killer and a final confrontation between him and the virginal sole-surviving heroine. This film strays away from that and provides us with a human killer who, despite is ridiculous motive, is both intelligent and vulnerable. The fact that more than just the "virginal heroine" survives is also unique and surprising. And though they may not all look like they are really teenagers, the characters all act like they are and engage of some very humorous, typical teenage conversations. Their acting is certainly above average for this type of film and I really thought Bunky Jones (Bonnie) gave a great performance, particularly in the final minutes of the film.
The setting of the film is foreboding and the film becomes pretty creepy during the final 10-15 minutes when the survivors are cautiously making their way through the dark corridors of the furniture store, only to bump into some randomly placed mannequins. The director builds suspense fairly well in key scenes and having a killer who dresses up in his victims clothing as a trap to lure his next victim, as this one does, is chilling even if it is executed kinda silly here. The death scenes are quite tame and underplayed for this type of film (particularly considering the time it was released), but they are still effective and the killer never uses the same method twice. Again, it is also surprising as to which characters live and die and how sympathetically the filmmaker obviously feels about his characters. They are a likable bunch of kids and it is really hard to root for any of them to die, so even though it will anger gore hounds and people searching for a high-body count, the result should be appreciated by those who sympathize with and like these characters.
Despite the many things I like about this film, there are also things that just don't work so well. The opening scene with the killer picking up a prostitute is the definition of cheese and really doesn't fit with the direction of the rest of the film and certainly cannot be explained once we discover the killer's identity and motive, which is the film's main problem. The killer is ridiculous once we discover the identity and completely unintimidatng. Even worse is his motive for the killings. It sort of came out of left field and I, as a viewer, felt cheated. The dialog at the end of the film between the killer and his main quest is cringe-worthy, and it doesn't help that both are pretty bad actors (luckily, neither are on screen that long). The film, for me, would have been almost a perfect slasher film, had the ending gone in a totally different direction with a different killer. There are certainly some other cheesy, WTF? scenes, including one where the virginal, good-girl character is able to launch into a striptease for her boyfriend that rivals anything done by Demi Moore in "Striptease."
Overall, though, this is a highly entertaining film which outshines many similar attempts of the 80's because of its subtleness and . If you are any sort of horror/slasher fan, I would highly recommend this film. It doesn't set out to by an all out slash and gore film (which will upset some), but tries to be different and presents us with a group of teenaged victims who we can actually care about and get to know.
FrightMeter Grade: B
