Synopsis
Jennifer (Cheryl Dent) has just been released from a mental institution where she was incarcerated after a psychotic episode during which she clawed out the eyes of her co-star during the shooting of a porn flick. After being waylaid in the desert by a couple of thugs, she is rescued by a group of flower children, who soon turn out to be more dangerous yet. They head to house with a bad reputation, and then the murderous hippies start being killed off one by one. By Jennifer, or by something…else?
This picture is odd in so many ways. Its premise – Manson-style family vs supernatural terror – is peculiar. If everyone’s a killer, there’s no one really left to root for. There are all sorts of wacky sound effects and other bits of comedy in the first half, but the gore in the second half is fairly graphic. Then there’s the look of the film itself. There have been plenty of horror films lately that are either remakes of 70s classics or tributes to the same. This one tries to actually BE a lost 70s flick. The result is a little uneven, but very hard to dislike.
Audio
No surround sound for you. Not for a movie that is (ahem) thirty-plus years old. So the 2.0 stereo sound is serviceable and clear. It isn’t spectacular, but then, that would disrupt the illusion that this is a recently rediscovered print.
Video
The picture does a very credible job of simulating the film’s age. The colours are rather washed out and a bit brown, there are guitar strings and other blemishes showing up periodically, and so on. All of which would be a problem, but not when the effect is deliberate. This is a fine transfer of a purposely rough print, and it is hard, while watching, to remember that the movie wasn’t made in the 70s.
Special Features
The extras help maintain the fiction that this is an older film. There are deleeted scenes, and “Losing the Light” – a phony making-of featurette that captures the spirit of these things while mocking the conventions at the same time. There are three horror trailers, too. The menu’s main screen is animated and scored.
Closing Thoughts
On oddity, but a very likeable one. Neat stuff.
Special Features List
- Making-of Featurette
- Deleted Scenes
- Trailers
