A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

SWEET 16 is a low budget and rather unknown thriller of the early 1980s, complete with various genre elements. It's a small town drama, a murder mystery of sorts, and it also contains a series of murder scenes which are straight out of a slasher film. The story revolves around a 16 year old girl whose boyfriends keep getting killed by an unknown assailant. The film's backdrop of small-town bigotry and resentment is more interesting than the somewhat slow central story, but at least there are various familiar faces showing up here.Don Stroud does his bit alongside Dana Kimmell, making a small horror niche for herself with roles in this and Friday the 13th Part III in the space of a year. Susan Strasberg and Patrick Macnee play the parents and the latter does particularly well in an against-type role. Best of the bunch is the reliable Bo Hopkins as the town sheriff.

A dynamite cast gives this minor thriller some real class. The story progresses in a logical manner as sheriff Bo Hopkins tries to figure out some very perplexing stabbing murders. Don Stroud plays the town heavy and Indian hater. Several "red herrings" are floated by the audience, any one of which would have proved more logical than the "out of thin air" ending. The ad lib conclusion is ridiculous and not believable. "Code Red" has done a good job quality wise with the DVD. Having an interview with Bo Hopkins on the extra features is another plus. I just wish someone had ditched that awful, confusing, and unsatisfying ending. - MERK

Melissa, the 15-year-old new girl, is the main attraction for all of the small town boys. But why is it that each person that shares a connection with her ends up dead by the work of a blade? Sheriff Dan Burke investigates with the unwanted but appreciative aid of his son and daughter – Hank and Marci.Easily the most recognizable player in this low-budget cheapie is Patrick Macnee which some of you may recognize from Waxwork 1 & 2(1988 & 1992), The Howling from 1981, '77's Dead of Night, and most notably The Avengers (1961-1969). He's held a long career in both film and television with a small focus on horror. Macnee didn't receive an important role in Sweet Sixteen so his appearance is limited. The rest of the cast do a fine job of transitioning each scene to the next so Macnee's presence isn't a total waste. Another well-known actress for the time was Dana Kimmell who scored decently as the Sheriff's daughter. She's still famous for starring in 1982's Friday the 13th: Part III.Sweet Sixteen doesn't focus on the murders too much but opts to hone in on the characters instead. This decision was a poor one because at no point do we feel overly attached to any of them, rendering this exercise pointless. In maintaining the proper mindset, we have to be aware of what to expect from an entry like this – so despite a very low production, this isn't too bad of a film for what it is. The twist ending is somewhat confusing and to spin things once more, an event that plays out just moments before the curtain call isn't terribly original but classic for the era. The run-time falls somewhere in the realm of an hour and 28 minutes and although certain segments are lengthy and dull it's definitely not the worst Slasher you'll ever see.

This was not generally a well-regarded slasher movie back in the 80's since it did not contain a lot of graphic violence or gruesome Tom Savini-type special effects. It is more of a murder mystery. And though the identity of the murderer is pretty obvious, it is nevertheless pretty effective. It has a great small-town setting (whereas most other slashers were set in suburbia) and an effective atmosphere. Parts of it are quite masterful like a scene near the end (prominently featured in all the promotional artwork) where the central girl and a male admirer go skinny-dipping at night in a lake lit only by a single cross-shaped key light. (It's unfortunate that most slasher movie fans are such gore-hounds that they don't appreciate the more subtle elements of horror movies like cinematography, setting, and atmosphere). The story is also a pretty different in that all the victims in this movie are young MALES rather than promiscuous young females. And they all meet a sticky end because they're sniffing around the new girl in town, played by Aleisha Shirley (but then it's kind of hard to blame them).The adults in town are played by such stalwart character actors as Bo Hopkins (as the town sheriff) and Susan Strasberg (as the mother of the new girl). Dana Kimmel from "Friday the 13th Part III" plays the sheriff's daughter who befriends the new girl and eventually solves the mystery. For a long time Kimmel, a devout Mormon, was blamed for "Friday the 13th Part III" being so tame compared to the rest of the series (as if they couldn't have just replaced her with another actress). Fortunately, this ridiculous rumor has been discredited by several recent books on the "Friday the 13th" movies. Mormon or not, she's definitely good in these virginal "final girl" roles. Aleisha Shirley was not as good of an actress as Kimmel, but she was certainly effective in teen femme fatale roles (she also appeared in the pilot episode of the HBO series "The Hitchhiker" as a teenager who seduces her mother's boyfriend). She actually looks a lot more like "sweet 20-something" than "sweet 16" in this movie, but her frequent nude scenes allow the movie to make up in skin what it lacks in gore.I'm kind of surprised they haven't re-made this, although I read about a movie in Gorezone magazine called "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" that seems to have a very similar plot (for some reason though it hasn't been released in the US yet, despite the presence of a currently hot actress, Amanda Heard, in the lead role). Oh well, the "original" is available on DVD now, so check it out if you get a chance