Devil in the Flesh

Luckily for us, the viewing audience, Debbie's new high school does not have a dress code. If girls were allowed to dress the way Debbie does, the number of male high school dropouts would go immediately to zero. I know I should talk about the plot, and I will, but for me this movie is first and foremost about just watching the entrancing Rose McGowan; gorgeous doesn't even begin to describe her. Alas, though, her character Debbie Strand is not perfect. She has a tendency to fall madly in love and stalk a school teacher from time to time, she is not above stealing, and she is just deliciously vindictive, jealous, and - well - evil. Oh yeah, she also kills people sometimes. It's not all her fault, though. Her childhood was not a happy one, and when we first meet her, her house has just burned down (with her mother and one of her teachers inside). Off to grandmother's house she goes, into a new environment that frankly just doesn't suit her or meet her needs. Grandma is apparently related by blood to Carrie White's mother, as she is a puritanical woman determined to turn Debbie into a good Christian girl, even if she has to beat the devil out of her to do it. The rest is pretty simple. Her flirtation with young Mr. Rinaldi quickly snowballs into the kind of obsession that leaves a trail of bodies in its wake. The predictable ending is something of a let-down, but this is for the most part a darn good movie.

Some of the peripheral characters could have used some building up, especially the detectives investigating the big fire and slowly putting two and two together; it's hard to take two guys seriously when all they do is quiz each other on the spellings and definitions of difficult words. Really, though, this movie comes down to two characters, and we do get to know each of them pretty well. The fact that Rinaldi can resist Debbie's increasingly forward advances makes him either a sort of superman or an incredible fool. As for Debbie, we get a pretty good handle on her early on, long before we learn all of her secrets - these secrets, plus the unfriendly reaction toward her by certain people, actually make her a sympathetic character of sorts. The story sort of plays it loose early on, but once the climactic buildup for the conclusion begins forming, this story of obsession, love, and derangement shifts into overdrive and takes us down cinematic curves that leave us screaming with excitement despite the imminent danger always there in front of our eyes. Take away those stupid vocabulary quizzes by the two detectives, and I would probably have given this film five stars. Even if this were the worst film ever made, though, it would still be worth watching just for Rose McGowan. She is simply stunning in this motion picture, exhibiting acting skills that nearly approximate the depth of her unique beauty. Believe me: evil never looked so good.