User Reviews

When I rented this movie the artwork cover convinced me this would be scary and exciting. But no, I hadn't noticed "Language: German". Still, the movie wasn't too bad if you skipped the language. But only if you have never seen Halloween, Friday the 13th or Scream-like-movies. Every cliche is included and only the 'who and why' surprised me. Watch this one only if you don't want to be bothered with a difficult story line, or if you want to talk during movies!

I basically rented this one for two reasons: First, I had really enjoyed 'Autopsy' and was curious what other young German genre directers were doing in this vein; secondly, in reading the box credits, I saw that Elke Sommer was in the movie, albeit in a small role. As my personal choice of the hottest of the 60's screen sirens, I was curious as to what she was doing now. The answer to this question, at least if 'Flashback' is any indication, is 'walk-on rolls in domestic B Movies'! This is forgettable nonsense regarding a young woman who is hired on as a French Tutor at an country estate. The direct inspirations seem to be Henry James 'Turn of the Screw' and the American slasher flicks of the 1980's. Just about every cliche of the slasher genre is brought in somewhere...the spoiled kids, the sexually-repressed girl, the strange caretaker (played by Sommer...who looks great for her age, I am happy to report!) , the hedonistic and sadistic 'cool' kids who you just know are not going to be with us to the end of the picture. It's been done, and it's been done far better than 'Flashback'. One other comment, although I rarely mention things like this: the English Dubbing is AWFUL...not even close to synched to the lip movements, and you get the feeling that they were trying to make the movie more 'topical' to an American audience by changing parts of the script. The worst example of this is one of the cloddish local Maintainace Men who finds the first body is given a American Southern Redneck accent, even though his companion is decked out in liederhosen and Tyrolian hat!! For Slasher genre completists only...3 out of 10!

The only thing good I can say about this movie is that I saw it for free, and even at that, as soon as I figure out the monetary value involved in completely wasting 90 minutes of my life I will be sending the producers of this eurotrash the bill.

I write all this even though, prior to viewing the film, I was aware that it was going to be a low rent Halloween, Scream, Psycho rip-off. What I wasn't ready for was just how lame the dialogue and plot was.

I don't know if the movie ended up coming across any better in it's original German, but the English dub of this flick is absolutely horrendous. For it's sake, I can only hope the script got mangled in the translation, because the dialogue blows way past bad into criminal category.

It's too bad because from a "look" perspective this movie is very highly polished, well photographed, with beautiful sets and all the visual high points of a Hollywood production, only to be saddled with a script that would have been turned down by the porn industry.

Give this one a wide berth.