A Slasher Movie from 1983.
Melissa has moved to a small town with her parents, as her father has come there to work on an archeology dig. As her sixteenth birthday comes closer, boys who hang around her keep dying horribly.
This film has the examples of:
- Asshole Victim: Johnny, Billy, and Jimmy.
- Attempted Rape: Billy and his pal decide to have their way with Melissa after they beat the crap out of Jason and find her soon after in the woods. She loses consciouness, and they are killed soon after.
- Attention Whore: Marci accuses Melissa of being this after she gets Greyfeather killed by telling that she saw him near Tommy's corpse.
- Auto Erotica: Melissa convinces to Johnny to take her for a ride, and he takes them to secluded spot (which he claims to be an old Indian Burial Ground) to have some fun.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Tricia took the identity of her late sister Joanne. Also counts as an example of My Sibling Will Live Through Me.
- Driven to Suicide: Joanne decides to end things this way after the sheriff fails to convince her to give up her knife. Her sister apparently died by suicide as well, though it is implied that her father likely killed her (or at least contributed to her death).
- Easily Forgiven: Marci’s aforementioned calling out of Melissa is quickly followed by Marci realizing that she hurt Melissa’s feelings and apologizing to her. Melissa accepts and the two become friends.
- The End... Or Is It?: The film ends with Melissa holding the bloody knife that her mother killed herself with, and a worrisome look on her face.
- Final Girl:
- Melissa subverts aspects of this trope by being uninhibited when it comes to dating (though whether she’s a virgin is never mentioned), though is also shown to be a lonely girl with a Friendless Background due to her father’s archeologist job forcing her to move from town to town. Moreso, she was never a target of the killer, her own mother.
- Marci, on the other hand, plays this straight by being a bookish Nice Girl who seems to think of herself as a Kid Detective and is more interested in murder mysteries and school than relationships.
- Foreshadowing: Joanne Morgan reintroduces herself to George Martin, an old friend, but he initially has difficulty recognizing her. The finale reveals why he didn’t recognize her at first: Joanne isn’t Joanne, but rather her sister Tricia, who took her sister’s identity after she died.
- Freudian Excuse: Joanne Morgan (a.k.a. Tricia Platt) was abused by her father (physically and possibly sexually) during her childhood alongside her sister, who then committed suicide. Joanne’s murder of her father and her sister’s suicide contributed to her Sanity Slippage during the film.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Jason breaks a bottle over the head of Billy's pal, and Billy readies himself for a fight with one of his own.
- Kid Detective: Marci fancies herself as one, which Hank derisively refers to as a “Dick Tracy” act.
- Leitmotif: Melissa is occasionally accompanied with one.
- Male Gaze: Some shots of Melissa’s body (including the below mentioned Shower Scene) are shown during the film.
- Never Suicide: Burke’s belief about Grayfeather’s death, which is heavily implied to be the truth.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The Franklin brothers, who have explicit contempt for the Native Americans Jason and Grayfeather. It’s heavily implied Billy Franklin and his friend killed the latter because of Melissa’s accusation.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Sheriff Dan Burke, who is shown to be a protective father and thorough investigator who doesn’t believe that Jason would be a killer. Additionally, he calls out anti-Native American bigotry among the townspeople.
- Red Herring:
- All the evidence point at Jason Longshadows being the culprit, especially after he breaks out from jail.
- Melissa herself is suggested as a potential suspect, given her proximity to the victims.
- The Reveal: Melissa's mother Joanne is the killer. She was driven mad in the past by her sister's death at her father's hands. Return to her hometown brough these memories back, and in a twisted way, she was protecting her daughter in her sister's stead.
- Sanity Slippage: Joanne Morgan’s inability to deal with her traumatic past leads her to kill four people who went anywhere near her daughter. The finale also implies that Melissa herself has fallen into this after witnessing her mother’s suicide.
- Shower Scene: After the opening credits, the film shows a gratuitous scene of Melissa in the shower.
- Skinny Dipping: Melissa convinces Hank to join her to swim in nude.
- Two Shots from Behind the Bar: A bar fight threatens to happen when Billy and his pal pick on Greyfeather, and Jason comes to help him. The bartender then aims his shotgun at them to break it.
- Wham Shot: Dan and his secretary/love interest Cathy finding an article detailing a teen’s suicide from 1956. The teen’s name? Joan Platt - supposedly Joanne Morgan’s maiden name.
