This largely unheard of early 80’s slasher movie fails to make much of an impact due to some poor acting, terrible lighting and major cheese factor.
The film sees a young couple drive out to a secluded ranch for thanksgiving with the ranch owner and his eclectic and eccentric family, only to discover that an escaped mental patient plans to carve up more than just the turkey.
The film takes far too long trying to establish the characters and therefore leaves you bored before anyone has even been bumped off.
The cast and characters range from likeable and capable to annoying and pathetic, and by far the most annoying aspect is the lack of any light sources which leave you unable to see what’s happening, forcing you to rely on sound to follow the action.
On the plus side the setting allows for a bit of a creepy and windy atmosphere, and there are a couple of eerie moments and a couple of genuine jumps too. Sadly, the characters actions leave you sighing, which lessens the impact of said scenes such as the creepy sequence which follows two women back to the ranch when they are halted by the killers guttural breathing. Instead of running away they ask who is hiding in the bushes before attempting to tell the knife wielding maniac about the stressful day they have had.
OVERALL SUMMARY
It’s cheesy, cliched and full of throwaway dialogue but it has a couple of decent deaths, and features the acting debut of a four year old Vinessa Shaw who will soon be seen in Alexandre Aja’s remake of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’.
