the audience applauded

One of my all time favorites.

Good concept, poorly executed.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A free-spirited 15-year-old girl trapped in the body of a 25-year-old woman (Laura Dern) flirts with a dangerous stranger (Treat Williams) in the Northern California suburbs and must prepare herself for the frightening and traumatic consequences.I had moderate expectations for this film. I figured anything from the 1980s, which was a thriller and had Laura Dern could not be awful. But, you know what, it was actually rather disappointing. Other than maybe ten minutes of suspense, it is basically a movie about a teenage girl and her friends hopping and being generally irresponsible. Nothing to see here.In 1985, this might have been something groundbreaking, but today (2017) it comes across as a Lifetime movie of the week. I suppose it is a good film to see for James Taylor fans, but otherwise you're not missing much.

This was definitely somewhat different to what I had expected. The performances are exquisite, Laura Dern proving she had enormous talent at such a young age. She's fantastic here, infusing her character with the much needed charm and likability it needed, while also proving to be strong-willed and vulnerable in her own way. She certainly had a great year in 1985, with between this and Mask, and it's great to see some of the acting notes she would come to perfect even later on in her career. The supporting cast is nicely balanced and also provides some strong work. The film is contemplative and calm, and the sentiment at the end is very well-earned, such a great final scene to go along with the rest of what the film was actually doing.

The character of Arnold Friend was actually based loosely on Charles Howard Schmid, Jr., or "Smitty" aka "The Pied Piper of Tucson" who killed teenage girls in the 1960's. "The Pied Piper mimicked teenagers in talk, dress, and behavior, but he was not a teenager-he was a man in his early thirties. Rather short, he stuffed rags in his leather boots to give himself height." (from an article by Joyce Carole Oates) The rags made him unsteady on his feet.

I recently watched this movie in my Creative Writing class. I keep reading these other reviews and you all are saying that the acting is excellent. Are you serious? Laura Dern and Treat Williams are quite terrible actually. It was so bad that this is pretty much the only movie that you can find yourself making fun of practically every single line in the whole movie. My class had an absolute field day with this flic. A couple of our "favorite" parts had to be when Williams, a.k.a. "Arnold Friend" rolled up to Dern's house and started going nuts when his music kicked up...yeah, a little creepy...Or when he opened the door and swung out on it. Yeah, real smooth Arnold. What did me in was when Arnold freaked out on Ellie (the freaky dude in the car) whenever Ellie talked. Arnold went from deep-voiced/seductive creep guy to a little girl when he screamed at Ellie to stop ruining everything. I think it's about time we grew up, Arnold. If you haven't seen this movie, then keep it that way. Your IQ will probably drop about 10 points if you do.