Ed Berke Movies

Teenage lust turns deadly in this slightly campy exploitation drama. Debbie Strand (Rose McGowan) is a sexy but troubled teenager with a checkered past who is sent to live with her grandmother after the death of her parents. Grandma attempts to keep Debbie on a short leash, but she's soon sneaking out for not always wholesome fun with her new friends. Debbie, who has never had trouble attracting whatever man she wants, sets her sights on Peter Rinaldi (Alex McArthur), a teacher at her high school. However, Peter has both a fiancée and strong scruples, so he repeatedly rejects Debbie's advances. But Hell hath no fury like a Debbie scorned, and before long Peter finds that his life is ruined and bodies are piling up, as an angry Ms. Strand takes her revenge on her would-be suitor. Also released under the title Dearly Devoted (and not based on the oft-filmed Raymond Radiguet novel), Devil in the Flesh was co-scripted by Kelly Carlin-McCall, daughter of noted comedian George Carlin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

'Night. Mother was adapted by Marsha Norman from her own harrowing Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Outwardly normal Sissy Spacek calmly informs her mother Anne Bancroft that she's about to commit suicide. Thus the stage is set for a war of nerves between the determined Spacek and the distraught Bancroft, who uses every emotional and psychological device at her disposal to stave off the inevitable. The film's tension grows not from its plot development--we know from the outset how it's going to end--but from whether or not we're going to learn all the reasons for Spacek's decision. She's an epileptic, an alcoholic, and supremely miserable, but she always holds a little something back, prompting the viewer to lean closer to the screen in hopes of ferreting out more answers. In the original play, the outcome was never predictable; perhaps understandably, there are many who prefer the staged 'Night Mother to the screen version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Trailer-park teenager Lance Guest regularly escapes from his humdrum existence by playing the video game Starfighter. His expertise at this recreational endeavor attracts the attention of affable stranger Robert Preston. Before he knows what's happening, Guest is whisked by Preston into the outer reaches of the galaxy! It turns out that the Starfighter game is being played in deadly earnest in outer space, and that Guest is expected to join Preston's Star League, then do battle with the wicked Kodan forces. Guest's principal ally is the lizardlike Grig (Dan O'Herlihy--and we didn't recognize him either). His great rival is the traitorous Xur (Norman Snow). The contrast between Guest's earthbound life as the son of single-mother Barbara Bosson and his new position as Starfighter is daunting at first, but soon the boy is manning a spacecraft and zapping the baddies as though he's been doing it all his life. The Last Starfighter was clearly designed with "sequel" in mind: giveaways include the resurrection of a "dead" character and the surprisingly casual escape of the villain. While the film didn't stir up enough business to warrant a sequel, the Starfighter video game remained a much-sought-after commodity by joystick-happy "warriors" all over the country. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide