Fantastic!

Admirable film.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This is not a popular title, but I find it an interesting thriller-mystery. I don't know the cast, but I liked them all decently. It is a murder mystery that takes place in a small town where a sheriff investigates the recent brutal knife attacks with all the possibility angle. All the victims were teenage boys, who are associated with the new girl in the town. Definitely you will begin to predict the suspect, that much the film evolves a bridge between you and the contents.It was a great story, I was stunned for its underrated status and for going unnoticed, but then it ended very cheaply. To me the conclusion ruined the rhythm, otherwise the rest of the film was amazing and worth a watch. I hope somebody would remake it with some changes, especially in the final act and its twist. Overall surely it was a fine film, a mix of the teen theme and the cop story, obviously excluding the bad ending.6/10

This 1980's slasher is really disturbing by the minute. Here you have a very lovely, but lonely teenage girl name Melissa(Aleisa Shirley) who just recently moved from the city into a small Texas town where she is already causing a stir with the locals. She goes to a bar where she meets two young men, one of them is the son of a local sheriff who get stranded when his friend drives off to the Indian burial. After he drops off the daughter, he tried to head on home, but he doesn't make it. One, the truck runs out of gas. Two, someone gets him from behind. After his death, the people begin to suspect Melissa. Since she was the only one with him, alive. After that, she would later hook up with a jock who would also suffered the same fate. Following that, the two trouble-making brothers would try to send a message to the Native Americans. Thinking it was a man who committed murder would be common, who would have thought it would be Melissa's own mother. The question is Why? A victim of past abuse brought on by her father, took her sister's name in, and would be responsible for the two young men. I mean the brothers got their just desserts for the old Native American, but the other two men did not deserve it. It's a very disturbing movie, but very entertaining though. 2 out of 5 stars.

Bo Hopkins stars as a small town sheriff, Dan Burke, trying to uncover the one responsible for a series of murders towards young men surrounding fifteen year old Melissa Morgan(Aleisa Shirley)whose "sweet sixteen" is approaching. A number of suspects emerge including two Native Americans, elderly Greyfeather(Henry Wilcoxon)and his grandson, Jason Longshadow(Don Shanks), but they could be smokescreens of another, whose long buried past has awakened and those who attempt to get involved with Melissa pay the price. Susan Strasberg(..still quite beautiful at this time)is Melissa's mother, Joanne, and screen veteran Patrick Macnee is her father, archaeologist Dr. John Morgan, excavating old Indian grounds for artifacts. Don Stroud is a rowdy racist cowboy, Billy Franklin, often hanging around with goofy hoodlum, Jimmy(Logan Clarke)teasing and abusing Greyfeather when he enters their juke joint for a beer. Billy and Longshadow are mortal enemies and a destined showdown is imminent. Dana Kimmell is Dan's inquisitive daughter Marci and Steve Antin is his son Hank, whose attraction to Melissa puts him in potential danger. The horror escalates at Melissa's sweet sixteen birthday party, put together as a way for the town to meet the Morgan family..the killer will be revealed and Billy, along with Jimmy(..his shadow, pretty much)will attempt to have a little fun with Melissa when she goes skinny dipping with Hank.The film carves a psychological path as Dan soon discovers the history of a certain character whose traumatic past could have developed a disturbed personality willing to kill those who pose a fictional danger to Melissa who represents someone else symbolically. The director, Jim Sotos, mentions that they were working from an unfinished script, during an interview with Hopkins admitting to ab-libbing some lines(..and a funny story mentions how Macnee was confused with the twist regarding why the killer was committing such grisly knife murders). Aleisa Shirley, a very pretty girl, has some nude shower sequences that left me rather disoriented..as a fifteen year old character, I didn't know whether to be mortified as the camera embraced her naked flesh, or jovial because it's obvious she was a much older woman than the Melissa she was portraying. Sharon Farrell has a nice supporting role as Kathy Hopkins, a forensics expert carrying a torch for widower Dan, who proposes marriage to him all the time. A great asset to the movie was the camaraderie between Hopkins and his fictional family, Kimmell and Antin..their chemistry together is quite fundamental to the overall success of this rural slasher. They will become embroiled within the developing situation just as much as their father investigating the case, just in a different way. Fans of Macnee will be rather disappointed in his rather lackluster role here..it's nice to see him, but not much is demanded from him since the character isn't too strongly involved within the major plot. Strasberg, however, has an interesting development since it's revealed that she was born in the town setting of this movie..and has friction with Michael Pataki's citizen, George Martin, an obvious history between these two is apparent. The violence isn't too gruesome, with carefully edited attacks showing the knife stabbing torsos up close..not that extreme for dye-in-the-wool slasher fans used to gratuitous gore. Hopkins is as appealing and laid back as ever, a dominating presence of the plot, his authority convincing in a small town atmosphere, dealing with confrontational cases appropriately and realistically. I particularly liked how his sheriff handles his kids who respect their father, even if they disobey him sometimes..unlike today's children who resist parental guidance, Dan's children know their place and don't cross him. Kimmell, who would go on to star as the lead final girl in Friday THE 13TH III, is adorable, always studiously involved in dad Dan's cases.

This movie opens with a totally gratuitous scene of a young girl showering, and if director Jim Sotos really wants us to believe that she's 16 years old, than that's pretty darn disturbing! In fact, people continuously mention her young age, yet the camera takes every opportunity to zoom in on her perky breasts and well-sculptured bottom. Apart from this rather uncomfortable obsession with nonage nudity, "Sweet Sixteen" is a fairly imaginative and sadly overlooked 80's gem, that is at least a lot more creative than its contemporary slasher colleagues. The ravishing Melissa is the new kid in a little Texan town and straight away all the boys school have the hots for her. One tiny problem though, her dates always turn up brutally stabbed shortly after. Melissa looks kind and innocent enough, yet she has this aura of mysteriousness surrounding her. Sheriff Burke investigates the murders, although it looks more like his annoying teenage daughter is in charge, and the search leads him to the town's old history. Obviously low-budgeted, "Sweet Sixteen" still provides a fair amount of scares, grisly murders and surprisingly adequate acting performances. The atmosphere is uncanny throughout and there's a convincing plot-twist near the end. To sum it all up, this is a modest 80's horror treasure, ripe for re-discovery.