Sweet Sixteen (1983)

RELEASED IN 1983 and directed by Jim Sotos, "Sweet 16" chronicles events in a West Texas town when a new family moves into town and there are a series of murders revolving around the 16 year-old daughter (Aleisa Shirley). The sheriff (Bo Hopkins) and deputy (Michael Cutt) try to track down the killer. Dana Kimmell and Steve Antin play the Sheriff's kids while Patrick Macnee and Susan Strasberg play the parents of the new girl. While this is a slasher, it's not overly gory and could be categorized as a whodunit mystery. The story kicks off with a quality bar confrontation, which reveals the racial tension in the town between whites and Natives. Despite all the gushing over the new girl (Aleisa Shirley), she's not all that, i.e. no curves. Dana Kimmell is the real beauty here. The cast is likable, particularly Hopkins as the main protagonist, and the early 80's ambiance is to die for. Don Shanks is notable as a kick axx Native. I liked the movie and enjoyed trying to figure out who the killer was amidst the red herrings, but found the wrap up a little eye-rolling and unsatisfying. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour, 30 minutes and was shot on the outskirts of Los Angeles. WRITER: Erwin Goldman. ADDITIONAL CAST: Don Stroud is on hand as a troublemaking cowboy.GRADE: B-

Beautiful teenager Melissa Morgan is a bit of a wild child, quickly attracting the attention of most of the local boys; however, those lucky enough to get close to her have a nasty habit of turning up dead.This rather obscure 80s horror opens in classic stalk 'n' slash mode with a gratuitous shower scene, the 'sweet 16' of the title, schoolgirl Melissa (played by Aleisa Shirley, actually a good few years older than 16), giving herself a thorough wash for the benefit of the viewer. Normally, such a scene would be followed by the young woman, clad in a towel, leaving the shower to be stalked by a masked maniac, or would at least end with a false scare, but here there's no such payoff; it simply exists to get some gratuitous T&A on the screen, as does a later moment when the lovely girl goes skinny dipping.Not that I'm complaining, because without the occasional spot of nudity from Shirley, this would be a lot less enjoyable, the actual horror content being fairly lame...There are a number of killings throughout the film, but these are unexceptional stabbings shot in a frenzied manner at night, making them very disappointing for gore fans. The rest of the film consists primarily of dull police procedure, as Sheriff Dan Burke (Bo Hopkins) slowly pieces together clues to discover the identity of the killer, plus some clichéd racial tension between the town's rednecks and local Indians, none of which is particularly thrilling. In short, be grateful for the nekkidness when it happens.4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

I once bought this movie on VHS because it was a big OOP all over the world. But of course sometimes they are released on official DVD. Once I've got the DVD it was time to watch it. Still, the DVD is like watching a good VHS. I guess it was still copied from a VHS. The luminance was flickering a whole time of the movie. There were a lot of drops on the DVD stated that it just was a copy. But that wasn't really a problem because the editing wasn't without failures. A lot of hiss when they cut from one reel to another combined with the typical sync faults. Made in the era of the slashers many stated that it was a slasher. I wouldn't say that. There are some killings in it and first person shots are used but there isn't any really bloody or gory shots in it as they used in the time being. Was it bad, no no, it is watchable for anybody. It's weird that some OOP's really had some big names in it. This one has Patrick Macnee and Bo Hopkins in it. Included on the DVD is the director's cut and the theatrical cut. What a difference in the beginning. The director's cut isn't 1 minute into the movie or Melissa is already full frontal naked. The theatrical cut has a whole other beginning, no shower scene. It really is a good movie but I only gave it a 4 due the reason that it was made full slasher era and it didn't deliver what we were used to that time being. But the main reason why it was hunted down was the fact that it was Jim Sotos second movie. He just made a remake of the roughie Forced Entry, in fact same story without the hardcore. Sotos' movies were hard to find until up today...

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.