Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Pretty Good

Load of rubbish!!

Best movie ever!

I've been searching and waiting to see "Julie Darling" for quite a very long time, and now that I finally watched, I'm both pleased and upset. Pleased because it's one of the most intense and disturbing 80's thrillers I've seen in a very long time, and upset because it undeservedly became obscure and forgotten amidst the overflow of inferior slasher pictures in that same decade. "Julie Darling" can more or less be categorized as a so-called Bad Seed effort, or – in other words – (horror) movies dealing with evil, psychopathic and murderous children. But this awesome little gem qualifies as a lot more than just that as well. It's a psychological "family" drama with a thoroughly uncanny atmosphere, numerous controversial undertones and a handful of very efficient shock moments. Julie Wilding is a cherubic and well- educated adolescent girl with a rather unhealthy affection for her daddy. Her mother notices Julie's rivalry and possessive behavior and wants to send her to a boarding school. But then her mother gets raped and killed by the grocery delivery boy, and even though Julie witnesses the whole thing from atop of the stairs, she doesn't move a muscle. Just when Julie thinks to have her daddy all for herself, he reveals that he's been having a secret affair for many years and wants to raise a new family with the lovely Susan and her little son. Rather than to get her own hands dirty, Julie tracks down her mother's murderer and blackmails him into doing the same with her new step family. She even joyously adds the words "Oh, and you can rape her all you want…". If Sigmund Freud would have ever written a movie script, the result would look a lot like "Julie Darling". The film is literally stuffed with psychosexual references and disputatious elements, like incestuous, intercourse with minors and matricide. In spite of its obscure status, "Julie Darling" features quite a few famous (in the cult/horror business, at least) names. Writer/director Paul Nicolas was also responsible for the greatest Women in Prison exploitation flick ever made, namely "Chained Heat" released that same wondrous year 1983. Anthony Franciosa, known from Dario Argento's giallo classic "Tenebre" is excellent as the unsuspecting (?) father and many horror fanatics will be super enthusiast to see Sybil Danning stars as the lovely stepmom. The one true diva of the film, however, is young Isabelle Mejias as Julie. I always thought that Patty McCormack ("The Bad Seed" 1956) was the most devilish child star, but she's a church choir girl in comparison to Isabelle Mejias. She depicts a truly frightening, cold-hearted and malignant teenage psycho.

This is an odd little film, as on the surface it would appear to be a rather light thriller; but bubbling underneath is a seedy interior that is more disturbing than most visceral horror! In 1956, Mervyn LeRoy taught cinema audiences that murderous young kids can be terrifying, and here Paul Nicholas has reinvented that lesson for trashy eighties horror - and has almost achieved the same effect. I say only almost more because this idea had already been done to perfection three decades earlier rather than because this film isn't good enough to portray it. Of course, Julie Darling isn't perfect and there are a number of plot holes - but the backbone of the film is strong, and that's what really matters. The film centres on a young girl named Julie. Julie is obsessed with her father, and after her mother is killed because she failed to take action, she finds herself in turmoil when her father takes a new wife and she's lumbered with a stepbrother. Naturally, she decides to take steps to ensure that they suffer a fate similar to her mother's...Isabelle Mejias is most definitely the standout of the film. Her performance is completely cold - just how it should be - and it's because of her that this film makes for such uncomfortable viewing. I'd even go as far as to say that she rivals Patty McCormack on the murderous kid front. She is joined by Italian horror stars Sybil Danning (The red Queen Kills 7 Times, Eye in the Labyrinth) and Anthony Franciosa (Tenebre, Web of the Spider), who are both good in the 'grown up' parts. The best thing about this film for me was the way that the plot plays out. It's partly predictable - we always know that Julie is going to take some sort of action against her stepmother and stepbrother, but the way that she does it is well worked and always entertaining. There's not a lot of blood or nudity in the film; but as mentioned, it's the ideas at work that are important and scenes like the ones that implies incest are major standouts on this front. It all boils down to a furiously entertaining finale, which wraps up all the plot threads and even manages a bit of irony! Overall, this maybe won't appeal to everyone; but I found Julie Darling to be a brilliantly entertaining thriller and I certainly recommend it!

What a very disturbing film. I began by thinking "What a brat!" Now, I knew she was not a nice little girl, but her incredibly disturbed being didn't enter my mind. She has such a a fixation on her father like no other film I've seen. There are very disturbing scenes. This actress's face is so angelic, and yet the coldest of hearts beats behind it. This is a pretty explicit film with lots of very graphic scenes. There is real violence here. I guess it's really based on total psychosis, because our little heroin is bound to do anything to latch on to her daddy. As a film there is a great deal of suspense. This happens because only we know this child. She also has had weapons training and is quite the hunter. Talk about arming the enemy. The father never has a clue. Gosh, in addition to losing his first wife, isn't it odd that his new stepson gets put in an old refrigerator. The young rapist/murderer, however, doesn't hold a candle to Julie, which is pretty amazing.

This movie gave me the creeps. Why didn't the father realize how messed up his daughter was? I don't want to watch this movie ever again. I love horror movies, but not when they actually make me feel uncomfortable. Don't see it unless you are doing some kind of report on Freud.