Sweet Sixteen

Sweet Sixteen is a 1983 American slasher film directed by Jim Sotos and starring Bo Hopkins, Susan Strasberg, Dana Kimmell, and Patrick Macnee.

Melissa Morgan is new in town and meets Hank Burke and Johnny Franklin outside of a bar. Johnny winds up murdered the same night and murder and mystery seem to follow Melissa everywhere she goes.

This is a largely obscure and forgotten 80s slasher movie. Being a big fan of slasher movies myself, especially 80s. I knew I would get something out of the film. The film however is rather slow and meandering as a whole, the lead actress is especially uninteresting and doesn't bring much to the film in terms of charm or humour. I never found myself being especially involved in the plot of the film or how it ended, I enjoyed the film for what it was and I love the 80s aesthetic in general. It's worth a watch if you're into the genre, but otherwise you can take it or leave it.

This 1983 Texas-made feature is more of a murder mystery, and not a terribly successful one. The problem is that apparently the filmmakers (led by producer / director Jim Sotos) and cast were working from an unfinished script, and it shows: the writing overall is muddled. Still, this has an awfully good cast for this sort of thing, and Sotos and company do try to give the story a little extra something by introducing racism (the poor treatment of the local Indians) into the proceedings. "Sweet 16" also banks a lot on the importance of its central character Melissa and the actress in the role, Aleisa Shirley. She's a hot to trot 15 going on 16 year old who seems to enjoy making trouble and being the centre of attention.

One problem with this is that we seem to be getting encouraged to ogle Shirley at every opportunity, and even though Shirley was older than her character, she wasn't *that* much older, making scenes such as a shower sequence highly uncomfortable.

The tale, written by Erwin Goldman, shows what happens as bloody murders begin to occur as Melissa's 16th birthday approaches. The plodding sheriff on the case is Dan Burke (ever amiable Bo Hopkins), whose mystery junkie daughter Marci (Dana Kimmell, a.k.a. the final girl of "Friday the 13th Part III") is eager for some excitement in her small town and follows her fathers' cases with interest. Meanwhile, Indians such as Jason Longshadow (Don Shanks, a.k.a. Michael Myers in "Halloween 5") and his grandfather Greyfeather (Henry Wilcoxon, in his final film role) are targeted by rowdy racist rednecks Billy (Don Stroud) and Jimmy (Logan Clarke).

At the least, "Sweet 16" boasts solid atmosphere, although some slasher aficionados are likely to be dissatisfied with a very small body count and too much murkiness in the gore scenes. (Still, they may be pleased with the various revealing shots of Shirley.) The cast also includes Susan Strasberg, looking lovely as always, Patrick Macnee (who replaced Leslie Nielsen), Steve Antin ("The Goonies"), Sharon Farrell ("Night of the Comet"), Michael Pataki ("Dead & Buried"), Larry Storch ("Without Warning"), Michael Cutt ("Night of the Demon" 1980), and Glenn Withrow ("The Outsiders").

The music, by Tommy Vig, is good, but viewers may cringe at the ultra-sappiness of Melissas' theme song.

Also available in a directors' cut.

Six out of 10.

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

I won't post a long and detailed review of the movie, because it is a great little horror mystery film and there are several positive reviews already posted that said it better than i probably could have.

An interesting note is that this movie is actually on DVD in a couple of obscure "bargain boxsets". They are from BCI Eclipse, who release a lot of 10-Packs of old generic movies for a bargain price. The name of the boxsets are "Student Bodies" which is a 4-Pack, and also in a 10-Pack boxset called "Toga Party". The odd thing is the description on the boxes for these sets is wrong about the movie, it lists it as being some party movie...but it is not! It is indeed Sweet 16 from 1981 on DVD! The quality is pretty good for DVD too.

This is part horror, part mystery. I really liked this one because it has good acting, and a good story. Set in a small town, a young girl is suspected of murders in the town. But is it really her? Good movie that doesn't get a lot of play... rent it..