Bill is a high school teenager in Beverly Hills. His family is rich, but he feels like an outsider. And he’s a little bit cuckoo. But he’s got a Jeep and a hot girlfriend that only cares about going to the biggest party of the year. And he has daymares. But his family is kind of incestuous and he walks in on his sister in the shower. Eww.
You are supposed to wonder if he is or isn’t a total nutball. I wish I could say that the mystery was enough to keep the mess together for the what-seemed-like-an-eternity running time. I will say that it’s refreshingly different, but not quite fresh enough. Most of the acting is horrendous and there are some really terrible lines of dialogue. “Don’t do that.”
The big reveal at the end is where the meat and potatoes show up, but it’s too little, too late. I think the premise could have made a great Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone episode, but as a feature length movie, it goes on for too long.
At no point do I really feel like the main protagonist, Bill, is in any danger. It could have been much more frightening if the characters had depth and there was some sort of actual menace to contend with.
I think there was supposed to be a thinly veiled social commentary on income equality or something to that effect. Wait, it was released in 1989. No one gave a shit about that stuff back then.
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