Don't Go Near the Park (1981)

This is one of those films you couldn't pay me to watch, and don't get me wrong I'm an avid horror fan. But this movie made absolutely no sense whatsoever. The plot basically is about a brother and sister who had a curse put on them centuries ago that let them live forever, but to appear young they have to eat the internal organs of people they find. In the 20th century the wooded park they live in is becoming more public and less secluded, so they try to put off killing and have a child for the sole purpose of sacrificing her to remain young. The child grows up and runs away from home, meeting a little boy who was abandoned by his mom and a college-aged young man. The three of them band together as outsiders and eventually try to stop the cannibalistic serial killer couple from killing again. Well, you can say one thing for it, it sure is disgusting at some parts. If you're one of those fans of the "hospital horror" genre where in films people remove the organs of other people, this film is full of that. The characters were just plain bizarre, and don't get me started on the ending. The cannibal shooting laser beams from her eyes... confusing. I really wouldn't watch this movie if I were you.

The people who put down this movie must be the kind of people who when they were children would make fun of the retarded kid on the school playground. Of course, this movie is a dumb. Of course, it is laughably inept. It's not "so bad it's good"--it's not a good movie in any sense of the word--but there is something likable about it. Living in a time when movies may as well be written by corporate marketing directors and edited by a Hollywood test audience, it's nice to see a movie that is completely ridiculous, technically proficient in some ways but nevertheless looking like it was shot in someone's backyard with primitive special effects, amateurish acting, and Mom no doubt providing the catering. It was obviously a labor of love if not exactly a labor of competent film-making.The plot is something about 12,000 year old brother and sister witches who have survived by cannibalizing young children, but cannot actually become young unless they have a kid and then--oh, who cares? Anyway, the brother chooses a young Linnea Quigley to be the bearer of his child. A comment here on Quigley: this is the kind of role she was meant to play--she provides some nudity (full-frontal, full-dorsal, lingering breast shot)and then exits stage left. Her nude scenes certainly add to the movie, but they are not cynically expected to carry the whole movie as was the case in a lot of the roles she did after she became a "scream queen". And maybe she can't act, but at least she tried in the early days before she adopted her intentional "bad acting" schtick.The lead though is not Quigley but her "daughter" played by one Tamara Taylor, who never appeared in another movie but is pretty memorable in this one. She faces off against her old crone aunt and protects some other children from her (with the help of the obviously drunk headliner Aldo Ray). She's not a great actress by any means, but she fits THIS movie perfectly. Just as this movie at times resembles a deranged children's fairy tale with it bizarre storyline of witches and endangered youngsters before it suddenly launches into some unconvincing but very graphic gore(which got it put on the "video nasty" list in Britain), Taylor seems like a young, innocent girl but also has surprising and disturbing scenes like where she ends up in a van being pretty graphically groped by a group of would-be rapists(including, ironically enough, the director). This is followed by the most unintentionally funny scene in the movie where a protective amulet she is wearing causes the van to run off the road and explode in a near-nuclear fireball.Is all this meant as a recommendation? Well, maybe not. But you have to admire the fact that something like this was ever made in the first place. There's never been another movie like this--and there probably never will be again.

If you were, like me, expecting to see another numb-nuts 80's slasher, you'll soon find out that you're mistaken (I should start reading the back of the VHS-covers!). Before the credits even start to role, you're already treated to an utterly gore butchering sequence and a demented prologue. The screenwriter (probably a flipping drug-addict) thought up a story about two siblings that were cursed 12.000 years ago. In order to keep their youthful appearance and to save their souls, they have to feed on human flesh. If that isn't enough, the male half of the two has to find a girlfriend, get her pregnant and sacrifice the virgin daughter to the Zodiacs…or something. Granted, the plot is pretty retarded but it's stuffed with cheesy gore and the script is unintentionally hilarious. There's no tension whatsoever and you're about to forget the whole thing as soon as you finished watching it. If you're a sucker for painfully bad 80's flicks, this is a must.

Watching a movie like "Don't Go Near the Park" is enough to make you stop watching movies altogether. Badly put together, with huge narrative gaps, and incompetently directed, this was obviously the work of people who didn't have a clue about making movies. It's a pity nobody told them "Don't go near the camera!". It must be said, however, that there are two or three gruesome scenes of cannibalism that might interest gore fans. 0 out of 4 stars - but it could also be 0 out of 10.