The opening gothic-laced credits accompanied by the perilous sounding music are the creepiest thing you'll get from this practical made-for-TV whodunnit murder-mystery, or if you want to call it a slasher. I guess the tube also wanted to get into the act of the cinematic craze engulfing the early 80s. Someone is stalking, killing girls at a reclusive boarding school. The headmistress seems more concerned about her reputation than that of the girls' safety. That's one thing, nevertheless there are numerous questionable circumstances in the material, as throughout the whole time the danger never lets up, yet there's a real lack of urgency on the grounds (by authorities, staff and students) as one by one, girls end up dead.
Genre tropes are there, but being a TV presentation means it's conventional and tame all over. As it chugs along, things do for most part happen off screen. This didn't stop it from being fairly entertaining, mainly due to the surprising amount of names in this well-oiled cast, than that of the school's melodramatics. It's quite heavy on the (well-mannered) dramas / scandals when the girls aren't probing for clues (ala Nancy Drew style), yet it does try to catch your bluff unsuccessfully, before leading to an outlandish potboiler conclusion. Somewhat anticlimactic, however the killer's motive is the nail in the coffin. Diane Franklin makes an appealing down-to-earth lead, the solid Larry Wilcox is the dogged detective on the case and Donna Reed hits it out of the park as the frigid headmistress. Although it doesn't just end there, as the classmates featured the likes of Ally Sheedy, Nancy Cartwright, Reene Jones and a very minor part for Krista Errickson. Wait I'm not finished just yet, there's also a pre-stardom Bill Paxton and stalwart Donald Hutton as couple of the red herrings.
Genre tropes are there, but being a TV presentation means it's conventional and tame all over. As it chugs along, things do for most part happen off screen. This didn't stop it from being fairly entertaining, mainly due to the surprising amount of names in this well-oiled cast, than that of the school's melodramatics. It's quite heavy on the (well-mannered) dramas / scandals when the girls aren't probing for clues (ala Nancy Drew style), yet it does try to catch your bluff unsuccessfully, before leading to an outlandish potboiler conclusion. Somewhat anticlimactic, however the killer's motive is the nail in the coffin. Diane Franklin makes an appealing down-to-earth lead, the solid Larry Wilcox is the dogged detective on the case and Donna Reed hits it out of the park as the frigid headmistress. Although it doesn't just end there, as the classmates featured the likes of Ally Sheedy, Nancy Cartwright, Reene Jones and a very minor part for Krista Errickson. Wait I'm not finished just yet, there's also a pre-stardom Bill Paxton and stalwart Donald Hutton as couple of the red herrings.