A disturbed young woman
named Cynthia (Sarah Torogov) has been
released from a mental institution after
losing her baby by leaving to get the
phone while giving her little one a bath
and ends up drowning but her husband Jeff
(Mark Ericksen) tries to help her forget
about that dark past once she is released
by going on a camping trip in an island
with their friends on a sea plane but
their plane has some issues with their
engine and land on a somewhat deserted
island but finds a house with old
antiques run by a couple that call
themselves Pa (Rod Steiger) and Ma
(Yvonne DeCarlo) so they reside there as
Pa said he'd call for a boat with a
person to fix their plane but then they
introduce their little girl Fanny (Janet
Wright) who is expecting her 12th
Birthday but once she is introduced she
is really about 50 years old and has
siblings who are not much younger named
Woody (Michael J. Pollard) and Teddy
(William Hootkins).
To top it off they find out the parents
are bible thumpers but disregard the
first commandment entirely in which they
don't like people who misbehave or upset
the family and and not follow their
rules, starts to slay the visitors one by
one.
Cynthia is almost the only one left as
they seem to accept her and she snaps
again but however, Fanny has a baby
corpse which she calls her own dolly and
this brings back Cynthia's awful past and
the family are in for a terror of their
own.
We spot a good beginning with a
shot on the main character Cynthia in a cell
type room sitting there and gathering
thoughts along with a nice opening
credits on a plane flying over the city
and then landing near an ocean at the
island.
We spot a good shot on Cynthia's friend named Terri walking on some rocks near
an ocean then slipping, hitting her head
and falling into the water with a good
shocked glance on Cynthia with a
good flashback memory on her bathing her
baby and then crying hysterically which
was nicely put into the story.
We have a good gathering near a bonfire
and discussing the plane not being able
to get fixed and to explore the island
along with good shots on them hiking in
the forest and a shot on a house in the
woods.
We have a good moment with some of these friends trying on some old
fashioned clothing and dancing around to
some old music with both Ma and Pa entering the
house and then these people staring at them
looking shocked with a nice approach by Ma acting warm towards one of them about the scarf he found complimenting
him. This deinfetely leads to a mysterious moment wondering if they are peaceful types or not.
There's a good presence by the supposed daughter of Ma and Pa named Fanny introducing herself to the group of friends
acting child like which gives it a nice
twisted feel to it.
We find a good setting at the dinner
table with Ma and Pa treating everyone like little
kids and the odd scolding as it was well
written for the scene very mysterious
on what tho these people really are.
Pa even scolds everyone before everyone was going to bed
about no devil's play in their house
which gives it another impression these
people are psychotic. It was certainly a classic one liner for sure.
We have a nice shot on Rob walking up towards Fanny pushing a swing with the introduction on Fammy's supposed brother Woody on it along with a good
close up shot on him on the swing. Then
we have many great suspenseful shots with Rob on the swing with them pushing him very
hard and a cliff is showing along with
the fast camera zooming shots on him in
the swing and him panicking which looked
good too. This moment leaves a good impression that the pretend little siblings are planning on killing him which drew in very well while watching this scene.
There's an impressive moment with Lynn speaking to her friend Cynthia acting
stuck up about the family and mocking their lifestyles with Fanny sitting near the tree and getting teary
which looked believeably upsetting while watching this and
wanting to comfort her.
We have a good reaction on Cynthia after Fanny shows her a corpse
baby as this certainly looked good and twisted when we see a shot on this without a doubt.
A great close up shot on Fanny pleading to play with Lynn with her acting stuck up and aggressive
and Wright persistently yelling pretty
please etc. giving it a great horror feel
and then Teddy tying her with
a jump rope along with him and Woody singing a kidlike chant. This was often used in horror flicks with evil children doing something deadly and it certainly works well in this scene when we spot all of this. A good vengeful situation for someone who treats the others badly.
There's even a nice moment with Jeff cursing and demanding towards Pa about demadning for their rescue boat and he warns him about using bad language which was a nice key to the horror plot that something terrible will happen to him next. Plus there's great one liners with Ma about being punished for wicked behaviors as it looks deadly and dark to watch on what happens to these people with their luck running out.
Some nice intensity with Cynthia being surrounded by Ma and the other members after she realises that her friends have all been killed by them as this for sure looked quite disturbing to watch all of this and wondering if she will go insane herself.
There's a perfect killing moment with Teddy breaking someone's
neck which almost makes it hard to watch
for those who can't stand an intense
murderous moment.
There's a good close up shot on Cynthia in a cellar spotting some corpses
wondering if she's gonna freak or not but
shows a good delightful expressions along
with good close up shots on the corpses
as it looked believeably horrifying with Ma telling who those corpses were
and their bad attitudes. It's especially creepy when Fanny says that they are her new dollies which is pretty sick and twisted indeed with the settings on all of this.
It looks sad that Cynthia snaps and acts crazy but yet it turns out great when she seeks reveange in her childlike manner on these group of psychopaths. Keep watching the film and you'll see what I mean.
Bottom line is that this is a well done
twisted horror flick done in disturbing
but in at the same time in good taste too
picturing three full grown adults as
little kids doing evil deeds and having
two parents close to their age too which
seems creepy that they are not a family
at all and what is behind the madness on
all this with very little to run on an
abandoned island.
It's sometimes hard to watch wondering if
this woman trying to get better will lose
her sanity again with all of this
happening.
If you like strange horror flicks with
freaky people acting like a southern
family with deadly secrets then this is
the one for you. A very influential
slasher film too must I say as well.
The acting is well
done as lead actress Sarah Torgov (Cynthia) really knew how to play a disturbed one
haunted by what she did a long time ago
showing good crying emotions and
intensity and shocked expressions too for when she needs to act like this. She also does well
snapping acting part of the family of
maniacs too.
Rod Steiger (Pa) really knew how to show
a good stern attitude as the demented Pa
in the film showing a good evil
scrictness to his part. He has a good solid speaking when he talks which shows a good amount of characteristics into his scrictness here. I always enjoyed
his work and was always a versatile
character actor in every show he has
done.
Yvonne De Carlo (Ma) shows a good passive
attitude like a southern type Ma but a
dark secret to her revealing her nice
evilness too.
Janet Wright (Fanny) was no doubt the
attention getter with this story acting
like a little girl when she's full grown
and doing deadly things like an evil
brat. Everything she did was right on
track. She also does well crying on set and acting believeably upset like a little girl would be too. Also she has a nice high pitched little girl voice showing nice timing with this.
Michael J. Pollard (Woody) gets to play
crazy in this film and normally does in
shows playing an overgrown kid which was
quite convincing.
Mark Lindsay Chapman (Rob) had the right
attitude as a party animal type getting
into mischief bringing a good bubbly
attitude to his performance.
Fiona Hutchinson (Lynn) really proved her
point as the bitchy one out of the bunch
in the film coming across as someone who
doesn't enjoy herself and facing the
consequences later on.
We have some
bloodied bodies.
A guy's eye is stabbed out.
An axe in a corpses head.
Lots of gruesome looking corpses in a
dark cellar.
We spot some good heroic
type of music for the opening credits
with a nice orchestra backing it up.
There's also some southern type twangy
music and some great harmonica playing
too. Plus we have some high pitched
violin playing when someone looks into a
bedroom where there's a doll type cradle
abnd in other creepy scene's too. There's
the good old creepy violin chord starting
from the low key going to the high
pitched key for a death scene encounter
and it sounded excellent. There's perfect
closing credit music with the cold piano
sounds and the odd chanting sounding like
the them from Amityville Horror all compsed by Alan Parker.
Rob:
[taking Terri under his arm] Okay,
where do we sleep?
Pa: ...Just a second...you
hitched?
Rob: Huh?
Pa: Hitched! Hitched! Hitched!
Hitched! It means married, that's what it
means!
Rob: Nope
Pa: Well then, where do you think
you're going?
Rob: Goin' to bed, get our 40
winks.
Pa: No you're not. There will be
no devil's play in this house...
Fanny: (After spotting the hung corspes) My
big dollies
Cynthia: Naughty Woody!
Cynthia: Naughty Teddy!
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