My review was written in February 1989 after watching the film on Virgin Vision video cassette.
A youth-themed film noir in the new genre initiated by "River's Edge", "Slipping into Darkness" is an interesting near-miss that ultimately becomes too cute for its own good.
Picture opened theatrically in limited fashion last November and is en route to video stores.
Michelle Johnson, Anastasia Fielding and Cristen Kauffman portray three spoiled, rich college girls in Nebraska who run afoul of hero John DiAquino when they kid around with his slow-witted brother (Neill Barry in a small but tellint role). Johnson (whose dad is the college's dean) accidentally hit the kid's dog with her Mercedes and when Barry is found dead at the railroad tracks, DiAquino sets out with the aid of his biker pals (Vyto Ruginis and David Sherrill) for revenge.
Filmmaker Eleanor Gaver bears down accurately on social class resentment and small-town provincialism well in pic's first half, but it trails off into kinky bondage motifs as the have-nots kidnap the heroines to punish them. Final reel is loaded with unconvincing revelations (flashbacks providing alternae information on the boy's death) and dubious plot twists ranging from incest to a surprising homicidal maniac.
Johnson is an effective anti-heroine and contrasting newcomers Fielding (extremely tall) and Kauffman also make distinctive impressions. Of the male protagonists, Vyto Ruginis' mannered performance is tough to take.
