This movie would have been excellent ...

J. Lee Thompson was the wrong director for this. He directed it like it was some art house project, for some inexplicable reason. Great fit for a picture featuring a killer wearing a Scooby Doo mask and kids getting bumped off with shish-ke-bob sticks. George Mihalka would have taken this cheesy script and given it the right dash of cheddar that the recipe called for.

There are a few crummy scenes here and there that I would have cut right out (the awful one in the chapel, which makes no sense whatsoever, and the wholly unnecessary brain surgery sequences) but the runtime probably could have dropped 10 or 20 minutes without cutting a single word had they gotten a director who wasn't under the misconception that he was hired to make art. It feels a lot longer than it is because so much of it was shot and edited in a draggy, lethargic, soporific manner that is entirely the wrong tone for a dumb slasher.

The movie is absurd. Part soap opera. Part slasher. I like it. But it has a lot going on.
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This is my favorite slasher from the 80's. It is full of atmosphere, some excellent—though convoluted—set pieces, decent acting and inventive and interesting kill scenes, even if lacking a bit in the gore department. I liked that Melissa Sue Anderson was in the lead and this appeared like a nice change of pace after the sweet and can do no wrong Mary in Little House On The Prairie. She is also very good as a b!tchy high school witch, in the t.v. horror film Midnight Offerings-81'.

Yes, the film could have been trimmed\tightened up a bit; but I would be hard pressed to know what to take out. It was a very dramatic slasher opus and it wanted to set a tone\mood and build up. The twist ending is preposterous and hardly makes any logical sense; but this is also part of it's appeal and charm for me. I loved the ending sequence, when Hal stumbles in on the dead birthday party. It had a very creepy build up and was well filmed.

Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩

I heard that the original ending was pretty much what we see up to where Ginnifer kills her father.