Complete Monster: Douglas Norquist is the Serial Killer plaguing New Salem. Kidnapping young women, Norquist holds them captive for weeks while torturing them before he murders them by burying them alive. Norquist is especially fond of burning his victims with dry ice and amputating fingers or even limbs, a fate that befalls Aubrey Fleming who is left buried alive after weeks of agony.
Critical Backlash: Despite sweeping the Razzies at its time, the film received some reevaluations along with special screenings during the late 2010s and early 2020s. Some critics appreciate its Giallo-inspired surrealism, and intriguing premise that reflected Lindsay Lohan's real-life plight of that time period. Many defenders of this film have blamed its failure on the backlash from tabloids around Lohan's then-fallout.
Cult Classic: Following some critical reevaluations it received during the late 2010s and early 2020s, the film developed somewhat of a cult following.
Faux Symbolism: All around, particularly the overuse of the colors red and blue, but the real deal goes to the owls. Owl is on a branch, owl is the school mascot, owl pops up in a creepy mirror, etc.
The torture scenes of the killer targeting their victim's limbs. Special mention goes to the one involving dry ice, to cause the victims to lose their limbs via frostbite.
As non-sensical as the justification for how Dakota lost her limbs at the same time when Aubrey loses them (that they're twins who are really just that synchronized), the scene in which Dakota loses her fingers in her dressing room after the killer provokes frostbite on Aubrey is really revolting.
Aubrey, big time. She's just an average high school girl who gets kidnapped and savagely tortured. She likely would've suffocated from being buried alive if Dakota hadn't found her in time, and her torturer/attempted murderer turns out to be her own piano teacher. Her ordeal, as well as finding out that her life was built on a lie and that the man she grew up believing was her father is dead, will likely leave her with a lot of trauma to deal with.
Her mother Susan also counts. In addition to being one of the few sympathetic characters of the main cast, we learn that her actual daughter died in childbirth, with her husband covering it up by buying Aubrey from her birth mother and passing her off as Susan's child. Finding all this out on top of learning that Daniel died trying to save Aubrey is surely not going to be easy for the poor woman to handle.
can be amusing to fans of Metal Gear. Dakota gets a mechanical arm just like Big Boss!