Die eiskalte Clique

I saw this DVD last night and it was okay, kinda like I Know What You Did At the Mental Hospital Last Summer. But when it was over I was playing around with the special features and brought up the second audio track with a running commentary by Susan Ward and Lori Heuring. For 90 minutes these two talked about hair styles, dresses, breastages, sweating, fake Cosmopolitans, toenail polish, and whatever else entered their minds. I was rolling on the floor. So if you want to see a mediocre thriller turned into an hilarious comedy, get the DVD, go to special features, and be prepared to laugh your butt off for an hour and a half.

I remember watching this movie on pay per view back in 2001, I remember liking it because an attractive woman was a serial killer. I had long forgotten about this film until I caught it on HBO a few weeks ago, After watching this film for the first time in 11 years I never knew how lifeless the actors and actresses were and how predictable the plot is. The story was interesting it was about a girl named Adrien who was just released from a mental hospital to work as a housekeeper at a country club/resort type place, where young, beautiful college kids lay around in the sun, play tennis, etc. She meets Brittany Hodges or actually more like saves her, when Brittany tries to fake like she drowned. So Adrien and Brittany become friends, and some strange things happen at the club. One of Brittany's so-called "friends" warns Adrien to go away, and to leave the huge mystery that happened a year ago alone, but Adrien knows something's up. Brittany's games are a little too much to handle sometimes. And after learning about Adrien's "history" she seduces Adrien's therapist while wearing Adrien's dress, then kills the therapist at a party later, and then Adrien goes to jail because they think she was the one who had sex with him, and killed him. It could have been a much better movie had the script really been tweaked, but tweaked it was not so good this is not.

All the girls in this film slither around like snakes (or feral felines moving in for the kill), and Lori Heuring, the main girl, looks like a deranged cross between Madonna and Jewel (with her twisted little smile and semi-crazed eyes), and the guys are either drunk, stupid or a dazed combination of the two. And these are some of the GOOD POINTS of the movie! High camp at its most pleasurable.

This beach-club teen murder mystery was pummeled by the critics and lasted about three weeks in theaters before beating a hasty retreat to the rental market. Like all films that foster extreme comments and establish preconceived expectations, this one failed to live up (or should I say down) to them. It wasn't great, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as its critics say it was.

The story was actually good, in a puerile way. What I liked about it was that it accurately portrayed the immature backbiting and excessive preoccupation with superficialities that are common among teens. In certain ways, the story was predictable. It was easy to foresee that Adrien (Lori Heuring) was kidding herself if she thought there was no ulterior motive behind Brittany's (Susan Ward) open acceptance of an outsider into the group. What was cleverly presented and not so obvious was Brittany's motive.

The production was TV quality. Director, Mary Lambert has mostly TV credits on her resume and didn't push the envelope. The acting was mediocre at best. Both Lori Heuring and Susan Ward were passable but unpolished and they lacked subtlety. The rest of the cast was far worse.

This film will probably find a niche with teens and twenty-something young adults, but I don't think it is camp enough to attain cult status. I rated it a 5/10. It's not terrible, but it really doesn't distinguish itself in any meaningful way.

A recently released mental patient lands a job at a posh country club with the assitance of her doctor. She is immediately token under the wing of rich, pampered, and extremely popular Britanny Foster (Susan Ward), but then mysterious accidents begin to occur and people are now showing up dead. Is Britanny responsible for the occurances and for her sister disappearing years earlier or is the supposedly cured ex mental patient??

Extremely entertaining and sexy teen thriller that covers old and new ground, features a perfectly casted Susan Ward who has terrific and intense chemistry with the other lead. Besides being sexy and entertaining, the film is stylish, very fast paced, tightly edited and is pretty well directed with a sensational finale. The only thing that weakens this interprise is a few poor performances in the supporting catergory and a script that doesn't stand to close scurtney. Still well worth viewing though.

Rated PG-13; Sexual Situations, Adult Themese, Drug Use and Referneces throughout film, Nudity, Profanity, Violence, and Attempted Rape.