Moviecut—Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl

source: Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl

Adele (Erin Wilhelmi) is the girl of the title, a lonely teenager caring for her agoraphobic aunt Dora (Susan Kellerman, who played Latka's mom on Taxi), a woman who won't even leave her room and only leaves messages slid under her door. However, Adele's life changes when she meets her exact opposite, Beth (Quinn Shephard), whose behaviors and mannerisms she begins to absorb. The problem is that Beth convinced Adele to slowly begin buying cheaper versions of her food and eventually her heart medicine, which kills her. Adele takes her green ring and calls for an ambulance. She's sure that Beth loves her after a moment of brief passion, so she leaves the jewlery for her, but it isn't taken. Despondent, she starts selling all of her aunt's belongings and frequenting bars, followed by Beth, who of course is in no way what she appears. Obviously, this movie's poster is based on The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane and this aims for the same 70s feel. Throw in a flipflopped Vestron logo in the beginning and the mood of films we adore from that era - Brownrigg, Let's Scare Jessica to Death - and this is what I want more of in today's horror: an understanding of what has worked and a build toward something new. Sure, the end is a bit abrupt and you can see it coming, but director and writer A. D. Calvo is someone more than worth watching. The lookbook for his next film, Here Comes the Night, proves that he's absolutely on the right wavelength and I can't wait.

This is an extremely slowwww movie with no pay off. I have no idea why this is on Shudder in their "A good scare" section. This is not a horror movie, or even a thriller, just a boring drama.

Lonely Adele moves in with her agoraphobic aunt to take care of her and get some money for her family and meets a free-spirited peer who leads her down a dark path. Those uninterested in slow paced character studies would be wise to swipe Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl off their watch list immediately. Even those who enjoy such films might find parts of the journey interesting even when the destination isn't much to write home about. Performances are mostly decent to fairly good and the film is beautifully shot, evoking a 70's/early 80's mood right from the start. There are moments when the film could sit comfortably alongside the likes of Let's Scare Jessica To Death, The Nesting, or even the more recent House of the Devil. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to know how to end in a satisfying fashion and all that great mood and build up feels like it was all for naught.

For style as for the movie thank you for Wasting My Time like time is free I came for entertainment I got bored

Not quite certain of the horror or thriller elements here, but this does take us on a psychological journey with somehing creepy and supernatural underlying the plot of the film. This is a subtle film without much in the way of external scares. This is a slow descent into the psychology of a lonely but sweet girl and how manipulation can come from unlikely sources. Enchanting almost and worth a watch if you enjoy a slow burn film. Nicely produced for the retro feel.

When checking for comments about the original/exclusive titles on Shudder,I was intrigued to see this title be compared to the works of film maker Jean Rollin,leading to me putting it on my watch list. Going down the list of titles on the site,I accidentally clicked play (!),leading to me finally meeting this lonely girl. View on the film: Leaving dinner outside Aunt Dora's room each night to the lone sound of a creaking rocking chair, writer/director A.D. Calvo & cinematographer Ryan Earl Parker house Adele in a isolating, eerie slow-burn Horror atmosphere of long, refined wide-shots held at the back of each room,holding on Adele silently cleaning up round the house. Keying in on the sweet, lonely state of Adele, Calvo completely drains bright colours out of her life, with outdoors scenes touching on Mumblecore with a fading blue appearance, and the household being a dry green,making the final twist being a sharp, abrasive Gothic Horror shock. Unlocking the secrets of the house, the screenplay by Calvo unveils the gradually building Horror with a excellent, thoughtful character study of Adele, whose compassionate side she shows when caring for Dora, is pinned by a engulfing loneliness which grips her entire life. Breaking the silence of Adele's life with the arrival of Beth, Calvo subtly holds the relationship at a distance level,where all the love Adele places in the relationship as she strays from caring for Dora, blinds Adele from the Gothic Horror ringing out as a growing element in her life. Turning Adele's life into a whirlwind romance,Quinn Shephard gives a hypnotic turn as Beth, whose seductive edge she displays to Adele is wonderfully used by Shephard to bring in the icy Gothic final twist. Spending a large part of the 72 minute runtime, (this is excluding credits) on her own in a house,Erin Wilhelmi gives a haunting performance,capturing in her washed-out facial expressions and the withdrawn body language of Adele being a sweet, sweet lonely girl.

There are some good themes here, and the photography is well done, the acting is the same. But it's as if the director tried to do a montage of 1970s Horror films with the J.S. Le Fanu 'Carmilla' theme riding high in the plot. Lots of tying up was necessary--and absent--to make this a good film, but as it stands, I can give it a 7 only because of its powerful message. I watched the entire piece, and was intrigued throughout, but the resolution is non- existent, and that is always disappointing in a Ghost Story. My take- away is the Bible verse that is stressed in the story: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' Throughout the film the character Adele is deceptive with her sweetness and easily swayed by others to do very wrong things, one of which results in the death of her Aunt Dora. Money is stolen, time is stolen, expensive jewelry is stolen and sold, and even lesbianism and heterosexual fornication are given in to by Adele because she has been raised deprived of most things in life and has not had anyone to guide her otherwise. I'd like to see this story done again by a different director. It is unique to Horror films--very much so. Not the same old tired plot of college kids getting lost and murdered in the woods or the grieving or otherwise dysfunctional young married couple driving out to the old house in the wilderness they have just purchased to try and make a new go of things. You've not seen this story before, which is a real plus. But, still you will likely be disappointed notwithstanding. It needed more careful planning, and, again, a tying up of a load of dissonant parts, all of which were good in and of themselves, but none of them creating the necessary gestalt for a great Ghost or Gothic film.

This atmospheric gem is comparable to the same-year film The Caretaker. Both are great bookends for scary-old-lady films made famous at first by Bette Davis. Creepy, artsy, with some sexual scenes but no nudity. No ghosts either.