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.

SWEET SIXTEEN (1983) **/***** 86 minutes Director Jim Sotos Cast Bo Hopkins, Susan Strasberg, Aleisa Shirley, Patrick Macnee, Dana KimmellFifteen year old bad girl Melissa is new in a desert town and it isn't long before folks around her start dying off. The detective has to put together the clues with the help of his Nancy Drew good girl daughter played by Friday the 13th alumni Dana Kimmell. The local Native Americans are prime suspects since they seem to upset the prejudiced townsfolk. These events all lead up to the revealing of the killer at Melissa's sixteenth birthday party.This below average slasher isn't too memorable. It has a made for TV feel, without much score besides the title character's own corny theme song which plays a couple times throughout. Lines like "the killer will turn us into coleslaw." Fit into standard eighties slasher screenplays. Marci calls Melissa a bad name then somehow immediately they develop a friendship. Apparently Marci sees how hard it is to fit in because Melissa knows how to wear make-up. This movie would be hard-pressed to be made today with the main character being fifteen and the director inserting multiple gratuitous close-ups of her. The social commentary on Indians wasn't developed enough to be taken seriously. I am too surprised at the fairly high rating this movie gets. Both Sweet Sixteen and Ed Hunt's Bloody Birthday had the potential to capitalize on that time honored tradition of the birthday party to create an intense sequence of carnage but I feel failed to deliver. But on the bright side releasing obscure movies like this on DVD gives hope that others will follow.

On the surface, this would appear to be just another dreary slasher flick, but what separates this film from a lot of the crowd is the that director Jim Sotos (who also directed the rarer of the two 'Forced Entry' films) creates a real gritty atmosphere that makes the film feel a lot like a seventies exploitation flick and ensures that the film is somewhat nastier than the likes of Friday the 13th and Halloween. It has to be said that this one isn't as gory as some slashers, but the violence is much more realistic, which more than makes up for that fact. The plot isn't particularly original and focuses mainly on the theme of a young girl coming of age. Melissa is fifteen and coming up to sixteen. She's in a new town and lonely because she doesn't know anyone, but luckily for her; she's also quite fit and proves to be a hit with the local boys. However, there's a catch as every boy she goes out with ends up getting brutally slaughtered! The crimes are investigated by the town sheriff and his two kids, and naturally Melissa ends up on the suspects list.The film was obviously made on a small budget but that doesn't hinder it too much as Sweet 16 more than sets out what it clearly intended to do. In fact, the production values are actually quite high for a small eighties production; the shortcomings in the form of the cinematography helps the film as it is rewarded with a real rough feel. The cast is good, with the likes of Bo Hopkins, Patrick Macnee and Susan Strasberg leading the film, while Aleisa Shirley is more than adequate in the title role. The film feels more like a seventies movie than an eighties flick and that's another positive element if you ask me. The plot flows well and since the film is only short at about eighty minutes, it doesn't have a chance to get old or tired before the ending. With slashers, a twist at the end is pretty much mandatory and this film adheres to that - except unlike a lot of slashers, the twist here is both interesting and believable. I can't say that this is brilliant or a classic, but I went into it expecting nothing decent and found a fairly good film so I definitely do recommend Sweet 16 to my fellow horror fans!