Written by Judith J. Kushner
Directed by Doris Wishman
Starring Samantha Fox, Diane Cummins, Saul Meth, Miriam Meth and William Szarka
USA, 1983
Doris Wishman’s one of those legendary exploitation filmmakers whose name comes up all the time. Mostly known for sexploitation, she also made a slasher flick, A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER, in an attempt to get some of that HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH cash.
The story concerns a young woman (Samantha Fox) who gets released from a mental institution after being locked up for murdering two boys. She returns home to her family, who aren't exactly thrilled to see her, and before long people start getting hacked to pieces. Is she responsible? That mystery plays second fiddle to the central mystery of what is going on in this movie at all.
See, Wishman shot this flick in the late '70s, but a disgruntled employee at a film lab destroyed a bunch of the footage, so what we see today is reshoots cobbled together with what little footage survived, some stock footage and simultaneously redundant and confusing voice-over narration. That’s the story, anyway.
The result? One of the strangest movies I've seen in a while. Characters appear and disappear, scenes don't seem to connect to each other and the badly looped dialogue makes the whole thing seem about as accessible as a David Lynch dream sequence. A poorly shot one.
I can't say it's good, exactly, but it's certainly interesting and you have to admire Wishman for not only finishing it at all but also considering this finished.
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