Porte aperte al delitto

Marc Marut is convincingly creepy as the young (13 or 14-year-old) paperboy who has a crush/mother fixation. The kid is eerie, especially when he gets excited and his voice squeaks. The movie is interesting and moves along pretty well yet, for this genre, it's standard fare; nothing exceptional.

I might have rated it higher had it not contained yet another example of Hollywood's prejudice against Christianity. Here again we get the message that the kid was nuts because his "strict, religious" mother made him that way. That has become a standard film cliché to explain insanity. Other than that, there was little offensive material, including language.

So this is suppose to be a horror movie. I laughed at it. It is corny, stupid, unrealistic, ridiculous, but yet I still love this movie. Johnny is entertaining. It's mere attempt to scare you is why this is funny. Anyway, I have not seen it in years, probably a good 15 years or so. But I want to watch it again, maybe I will try and find it on ebay or amazon. It is a good flick though. Johnny is an obsessed, psychotic little kid. He has a thing for a teacher who is about 3 or 4 times his age. He is not afraid to kill. He is annoying. It will make you laugh at times and you might hate me for recommending the movie after you watch it, cause it is cheesy, but I like it for some unknown reason.

First, from the looks of things this movie was an actual theater release which is a bit surprising. It looks and feels like a made for television movie, when I first saw it on USA network I thought it was a movie they made. Second, why is it listed as a horror movie? It is not very horrific at all. It is a rather mild thriller about a crazy paper boy who becomes really attached to this mother and daughter, so much so that he does everything in his power to make them like him. If anyone tries to warn the mother, then he deals with them. Here is a movie where you just want to beat the snot out of the stalker character; it drives you crazy at what he gets away with. It also makes me glad I don't have a person that likes me that much. Sure some days I wish a gal would form some sort of crush on me, but then you see some of the possible results of such an unhealthy obsession. All in all though this movie is not good, and it is not bad. It is just a mediocre thriller worth a look see if you see it on the television.

At least that's what this movie seemed like to me. Now, don't get me wrong, the flick was passable, but it lacked the bone-chilling punch expected from a thriller or horror film. It felt more like a whimsical nod to the evil child genre, akin to a playful riff on evil child thrillers such as "The Good Son, "The Bad Seed" and "Children of the Corn."The evil kid in this movie appeared as though plucked from a '50s sitcom and unceremoniously dropped into the '90s. He even sported some those vibes associated with classic sitcom characters like Eddie Haskell of Leave it go Beaver, greeting the adult protagonist, portrayed by Alexandra Paul (Stephanie Holden from Baywatch), with a touch of the phony, "Hi, Mrs. Cleaver" charm early on. Then he shows her his true psycho self, but even that comes across as more cheesy than menacing. The filmmakers were clearly aiming for this sort of vibe. All in all I would give it 5/10.

A cross between "The Crush" and "Bad Seed". Nothing original here. The paperboy is obsessed with his neighbor, and will eliminate anyone who gets in his way. Marc Marut is very creepy as the title character, and "Greatest American Hero" William Katt has a supporting role. This is an adequate movie for a script we've seen hundreds of times before, if you're into this sort of thing. I would have liked to hear him say "I want my two dollars!" at least once, though.