I approached "The Sadist" with a keen memory of the utterly unappealing Arch Hall, Jr., as the "hero" of "Eegah!" in mind -- yet within minutes was quite pleasantly surprised by the way the picture *worked*.
There is no question that Hall, as "Charlie Tibbs," is a low-budget Charlie Starkweather -- you can't miss that this is a thinly-veiled Starkweather "a clef" if you know the real Starkweather/Fugate story (or have seen the TV-movie "Starkweather," or even the loosely-inspired-by "Badlands").
I never thought I'd praise Arch Jr., but, frankly, his slack-jawed portrayal of the gun-wielding sociopath is the stuff your on-a-lonely-road nightmares are made of. Kudos too go to Marilyn Manning (teen queen "Roxy" of "Eegah!"), whose developmentally-disabled Judy here is, surprisingly, as good as that of any extra in "The Snake Pit." (I may be stretching it to say that she even reminds me a wee bit of Juliette Lewis in "Kalifornia" -- but watch and decide for yourself if I'm entirely off the hook on that notion.)
Yet the real props go to Helen Hovey, whose initially dumb-virgin "Doris" turns out (trust me: no spoilers here!) to be the most admirable of the bunch, in terms of sheer moral backbone. (To be honest, once her hair comes down, she metamorphoses into an entirely different creature, far more interesting than the seemingly-mindless "nun on the run" she appears to be when we first meet her.) To reveal more would be to reveal too much.
Suffice to say, "The Sadist" is much better than your average "Whaddya wanna watch on cable tonight, honey?" time-passer. Give it 15 minutes to get past the "Hey, dumbasses! Don't stop here!" introduction, and you'll be surprised by how much you'll start to identify with the protagonists.
And don't assume you know at the start who lives and who dies. Which in itself is the mark of a pretty fair movie.
There is no question that Hall, as "Charlie Tibbs," is a low-budget Charlie Starkweather -- you can't miss that this is a thinly-veiled Starkweather "a clef" if you know the real Starkweather/Fugate story (or have seen the TV-movie "Starkweather," or even the loosely-inspired-by "Badlands").
I never thought I'd praise Arch Jr., but, frankly, his slack-jawed portrayal of the gun-wielding sociopath is the stuff your on-a-lonely-road nightmares are made of. Kudos too go to Marilyn Manning (teen queen "Roxy" of "Eegah!"), whose developmentally-disabled Judy here is, surprisingly, as good as that of any extra in "The Snake Pit." (I may be stretching it to say that she even reminds me a wee bit of Juliette Lewis in "Kalifornia" -- but watch and decide for yourself if I'm entirely off the hook on that notion.)
Yet the real props go to Helen Hovey, whose initially dumb-virgin "Doris" turns out (trust me: no spoilers here!) to be the most admirable of the bunch, in terms of sheer moral backbone. (To be honest, once her hair comes down, she metamorphoses into an entirely different creature, far more interesting than the seemingly-mindless "nun on the run" she appears to be when we first meet her.) To reveal more would be to reveal too much.
Suffice to say, "The Sadist" is much better than your average "Whaddya wanna watch on cable tonight, honey?" time-passer. Give it 15 minutes to get past the "Hey, dumbasses! Don't stop here!" introduction, and you'll be surprised by how much you'll start to identify with the protagonists.
And don't assume you know at the start who lives and who dies. Which in itself is the mark of a pretty fair movie.