horrid. i think i would have rather watched the remake.

Just watch it as the 20ish minute short film it was intended to be (which I'd rate about 78) and avoid the bone-aching tedium that follows.

A stunning first 15 minutes and a suspenseful wrap-up are the best things about this _Halloween_ imitation. Kane is unnervingly vulnerable as a teenaged babysitter. Strikingly photographed and very well acted, but a dull mid-section (detailing Beckley's pursuit of middle-aged barfly Dewhurst) and a foredoomed attempt to make the maniac into a sympathetic character mar an otherwise taut tale.

Absolutely terrifying exercise in unsettling tension. By tension I mean Charles Durning's two-sizes-too-small shirt as he runs down alleys, upstairs, down streets, etc for the middle 45 minutes of the movie. Terrifying, just terrifying.

It seems apparent that this originated as a short film and was built-onto for something more feature-length. It's really disjointed. The first segment is great, the third segment is pretty good, but the middle ... eh ... not really the type of movie sandwich I would recommend. And Charles Durning knows a thing or two about eating sandwiches. I love the scene where he bursts through a door and destroys it to chase the bad guy.

Superior horror thriller. Everybody remembers the opening, and it's a stunner, but the rest of it is equally engaging. Tony Beckley is brilliant as the pathetic killer.

Really the only good parts were the beginning (which was indeed pinched) and the end; everything in between was just a void. We are given not much reason at all why Charles Durning suddenly turns into Charles Bronson. Movie filled with all sorts of hammy musical cues and accents; as well as (especially toward the start) goofy directorial touches, pointless close-ups and such. Looks like somebody got a zoom lens for Christmas...

Starts out doing an ok job at dwelling on yuppie fears, but delves into bland detective story after initial setup. Someone here recomended Black Christmas (the original, I presume) over this. I second that recomendation.

The best part is stolen from _Black Christmas_. Boo hiss

Very promising opening followed by an equally dull and plodding 2nd act that focuses on characters we aren't given a reason to care about. The filmmakers get us to invest in Carol Kane's character through a fairly suspenseful first 20 minutes...and then she disappears for the next hour, only to return for a hastily tacked on ending. I think this was a case of someone coming up with one really good scene (the opening) and then struggling to pad the rest out to a feature length film. Too bad.

Good movie the first half hour is sheer tension as we watch a girl terrorized by a "Deranged Psycho Killer"...But then it turned into a different movie with the cop chasing the now escaped "Psycho Killer"...I sorta got lost in the 2nd half & lost interest in the movie

"I dare you to try sitting through the middle 70 minutes."

Unpleasant, improbable melodrama falls apart after OK opening 11 minutes.