A young girl named 'Cassandra' is rattled by recurring nightmares involving a fire and a murder at the hands of little child in this 1986 offbeat slasher.
The film starts with a dream of a woman shooting herself after being coaxed by her young son to "do it". Our lead character Cassandra (who was a little girl in the dream that witnessed everything) wakes up from it. We find out that she's been having these dreams for quite some time. Puzzled by these dreams, and getting no help from her parents when she asks questions, Cassandra decides to investigate it further. Her parents try to sway her from looking into it, and it's not hard to tell that they know more than they're letting on.
Cassandra's father Stephen meanwhile is cheating on his wife Helen with one of the models he works with and has gotten her pregnant. Late one night, the model is murdered by an unseen assailant brandishing a large butcher knife. The cops believe it was either Helen or Cassandra who did it for revenge because of the affair. Not long after that, we see the stalker attack Helen late at night in her art studio.
There is something very haunt and eerie about the way 'Cassandra' is filmed, including the unnerving musical score playing in the background at almost all times. Very nice work by director Colin Eggleston. I thought one of the murder scenes near the beginning of the film was well done too, very 80's slasher-like with a classic jump scare. All of the stalking scenes were effective throughout. Where 'Cassandra' suffered was in it's writing. As the film slowly trudged along, the story got muddled and the audience gets introduced to way too many twists and turns.
All in all, 'Cassandra' was a fine Australian slasher flick that's worth at least one watch. Actress Briony Behets who played the mother Helen was a standout in the cast which featured a few not so good performances.
5/10.
