Sweet Sixteen:Director'S C

The film revolves around Melissa, a girl turning sixteen. The boys adore her...but they can't seem to be around her for an extended time. As the tag line declares, "everyone is DYING to meet her". Every boy around Melissa dies soon after encountering her. Sweet Sixteen is a cryptic film that is often enjoyable. Not often is the horror genre mixed with mystification, but in the case of Sweet Sixteen it is. Southern Sheriff Bo Hopkins is once again a crumb to watch, as he plays the role for the hundredth time. The film isn't as obvious as you might think, and it holds your interest until the finale. Few flaws in the film makes it a pleasurable viewing. You'll enjoy the film and its astounding climax. The acting is standard, and the film is as well.

What's so great about Melissa Morgan?

When 15 year old Melissa Morgan moves to a small town and enrolls in a new school she becomes the center of attraction and all the boys at school want to personally get to know her. What does the beautiful Melissa have that all the other girls in town don't? Why are all the boys dying to meet her? Soon after Melissa dates one of the local boys he ends up dead and local Sheriff Dan Burke played by (Bo Hopkins) begins to investigate.

Will the death of Melissa's date be the only one or is it the first of many to come? Is Melissa the killer or is it just a coincidence the murder happened when she came to town? What secret is Melissa Morgan Hiding? Why is her 16th Birthday so special and will the secret be unveiled in time? Sorry! You'll have to buy your own copy to find out how it ends.

From Jim Sotos the director who gave us the very graphic and brutal 1975 "Forced Entry" comes "Sweet Sixteen" from 1983. For some reason this movie doesn't get very much playing time if any and until now it was hard to find. To me the film is pretty much an 80's slasher film with a mix of suspense and horror thrown in. The story and plot as with most of the acting is pretty good in my opinion and I enjoyed seeing this movie again. This movie features a good cast with names that include Bo Hopkins, Patrick MacNee, Susan Strasberg, Larry Storch, and Michael Pataki. I think that the plot has enough twists in it to hold your attention right up until the unexpected ending.

As for the DVD release of "Sweet Sixteen" - The Director's Cut, Is it really worth owning? The DVD itself is nicely packaged but the video and sound quality of this new "Director's Cut" release from Code Red is a slap in the face to any fan of this movie. The video image is riddled with debris and age related artifacts and it's evident that Code Red didn't spend any money on cleaning up the print for this DVD release. I would rate the video transfer of this DVD release somewhere between bootleg and VHS quality. The sound isn't much better as it contains some hissing and crackling throughout.

DVD Features Include:
-Intro by Scott Spiegel/Aleisa Shirley
-Audio conversation with star Aleisa Shirley and director Jim Sotos at Scott Spiegel's "den"
-On-camera interview with stars Bo Hopkins and Aleisa Shirley
-Stills gallery
-Theatrical trailer
-Original theatrical version of "Sweet Sixteen"

The original theatrical version of "Sweet Sixteen" is found in the special features section of the DVD. The quality is so poor that there is a disclaimer about the video quality before the movie starts. Unless you're a hard core fan of this movie and have to own it for your collection, I'd recommend renting it first to see what you're getting.

Put together back in the early 80's this little horror/thriller/slasher film has a lot of impressive parts but fails to really live up to it's potential. Director/Producer Jim Sotos must have pulled a few strings to assemble such a name cast for his little no budget film. Unlike a slew of similar films of the era Sweet Sixteen has a cast of recognizable names.The story is basic and semi plausible .In a small Texas town the new girl in town Melissa played by newcomer Aleisa Shirley is getting the attention of the local boy population.Melissa's dad (Patrick Macnee) is a historian in the area doing a dig looking up Native American artifacts.Her Mom (Susan Strasberg daughter of Lee ) is from the area originally and knows the local sheriff (Bo Hopkins) who has a daughter and a son who are Melissa's age and go to the local high school.Melissa has traveled with her over protective parents around the country and is more worldly than the local kids.She's also quite attractive and not afraid to flaunt it.Boys and men start to come onto young Melissa much to the chagrin of her parents and local girls like Marci(Dana Kimmell) the sheriff's daughter.Nothing seems out of the ordinary until the first guy she dates (Don Stroud) turns up dead in the desert with multiple stab wounds. The new girl is suspected but no real concrete evidence can place Melissa as the killer so she's free to go.Then another boy is going to meet with Melissa after hours but is promptly dispatched in a similar vein.This time both Melissa and an old Indian man (Henry Wilcoxon) find the boy dead in an alley.Again things point to Melissa being a killer but there's no hard proof. And the locals also have a resentment of the local Indians and try to blame the killings on the old mans son.The son works for Melissa's dad at the site and earlier had an altercation with the guy Melissa went out with.The film is quite clumsy in trying to weave these story lines together which drags the film down a notch.So we are left with a few dead bodies, a runaway suspect,some deep secrets that the town would like to forget and Melissa's 16th birthday party.The films not very gory,not very scary and you should be able to guess the real killer before the sheriff does.The cast is amazing considering the low budget feel and obvious corners being cut. MacNee is a tv legend and veteran actor who's great as the Dad.Bo Hopkins did a slew of big films like American Graffiti and a some smaller ones and is still active today in his 70's.Strasberg's father Lee practically invented modern acting techniques and Susan did a lot of work until her death.Dana Kimmell was the star of Friday the 13th part 3 and did Lone Wolf McQuade as well and was a tv actress until the early 90's.Others like Don Stroud and Henry Wilcoxon have long resumes with Wilcoxon's going back to the 30's.Heck even F Troop's Larry Storch pops in for a cameo.As for Melissa star Aleisa Shirley in her first film wasn't asked to do much but did fine with what was asked of her.Mainly she had to act like a teenager in a new town who resents her parents and show some gratuitous nudity as well. As a interesting footnote of the 80's slasher craze Sweet Sixteen is a passable nights viewing.But sadly if the story was better and tighter this could have been a cult classic.