Il fascino del male

My buddy Oscar has been on my butt for months to get me to watch this film... and I protested saying it looked stupid. Well, I finally saw it. It wasn't that bad, but it was stupid. I'd give it one star. Rose McGowan (Jawbreaker, Phantoms, Scream) plays a psycho-teen who is basically a poorly written Norman Bates. It's basically a bad POISON IVY rip-off, without the nudity and sex to keep it halfway interesting ;) The violence is far more graphic, too, making this one a candidate for the "slasher film" genre. It's predictable throughout. I'd love to say that McGowan does well in the role, but at times she appears over-the-top and hammy, so I can't even give her credit for great acting. I've seen countless B-movies which were far better and had better actors. This one looks like a bad attempt to cash in on McGowen's somewhat celebrity -- or her connection to Marilyn Mansun. Stupid.

It's too bad, too. Actor Alex McCarthur (Kiss the Girls, Conspiracy, Ladykiller) has been in a long list of B-films, and does great. He was good in this one, too... but he couldn't save it.

We've seen it all before -- the troubled, love-struck psychopath who develops a deadly obsession with her hunky high-school teacher. She likes him, he rebuffs her, she kills some people, yada-yada-yada...

Rose McGowan is a hottie. No doubt about that. But even her sleaze-pot sexual energy can't save this dud (the fact that she isn't naked in the film doesn't help either). Within thirty minutes, you know what's happening and how the film is going to be resolved (even worse, you don't really CARE).

If you're in the mood for a student-teacher stalker flick, skip this one and pick up "The Crush" instead.

I really liked this as a piece of late night trashy noir cable junk because it pushed the extremes of bad taste. I saw it late at night and was impressed with the sharp dialog and witty put-downs uttered by its femme fatale protagonist, Debbie Strand (in a wonderfully vampy and campy performance from Rose McGowan). Yes, the set-up is contrived and the outcome is cheesy but along the way I was impressed with the audacity of the film's comic-book nastiness and the sheer determination of the protagonist to get what she wanted. However, what's most disappointing is the end, which merely opens the way for another film, without truly exploring why Debbie Strand did what she did. Another annoying trait in these films is to resolve issues in an unambiguous manner, usually absolving the complicity of the lead male. A simple-minded, formulaic tale saved by Rose McGowan and some witty one-liners. As for the rest, cable fodder.

"Debbie Strand" (Rose McGowan) is a mentally disturbed high school student who has just mysteriously lost her mother in a house fire and has to now live with her grandmother. When she gets there she immediately finds out that her grandmother is extremely domineering and wants to control her life to the utmost degree. Meanwhile, at her new high school she falls in love with one of her teachers named "Peter Rinaldi" (Alex McArther). Unfortunately for her, Peter has a girlfriend by the name of "Marilyn" (Sherrie Rose) and really has no interest in Debbie other than academically. To compound the situation another student by the name of "Meegan Wright" (Krissy Carlson) also has a crush on Peter and Debbie doesn't like the competition. So, faced with difficulties both at home and at school Debbie decides to take matters into her own hands and those who get in her way are in extreme danger. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this type of film has been done before and in some cases in a better manner. However, it still managed to keep my interest for the most part and it does have some good performances by both Rose McGowan and Alex McArther. Additionally, Sherrie Rose and Julia Nickson (as "Anna Nakashi") certainly didn't hurt the scenery in any way either. In any case, despite the fact that it followed a standard format and it's certainly nothing special I suppose it deserves a rating of about average-but no more than that.

Okay, so the plot was fairly standard, but this film still worked for me, thanks in large part to Rose McGowan. She did a terrific job in this movie, and actually, she practically carries this film single-handedly. To be fair, scenes with the detectives and her grandmother were among the best in the movie, but make no mistake about it, this is Rose's film. This film is also filled with lots of silly humor, but unlike most thrillers, the jokes actually work in this movie. You have to give the filmmakers some credit too, because they took a tired story, and they kept the predictable storyline, and yet, they made a good movie.