TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Scott LeBrun This 1983 Texas-made feature is more of a murder mystery, and not a terribly successful one. The problem is that apparently the filmmakers (led by producer / director Jim Sotos) and cast were working from an unfinished script, and it shows: the writing overall is muddled. Still, this has an awfully good cast for this sort of thing, and Sotos and company do try to give the story a little extra something by introducing racism (the poor treatment of the local Indians) into the proceedings. "Sweet 16" also banks a lot on the importance of its central character Melissa and the actress in the role, Aleisa Shirley. She's a hot to trot 15 going on 16 year old who seems to enjoy making trouble and being the centre of attention.One problem with this is that we seem to be getting encouraged to ogle Shirley at every opportunity, and even though Shirley was older than her character, she wasn't *that* much older, making scenes such as a shower sequence highly uncomfortable.The tale, written by Erwin Goldman, shows what happens as bloody murders begin to occur as Melissa's 16th birthday approaches. The plodding sheriff on the case is Dan Burke (ever amiable Bo Hopkins), whose mystery junkie daughter Marci (Dana Kimmell, a.k.a. the final girl of "Friday the 13th Part III") is eager for some excitement in her small town and follows her fathers' cases with interest. Meanwhile, Indians such as Jason Longshadow (Don Shanks, a.k.a. Michael Myers in "Halloween 5") and his grandfather Greyfeather (Henry Wilcoxon, in his final film role) are targeted by rowdy racist rednecks Billy (Don Stroud) and Jimmy (Logan Clarke).At the least, "Sweet 16" boasts solid atmosphere, although some slasher aficionados are likely to be dissatisfied with a very small body count and too much murkiness in the gore scenes. (Still, they may be pleased with the various revealing shots of Shirley.) The cast also includes Susan Strasberg, looking lovely as always, Patrick Macnee (who replaced Leslie Nielsen), Steve Antin ("The Goonies"), Sharon Farrell ("Night of the Comet"), Michael Pataki ("Dead & Buried"), Larry Storch ("Without Warning"), Michael Cutt ("Night of the Demon" 1980), and Glenn Withrow ("The Outsiders").The music, by Tommy Vig, is good, but viewers may cringe at the ultra-sappiness of Melissas' theme song.Also available in a directors' cut.Six out of 10.

HumanoidOfFlesh The plot of "Sweet 16" is relatively simple:a beautiful young sixteen-year-old girl named Melissa is the center of male attention until all of her boyfriends are stabbed to death by unknown knife-wielding killer.A tough Native American is one of the suspects.I must admit that I expected more from this not very well-known slasher flick.The mystery element is pretty stagnate and there certainly isn't much slashing going on.The killings are rather bloodless and are mainly knife stabbings.The final plot twist is outlandish:the killer comes totally out of left field,but with the revelation comes a history of parental abuse,repression and psychosis.The nudity provided by Aleisa Shirley is a nice touch.A generous 6 out of 10.

Scarecrow-88 Bo Hopkins stars as a small town sheriff, Dan Burke, trying to uncover the one responsible for a series of murders towards young men surrounding fifteen year old Melissa Morgan(Aleisa Shirley)whose "sweet sixteen" is approaching. A number of suspects emerge including two Native Americans, elderly Greyfeather(Henry Wilcoxon)and his grandson, Jason Longshadow(Don Shanks), but they could be smokescreens of another, whose long buried past has awakened and those who attempt to get involved with Melissa pay the price. Susan Strasberg(..still quite beautiful at this time)is Melissa's mother, Joanne, and screen veteran Patrick Macnee is her father, archaeologist Dr. John Morgan, excavating old Indian grounds for artifacts. Don Stroud is a rowdy racist cowboy, Billy Franklin, often hanging around with goofy hoodlum, Jimmy(Logan Clarke)teasing and abusing Greyfeather when he enters their juke joint for a beer. Billy and Longshadow are mortal enemies and a destined showdown is imminent. Dana Kimmell is Dan's inquisitive daughter Marci and Steve Antin is his son Hank, whose attraction to Melissa puts him in potential danger. The horror escalates at Melissa's sweet sixteen birthday party, put together as a way for the town to meet the Morgan family..the killer will be revealed and Billy, along with Jimmy(..his shadow, pretty much)will attempt to have a little fun with Melissa when she goes skinny dipping with Hank.The film carves a psychological path as Dan soon discovers the history of a certain character whose traumatic past could have developed a disturbed personality willing to kill those who pose a fictional danger to Melissa who represents someone else symbolically. The director, Jim Sotos, mentions that they were working from an unfinished script, during an interview with Hopkins admitting to ab-libbing some lines(..and a funny story mentions how Macnee was confused with the twist regarding why the killer was committing such grisly knife murders). Aleisa Shirley, a very pretty girl, has some nude shower sequences that left me rather disoriented..as a fifteen year old character, I didn't know whether to be mortified as the camera embraced her naked flesh, or jovial because it's obvious she was a much older woman than the Melissa she was portraying. Sharon Farrell has a nice supporting role as Kathy Hopkins, a forensics expert carrying a torch for widower Dan, who proposes marriage to him all the time. A great asset to the movie was the camaraderie between Hopkins and his fictional family, Kimmell and Antin..their chemistry together is quite fundamental to the overall success of this rural slasher. They will become embroiled within the developing situation just as much as their father investigating the case, just in a different way. Fans of Macnee will be rather disappointed in his rather lackluster role here..it's nice to see him, but not much is demanded from him since the character isn't too strongly involved within the major plot. Strasberg, however, has an interesting development since it's revealed that she was born in the town setting of this movie..and has friction with Michael Pataki's citizen, George Martin, an obvious history between these two is apparent. The violence isn't too gruesome, with carefully edited attacks showing the knife stabbing torsos up close..not that extreme for dye-in-the-wool slasher fans used to gratuitous gore. Hopkins is as appealing and laid back as ever, a dominating presence of the plot, his authority convincing in a small town atmosphere, dealing with confrontational cases appropriately and realistically. I particularly liked how his sheriff handles his kids who respect their father, even if they disobey him sometimes..unlike today's children who resist parental guidance, Dan's children know their place and don't cross him. Kimmell, who would go on to star as the lead final girl in Friday THE 13TH III, is adorable, always studiously involved in dad Dan's cases.

The_Void On the surface, this would appear to be just another dreary slasher flick, but what separates this film from a lot of the crowd is the that director Jim Sotos (who also directed the rarer of the two 'Forced Entry' films) creates a real gritty atmosphere that makes the film feel a lot like a seventies exploitation flick and ensures that the film is somewhat nastier than the likes of Friday the 13th and Halloween. It has to be said that this one isn't as gory as some slashers, but the violence is much more realistic, which more than makes up for that fact. The plot isn't particularly original and focuses mainly on the theme of a young girl coming of age. Melissa is fifteen and coming up to sixteen. She's in a new town and lonely because she doesn't know anyone, but luckily for her; she's also quite fit and proves to be a hit with the local boys. However, there's a catch as every boy she goes out with ends up getting brutally slaughtered! The crimes are investigated by the town sheriff and his two kids, and naturally Melissa ends up on the suspects list.The film was obviously made on a small budget but that doesn't hinder it too much as Sweet 16 more than sets out what it clearly intended to do. In fact, the production values are actually quite high for a small eighties production; the shortcomings in the form of the cinematography helps the film as it is rewarded with a real rough feel. The cast is good, with the likes of Bo Hopkins, Patrick Macnee and Susan Strasberg leading the film, while Aleisa Shirley is more than adequate in the title role. The film feels more like a seventies movie than an eighties flick and that's another positive element if you ask me. The plot flows well and since the film is only short at about eighty minutes, it doesn't have a chance to get old or tired before the ending. With slashers, a twist at the end is pretty much mandatory and this film adheres to that - except unlike a lot of slashers, the twist here is both interesting and believable. I can't say that this is brilliant or a classic, but I went into it expecting nothing decent and found a fairly good film so I definitely do recommend Sweet 16 to my fellow horror fans!