Opening with a beautiful homage to
Psycho via a dream sequence that marries Eisenstein (the past) and
Halloween (the future). Everything else that follows seems to come from a different universe. If Mr. Gilbert would've ever made another film maybe that universe could have expanded but he didn't so it's all contained here. A blonde (Melody Patterson) finds herself as an underage orphan after her prostitute mother is brutally murdered. This propels a series of events that could constitute the plot of ten different films. Throw in Gloria Grahame in her
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? role. An ending worthy of
Oldboy and
Sleepaway Camp that has a time traveling cameo by a fat Freddy Kreuger. A film that subconsciously entered cinema history through it's influence, even if it went widely unseen (until recently at least).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Director of Photography: Paul Hipp
Presented by William Lustig on 35mm as a kick-off of the essential American International Pictures on-going series at Anthology Film Archives.