During the day, her name is Molly, she goes to school and gets top grades in all her subjects. She is well-liked by her teachers, and she politely but firmly turns down the guys who hit on her. She is simply a good, wholesome girl and just like any other fifteen-year-old girl. At night, however, she changes her name to Angel and hits the streets to turn tricks. She lives a double life that she hates but that is necessary for her to keep another secret hidden. She needs money so that no one will discover that her mother and father have abandoned her and so she can avoid ending up in an orphanage. Lately, a serial killer who murders prostitutes has begun terrorizing the city and the inevitable happens, of course. Her friends on the streets are murdered one after another, and the life that she nevertheless feels a certain sense of security in is shattered.
Uneven acting
In terms of acting, especially from the lead actress Donna Wilkes, it is a little uneven. At times she is absolutely great, only to in the next second overact or fail to be particularly convincing. Overall, though, she handles the task well, and you probably don’t expect any great virtuosity in that department from a movie like this anyway. What it does succeed in doing, however, is painting an entertaining picture of the life Angel/Molly leads. There is an interesting contrast between her daily activities, where she is almost bullied by the most popular guy at school because she won’t put out for him, and the nighttime life, which in every respect ought to be miserable, where she actually spends time with people who care about her. There is simply less superficiality at night.
If you’re looking at the exploitation ingredients, there are a few scenes where breasts are unabashedly shown off in the school locker room. The whole thing happens naturally and doesn’t feel tacked on in any way, which is good in my book. There is no more sleaze than that, despite the movie’s subject matter, and it isn’t needed to make it interesting either. And it is actually a little strange, because this really shouldn’t appeal to me. It’s not really about anything, or well, of course it is, but the plot is completely unmotivated and there is no real reflection anywhere. At least I don’t see it, if you leave aside the contrast between day and night that I mentioned.
Tragic story
It is nevertheless a tragic story because Molly/Angel’s loneliness and frustration grow greater and greater as the serial killer runs rampant. But above all, it becomes a portrait of a romanticized street of sin. Not because there are only prostitutes and pimps on the street, but also entertainers of various kinds. But such a place would probably be fairly steeped in crime, and it certainly isn’t in this movie. Portraying reality in a realistic way probably isn’t the intention either, and if you can distinguish between movies and reality, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Anyway, I really liked this movie!
