Ten years after witnessing the brutal murder of her parents by a sickle wielding maniac in a dress, Jeanette (Valerie Niehaus) is discharged from a mental institution to take up work as a French tutor for a trio of spoilt teenagers. However, her new life becomes a nightmare once again when a mysterious killer starts to bump off those around her using a sickle as a weapon
A forgettable title and bland DVD cover did very little to get me worked up about this film, which I only ended up watching because I wanted to gain back some much needed shelf space. But what I imagined would be just another extremely tedious, crappily directed, shot-on-video American slasher turned out to be something slightly more interesting: a predictable but surprisingly polished German slasher, based on a screenplay by Hammer legend Jimmy Sangster and atrociously dubbed into English, which delivers both bloody violence and tongue-in-cheek silliness.
Slick direction, impressive cinematography (with great use of wonderful scenery), decent performances (despite the dubbing), juicy death scenes (including the demise of several cuddly pets) and fun visual references to other horror movies all add to the entertainment factor, but sadly the farcical humour—which comes to the fore in the final act—does detract from the overall effectiveness of the film.
5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for having the cojones to liquify a cat and bisect a pooch.
A forgettable title and bland DVD cover did very little to get me worked up about this film, which I only ended up watching because I wanted to gain back some much needed shelf space. But what I imagined would be just another extremely tedious, crappily directed, shot-on-video American slasher turned out to be something slightly more interesting: a predictable but surprisingly polished German slasher, based on a screenplay by Hammer legend Jimmy Sangster and atrociously dubbed into English, which delivers both bloody violence and tongue-in-cheek silliness.
Slick direction, impressive cinematography (with great use of wonderful scenery), decent performances (despite the dubbing), juicy death scenes (including the demise of several cuddly pets) and fun visual references to other horror movies all add to the entertainment factor, but sadly the farcical humour—which comes to the fore in the final act—does detract from the overall effectiveness of the film.
5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for having the cojones to liquify a cat and bisect a pooch.