Review: Julie Darling

Isabelle Mejias is the title disturbed teenager who plots to do away with her mother so that she can have her oblivious father (Anthony Franciosa) all to herself. Yes, in that way. Fate intervenes by way of a delivery guy (Paul Hubbard) who misreads signals and then gets violent with the mother. Everything seems to be working to psychotic plan for Julie until she hits a pretty big snag: Her dad starts seeing a new woman…and she’s played by Sybil Danning. Yeah, good luck winning that one, Julie.

 

Genuinely messed up, bonkers 1982 film from “Chained Heat” director Paul Nicholas and his co-writer Maurice Smith (“The Joys of Jezebel”) is admittedly not very good or particularly well-made. I can’t really recommend it, certainly not wholeheartedly. It is however, pretty committed to its crazy-arse central conceit, and that earns it some points at least. That said, the bonkers premise and the commitment to it do also likely limit the film’s appeal for most viewers. In other words, it’s in such bad taste that it's easy to see why it’s somewhat of an obscure 80s relic. Suffice to say if you thought “Poison Ivy” would’ve been better if Ivy was the daughter, here’s that movie. I personally found it darkly amusing that we have a film where this malignant kid has the hots for her dad while he’s busy bonking Sybil Danning. Your mileage and sense of humour may wildly differ and even I’m not going on record as having liked the film.

 

This is one of Sybil Danning’s best and most sympathetic characterisations. She’s actually genuinely solid here, and young Isabelle Mejias is quite solid too in a very difficult role. Mejias looks and acts like a cross between peak Winona Ryder and Joshua Miller from “The River’s Edge”. Her Julie is a fascinatingly sociopathic character, truly twisted and horrible. The best thing in the entire film is the creepy music score by Joachim Ludwig (in what appears to be his only non-German film). It sounds like something out of “Child’s Play” or “A Nightmare on Elm Street”.

 

I can’t be entirely positive here, unfortunately. Anthony Franciosa gives the most half-arsed performance I’ve seen from a well-known and experienced actor in a long time. He’s awful. There’s also a poorly directed and acted rape scene where the actress being victimised behaves in a manner that is the complete opposite to how she’s supposed to. You’ll see what I mean if you choose to watch the film. It doesn’t work at all. Meanwhile, marital issues or not this father moves on from his wife to a new woman within minutes. Sure, it’s Sybil Danning, but it’s still really sloppy storytelling.

 

Do I like this film? Not really. Is it well-executed? Not particularly. It is however completely outrageous and you kinda have to admire the balls it must’ve took for Nicholas to make this. How on earth was it even green-lit? In a subgenre full of nothings, it’s really quite something. I’m actually kinda shocked that it’s not a Jess Franco film, it sounds like his sort of perverted sleaze premise. You’ve been forewarned that this will be for a very, very niche audience and even then you probably still won’t consider it good.

 

Rating: C+

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