La Vallée de la Mort

"Death Valley" follows young Billy (a pre-"A Christmas Story" Peter Billingsley) who accompanies his mother (Catherine Hicks) and her boyfriend (Paul Le Mat) on a trip through Death Valley where he inadvertently gets them tracked by a violent serial killer.

This under-seen effort from Universal Pictures is a strange hybrid of a serial killer road thriller (pre-dating "The Hitcher") and an outright slasher, albeit with a child character who is at the nexus of the danger and bloodshed. The contrasting storytelling modes here set "Death Valley" apart from other films of the era, though I would surmise that much of its more conventional slasher trappings and bloodshed were shoehorned in by the studio to capitalize on the slasher craze, which was at its peak in 1981.

The genre mix here gives "Death Valley" a strange footing in the canon of horror films. My main issue with the film is that its villain character does not come across as particularly threatening, and there are some interactions between the young Billy and the murderer that, though clever, require some suspension of disbelief. Still, there are sequences in the film (particularly one early on in which Billy unknowingly stumbles upon a murder scene) that are extremely suspenseful.

Aside from its brief prologue in New York City, the film is exclusively set in Death Valley, and the cinematography of the landscape is breathtaking and extremely atmospheric, including a rustic resort where the trio of characters end up, leaving them right in the killer's radius. Billingsley is likable here as the lead, and Catherine Hicks also gives a solid performance as his mother.

The film does stretch credulity a bit in the final act as the confrontation devolves into some rinse-and-repeat attacks and (unfortunately) uneventful chase scenes, and the film skids as it crashes into an abrupt conclusion that feels lacking. All that being said, I think "Death Valley" functions as a unique curio of a film. At its heart, it is a road thriller with some slasher trappings that have been cut-and-pasted onto it. The partly-grafted final product produces mixed results that are sometimes dull and sometimes quite thrilling, but its desert locales and committed performances help elevate the material considerably. 6/10.

If the readers may permit a little intro about this movie, I'd already lost my hope to find this rarest movie that watched in far off 1988 around my teenager years, in fact I've just remember some small fragments, out of the blue in a quick research at my old friend Youtube appears it on dubbed version, well I can't believe in my own eyes, all this in fine print near DVD, well it sent me back on late eighties for one hour and a half.

The plot is quite simple the little boy Billy (Peter Billingsley) living in New York with her divorced mother Sally (Catherine Hicks) flying into California to meet her new boyfriend Mike (Paul Le Mat) for a vacation on Death Valley aiming for easy the feelings of Bill over a forthcoming engagement between his mother and Bill, an annoyed Billy is afraid that it could ward off his father, however the worst is coming when they reach in a old mine at Death Valley, Billy walking around find a necklace at empty motor-home, where moments early someone slashed tree occupiers, later it was found burning in a ravine nearby.

Turns out that Billy got the necklace and on the restaurant saw the waiter Hal (Stephen McHattie) wearing the same one, reaching at crash area seeing the motor-home in flame, Billy decides told the truth to local Sheriff (Wilford Brimley) about the strange object, it raises suspicions of the Sheriff due in such in past year had an akin murder on same patten, all victims were slashed, thus this necklace belongs to two local brothers that living on a desert area and could be the key to clarify those murders, not so fast the old Sheriff exposes to Hal all about over the necklace found by young Billy, henceforth he becomes a target to be slash.

A kind of B-flick mixing slash and thriller, many gorgeous girls, nude scenes with beauty Gina Christian, having the great landscape of the marvelous Death Valley as backdrop, also great casting as well and the undeniable eye candy Catherine Hicks in fine shape, without forget the strong performance of McHattie and Paul Le Mat and the veteran actor Wilford Brimley not despicable that some reviewers want implied.

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First watch: 1988 / How many: 1 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 6.5.

I really don't think it's as bad as the review in the Leonard Maltin paperback would indicate; it's just not particularly distinguished. It places a child front and centre and in a considerable amount of jeopardy as he runs afoul of a sadistic serial killer in Death Valley. This kid is Billy (Peter Billingsley of "A Christmas Story" fame), an NYC native devoted to his loving dad (Edward Herrmann) who visits his mom (Catherine Hicks) and her new boyfriend (Paul Le Mat) in Arizona. While visiting the site of an abandoned gold mine, he enters an RV and pilfers a necklace that he finds, not knowing that he's obtained valuable evidence that links the killer to the scene of a crime. From then it's sort of a cat and mouse game as the killer sets out to keep Billy quiet. Dick Richards ("Farewell, My Lovely", "March or Die") directs from Richard Rothstein's script, which starts out as if it's going to be told entirely from the childs' perspective as he tries to come to terms with his parents' divorce and with the new man in his moms' life. Soon enough, it edges into slasher film territory, as our killer chops up unfortunate victims. It also attempts to make a substantial character out of our villains' car, which features a vanity plate with the word "hex" on it. The actors do a creditable job; Herrmann shines in what is really a very brief part, and Hicks and Le Mat are likewise very likable. (Le Mat has one standout scene where he's trying to make a connection with Billingsley.) And speaking of Billingsley, he also creates an endearing character and doesn't fall into the trap of being too cute. Good ol' Wilford Brimley is engaging as the local sheriff. But the show is stolen by Stephen McHattie who's as intense as he's ever been, and in fact he has one amusingly off kilter scene where he's intimidating our heroes as he stalks across the roof of his house. Another scene that the viewer will vividly remember is the scene with a corpulent babysitter who does little else besides stuff her face and then pay a big price at the hands of the killer. The thundering music by Dana Kaproff does its best to manipulate us, but what is far and away the biggest asset to the film is the on location shooting. The twist ending just comes off as a little silly. Overall, this is a passable time killer but no more. Six out of 10.

Yep - I like this film. I am also happy to finally see a promotional photo for this film , thank you a lot IMDb! I have a copy of this film. I find this film a one-of-a-kind. I like it cause it's early 80s. And I LOVE what happens to the eat-too-much babysitter! LOL I never see this for rental at the video store - I had actually seen it on TV.... Not that this is a marvelous film , but I have definitely sat through more boring , supposed-to-scare-me films. Not exactly gore , not exactly a slasher - Hard to pinpoint this one exactly , but I'll call this a thriller - with a touch of mystery....with a completely 80s-style view. PEACE

If you'd heard nothing about 'Death Valley' and never seen the poster, you'd get about a quarter through the film still thinking it was an overly angsty kid's movie about dealing with divorce. To your surprise, you'd find that the film is one of the most gussied-up, glitzy actor'd, low-brow slasher flicks every made.

Despite an impressive cast, it's really no surprise if you haven't heard of this one – I hadn't and I'm a child of the 80's. In 1982, with slasher films reaching their apex of interest, and audiences demanding more and more outlandish scenarios, director Dick Richards (better known for westerns and noir) set out to make a serious suspense thriller told from a young boy's perspective. Fortunately (or otherwise), he succeeded only in finding a bizarre new genre-limbo somewhere between 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and 'Slumber Party Massacre'; 'Death Valley' is a bit of an awkward fit.

Billy, played by Peter Billingsley ('A Christmas Story'), is as sublime a 'natural' as ever there was in the role of the young boy in question. He lives in Manhattan with his father, a rather sophisticated businessman played by Edward Herrmann ('The Lost Boys') and is about to take a vacation out west with his mother (Catherine Hicks – 'Child's Play') and her corn-fed boyfriend (Paul Le Mat – 'American Graffiti'). There's no question that Billy is none too pleased at the prospect but he's immediately shown to be both mature and intelligent enough to cope.

Aside from Billy's misplaced distrust of his mother's new beau, the newly-formed family unit begins a trek across the deserts of Arizona with only the mildest of dysfunction in tow. Our first hint that the story will dive into dread comes when Billy notices an ominous old Cadillac passing on the highway; the scene recalls Spielberg's 'Duel' or Carpenter's 'Christine'. From here the film spirals down into a bloody-red murder mystery with Billingsley as the hunted witness and Wilford Brimley ('The Thing') as the bumbling highway cop without any hope of protecting this unsuspecting family from a mysterious killer.

There really is a punch about a third of the way into the film (around the time we see a completely obligatory topless vixen and tomato-soup-red blood pouring from the neck of a victim – whose killing has no motivation by the way) that the whole tone turns on its head. 'Death Valley' feels a bit like 2 movies with 2 different directors - who have vastly different goals - just collaged together without much care or purpose. It's no wonder that Universal didn't really know what to do with this one; it sat in a can for over a year before it was released. Purpose aside, I sat down and tried to figure out why this film doesn't work and, in doing so, I found myself with a list of all the reasons it does: big names, epic cinematography (filmed almost entirely on location), Wilford Brimley, 1980's nostalgia (see 'SIMON'), unapologetic child-in-peril scenario, and neon-orange blood splattered across half of the movie. What's not to like?