ThiefHott Too much of everything

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Michael_Elliott Julie Darling (1983) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Rather bizarre film has Anthony Franciosa playing Harold, a man whose daughter Julie (Isabelle Mejias) has a strange love for him. In fact, this love is so strange that the daughter allows her mother to be murdered even though she could have stopped it. A short time later daddy brings home Susan (Sybill Danning) and the two are quickly married, which sets Julie off again.JULIE DARLING isn't the greatest movie that you're going to watch but the cast is rather interesting and I'd argue that there are enough good moments that make it worth sitting through if you like films that are willing to be a tad bit bizarre. This one here seems to want to cross many disturbing lines but the only problem is that the screenplay isn't good enough to fully grab the viewer and take this into this world of a deranged mind.The film is most remembered for some very bizarre scenes where the daughter shows how crazy she is. One is the attack on her mother that she just watched because she's mad at her. The other deals with a fantasy sequence that I won't spoil but there's no question that this wasn't the type of thing you'd normally see in a movie like this. Perhaps the fact that it was shot in West Germany explains why some of this weird stuff got into it. After all, check out THE FAN and see that this might have just been the norm there.I thought the performances were good for the most part, or at least entertaining enough to keep you somewhat attached to the story. Franciosa and Danning make for a good couple and I thought both of them were fine in the film. If you a fan of Danning and her nudity then you'll be happy to know that it's here. As far as Mejias goes, I think she's the weakest out of the performers but I don't blame her. The filmmakers have her playing a really young girl and she just looks too old for the part. Her trying to make her voice seem "young" also didn't help matters.The screenplay offers up an interesting idea and especially with the twists in the second half but there's no question that the film isn't as strong as one would have hoped. Director Paul Nicholas brings no tension out of the material and I do think that the film gets a bit too far-fetched at times. With that said, there's enough weird moments that makes JULIE DARLING worth watching.

Sam Panico Between Pin, Cathy's Curse and this film, what is it about Canadian families in horror films? Beneath a surface of politeness, is everyone this psychotic north of the border?Julie (Isabelle Mejias, Scanners II: The New Order) just wants to play with her pet snake, hunt with her dad and, well, lie in bed with him. But when her mom takes away her snake, she just watches a delivery boy (Paul Hubbard, who played Flash Gordon in the deleted scenes in A Christmas Story) violate her and does nothing to save her life, even though she's holding a gun. It's a horrifying scene, as the man is shocked that he's knocked the woman's head so hard into the ground. He's more upset than Julie when he sees the blood seeping out of the back of her brains. Julie just watches, fascinated yet removed.Julie thinks she has her father (Anthony Franciosa, Tenebre) all to herself, but he soon finds a new wife, the alluring Susan (Sybil Danning!). She brings sex appeal and a stepson. And because she may have been dating daddy before mommy died, maybe Julie's dad is taking advantage of the death she caused.One thing he's definitely taking advantage of is the opportunity to make sweet, sweet love to Susan. He doesn't know that his daughter is watching the entire time and enjoying things way too much, imagining herself in bed with her father! Ugh!And it gets worse and worse, as Julie does things like lock her stepbrother in a refrigerator, nearly killing him, and then brings the rapist who killed her mother back to the house to take out her new mom in a blackmail plot. Yep, she even tells him, "You can rape her all you want!" It all adds up to an ending that totally shocked me that I don't want to cheat you out of.Yep. This is one rough little film, which makes sense when you realize it's by the writer and director of Chained Heat, Paul Nicolas (that movie also has Danning in it, plus Linda Blair, Henry Silva, Tamara Dobson, John Vernon and Stella Stevens for a movie that transcends the WIP genre).It's not for everyone. But Mejias is great in it. And it's the kind of movie that you are amazed that exists and even more astounded as it plays in your DVD player (or streams over YouTube).

classicsoncall Wow, this is creepy on so many levels I don't know where to begin. So let's begin with the biggie - young Julie (Isabel Mejias) has this serious Daddy (Tony Franciosa) fixation that goes all the way to fantasizing what a sexual encounter with her father might be like. Pretty twisted. This after seeing her mother raped and killed by a delivery man and actually getting some sick kind of enjoyment out of it. So what does she do but contact the same guy to take out her new stepmother (Sybil Danning) to make it a double header. Now I'm wondering who the worse character is, Julie or killer Weston (Paul Hubbard), because they're both now making a pact with the devil that's bound to end very, very badly.You know, I'm glad I'm nearly at the end of my Mill Creek Mystery Collection of two hundred fifty films because this isn't the kind of flick I'd normally seek out. However I decided I'd watch and review each one some time ago and I hate to go back on a promise to myself. I'll be glad when I can just cruise the cable channels for something more suitable or order up recommendations from other reviewers here from my local library.Anyway, back to Julie. Somehow I didn't like the kid right from the start. Part of that could have been the way the character was set up from the beginning, never liking her mother but we don't know why (except for the infatuation with the old man). I really don't want to believe there might be somebody like that out there but these story ideas come from somewhere. But since she was such a b---- on wheels, my gut reaction when Sybil Danning made the comeback for the finale was you go, girl! Good recovery too when Franciosa shows up and she goes with "She saved my life". That pretty much made the whole convoluted story worthwhile.

lazarillo This movie is marketed as a Sybil Danning vehicle even though the erstwhile German-American sex symbol is really only in the last half of the movie, and the really memorable performance is by the unknown Isabella Mejia as a disturbed teenage girl whose infatuation with her father (Antonio Franciosa from "Tenebra")leads her to allow an intruder to rape and murder her own mother. She then blackmails the same guy into trying to do the same to her new stepmother (Sybil Danning). The disturbed girl at one point even locks her young step-brother in an old fridge in the middle of a junkyard.I saw this film almost back-to-back with another, much more terrible Sybil Danning-starrer "They're Playing with Fire". But while that film was a horrid hybrid of a dumb 80's teen sex comedy and an idiotic 90's erotic thriller (featuring Sybil in the sack with the annoying kid from "Private Lessons", and the once great Andrew Prine flushing his career right down the toilet), this film does the burgeoning erotic thriller genre proud (or as proud as you can do that crappy genre). It has a real, if not necessarily highly believable, plot and pretty decent acting. Other reviewers have compared it to "The Bad Seed", but it is actually better than that stagey, melodramatic flick (which ends with the villain literally being struck down by lightning). I'd put it somewhere between that one and a truly deserving classic like "Pretty Poison" (with Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins).This movie is certainly no classic, but it doesn't really deserve its current obscure status either. It's probably Danning's best (American)movie. Those who watch it just to see her take her clothes off for the zillionth time won't be disappointed of course, but I think they'll also be pleasantly surprised with the rest of the movie.