Happy Birthday to Me [Import]

Ginny's friends are systematically being knocked off in bizarre and brutal ways. Is she going off her rocker (she suffers from blackouts, due to her traumatic car accident which claimed the life of her mother), or is someone close to her committing the evil deeds? Her psychiatrist, David Faraday, attempts to assist her in unraveling her nightmare.

It's a pity that Glenn Ford was unable to find a better project to lure him back to his native Canadian soil. As he is usually a much better judge of scripts, it's a safe assumption that he was most likely in dire financial straits. The poor guy just looks lost - and who can find fault with him for that - although to his credit he tries to rise above the material, despite the atrocious dialogue he is often saddled with, and his character is sympathetic. But he never succeeds in looking comfortable, and in some scenes you can almost see that he's trying his mightiest not to fluster with embarrassment. And if you don't mind Miss Little House On The Praire seeming as if she's had a lobotomy in some sequences, you'll manage just fine. Melissa Sue Anderson's incandescent but sometimes vacant blue eyes make her ideal as the confused, helpless young heroine.

I'm giving this movie a 3 out of 5 rating because it is an unconventional attempt to imitate such slasher flicks as "Halloween", "Friday The 13th" and "Black Christmas". If you like these kinds of atmospheric, somewhat cheesy, campy but watchable scarefests with some good shocks (the surprise ending packs a real wallop), you will probably enjoy it. It is unnerving to watch alone at night. If you're a fan of Glenn Ford, proceed with caution. It's painful to see this beloved veteran actor reduced to this, but he does give it his all.