This is exactly the type of film that embodies the 80's slasher-horror genre.
This film has great atmosphere, suspense, and some great kill scenes.
While the mystery and the twists are easy to see coming, that is mostly the fault of the genre over-doing this in the thirty years since this movie was released.
Spoilers:
As someone who has seen a lot of horror movies, I fully expected the killer to be someone else other than the mother. Early on, I never assumed the pregnancy had ended in a stillborn baby or anything like that. The movie does a good job of trying to get the viewer to buy that it is the mother who is borderline psychotic, and had I not been fully expecting a twist, I would have followed that line of thinking.
The acting is good enough for a movie like this. I think sometimes people expect Academy Award-winning acting out of horror movies and I think they miss the point. The acting isn't intended nor does it need to carry the film like in a drama.
The death scenes are done very well. In the age before CGI and multi- million dollar horror films, the production crews of these films had to use their minds to figure out how to do the impossible; kill someone on screen. Movies like this and Halloween do the death scenes very well. Action-in-the-shadow is a simple yet effective technique, as are the quick shots of someone getting stabbed. The shots are quick enough so the mind can't register that you are in fact looking at a fake body or a fake weapon, but just long enough so you see the person getting it.
I really can't fault this film for anything that other reviewers did. Maybe younger people, who didn't live in the 80's wouldn't appreciate something without top-notch effects or gallons of fake blood...I don't know.
Anyway, this is a classic slasher-horror film, before the genre got stale (forever) with constant sequels and remakes.
This film has great atmosphere, suspense, and some great kill scenes.
While the mystery and the twists are easy to see coming, that is mostly the fault of the genre over-doing this in the thirty years since this movie was released.
Spoilers:
As someone who has seen a lot of horror movies, I fully expected the killer to be someone else other than the mother. Early on, I never assumed the pregnancy had ended in a stillborn baby or anything like that. The movie does a good job of trying to get the viewer to buy that it is the mother who is borderline psychotic, and had I not been fully expecting a twist, I would have followed that line of thinking.
The acting is good enough for a movie like this. I think sometimes people expect Academy Award-winning acting out of horror movies and I think they miss the point. The acting isn't intended nor does it need to carry the film like in a drama.
The death scenes are done very well. In the age before CGI and multi- million dollar horror films, the production crews of these films had to use their minds to figure out how to do the impossible; kill someone on screen. Movies like this and Halloween do the death scenes very well. Action-in-the-shadow is a simple yet effective technique, as are the quick shots of someone getting stabbed. The shots are quick enough so the mind can't register that you are in fact looking at a fake body or a fake weapon, but just long enough so you see the person getting it.
I really can't fault this film for anything that other reviewers did. Maybe younger people, who didn't live in the 80's wouldn't appreciate something without top-notch effects or gallons of fake blood...I don't know.
Anyway, this is a classic slasher-horror film, before the genre got stale (forever) with constant sequels and remakes.