A woman named Janet
(Karen Witter) goes to teach at the
Ravenscroft Institute where she meets up
with the head of the department named
Doctor Gary (Robert Vaughn) who has a few
skeletons in his closet as well she
encounters ex-mental patients like Doctor
Schaeffer (Donald Pleasance) as the staff
there.
The students are slowly missing one by
one as they are being invaded by ants and
then sent down to a trap door leading to
a dungeon. Then someone walls them in
with bricks.
Janet hears a strange sound coming
through the walls while staying at the
institution and tries to discover more
information about some of the missing
students there as they were supposedly
runaways.
Also, the students decide to party at the
dungeon after hours as well hosted by a
troublemaking one named Debbie (Ginger
Lynn Allen) but even Debbie is going to
have what's coming to her for her nasty
deeds.
Although this film
never made it to theatre's it sure
deserved to have a release as it was on a
descent low budget.
Direct-to-video sells better than
theatrical releases since more people
rent movies than go to the theatre's.
I really enjoyed this film and found it
very adventurous as Edgar Allen Poe is a
terrific writer.
This flick was shot in South Africa which
is a change since most B-film foreign
horror flicks are shot in Italy or Spain.
The acting is good
as we have a few known faces like Robert
Vaughn and Donald Pleasance
as they are great being mysterious.
We also have Nia Long in one of
her first films before she became a known
celebrity and she does a splendid job in
this one as the innocent teenager who
needs to act tough when it's necessary.
Surprise, surprise! There is also former
porn queen Ginger Lynn Allen
playing a nasty girl role which was
perfect for her as like Traci Lords,
Ginger too moved on to b-film
acting and was crowned a scream queen and
boy did she ever scream when she found
out what was coming to her and was really
intense about it too. I found this one to
be her best performance to date and
should've won a b-film award of some kind
for best supporting actress.
Karen Witter does well for
herself too as the nice teacher Janet.
She acted in the daytime soap One
Life to Live for four years and
was also a Playboy Playmate of the year
in 1982.
We also have a cameo by former b horror
film celebrity John Carradine in
one of his last films before he died.
This was by all
means not an exploited film but there was
nudity.
While the teens party out at the dungeon
there is a topless one.
Also theres a shower scene but Ginger's
body was not fully exposed which may
upset her fans.
While someone was
trying to curl her hair her scalp was
ripped off.
A cement smoother was cut in Bill
Butler's face which is gruesome who plays
Ginger's boyfriend Tim (He has
another gruseome death scene in Friday
the 13th Part VII: The New Blood).
Donald Pleasance's character is
electrocuted to death.
Corpses are revealed in the dungeon.
The directing by Gerard
Kikoine is at an even pace but knew
how to make the film intense.
He shows good direction with the girls
fighting in the kitchen especially making
Ginger Lynn Allen act
menacing
There's great scenes in the cellar with
the deadly events behind it too
The most disturbing direction was with Allen
and supporting actor Bill Butler
being tied up while Robert Vaughn
has a deadly plan for the two of them and
it gets really gruesome too. Allen really
knew how to have such intense screams
too.
Kikoine coached both Robert
Vaughn and Donald Pleasance
wonderfully with their deadly battle
together as well as with Vaughn and
John Carradine too towards the
end of the film.
Believe it or not, he has also worked in
pornography during the mid 70's up till
the mid 1980's when porn had storylines
and probably knew Ginger Lynn Allen
beforehand while working in the industry.
The music is
composed by french composer Frederic
Talgorn as he has a real descent
score with the music with the heavy
violin tones etc.
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