Sub-“USA Up All Nite” D-grade captivity flick in which a gorgeous girl is held by the owner of a rural motel and her son. Pretty much a home movie, with acting and production values that seem like they just rounded up whoever was around and made this thing. And yet, for what it is, actually kind of good, just because it’s unflinchingly nasty in the few moments when it gets down to business. Kind of like a really, really good home movie. Plus it has a totally derivative Goblin-style synth soundtrack which should seem trite but in this context helps (except when it’s directly mimicking Halloween instead, which is annoying). I think if this came out in 1972 it would have been almost a camp classic. Almost. Wes Craven got pretty famous doing stuff of not much above this caliber. Either way, a suprisingly pleasant enough diversion if you’re in the mood for complete trash. (Edit: turns out the woman who plays the psycho in this is a veteran character actress who had parts on “Marcus Welby”, “Dynasty”, even starred with Elvis in one of his movies in the ’60s. That could explain the odd, inexplicable cut-above-complete-trash quality.)
