- Directed by Nicolas Gessner
- Written by Laird Koenig
- Stars Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK4za8v8_YI
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a suspense drama with some horror elements. We don’t know what’s going on at first. Then we don’t know how things are going to end up. The performances are very good, and the story is very interesting. It’s a good one.
Synopsis
Rynn Jacobs puts candles on a cake and wishes herself “Happy Birthday” in the mirror. Frank Hallet comes to the door. He says it’s Halloween and she should be out trick-or-treating; he says he’s a friend of her father. He comes right in. She just moved here from England, so he explains about trick or treating. He’s clearly creepy and asking about her parents, but she offers him some cake.
She’s just turning 14, and he’s very friendly, asking many questions. “You’re a very pretty girl, you know that? Pretty eyes. Pretty hair. No boyfriend?” Ick. Eventually, his two children arrive, and he leaves with them.
The next day, Rynn finds Frank waiting to give her a ride to school, but she ignores him and walks on. Rynn goes to the bank and cashes in a traveler’s check from her lock deposit box, pointing out that her father has an account there.
Later, Cora Hallett, Frank’s mother, stops by, and she’s grouchy. They rent the house from her. She disapproves of Rynn’s father’s “poet lifestyle.” She wonders why they don’t see much of the Jacobs in town at the market. It’s clear that both of the Hallets are really nosy about Rynn’s father. Cora says she’s come for some jelly glasses in the cellar, but Rynn doesn’t want her there. Cora leaves in a huff and says she’ll report Rynn to the school board about her not being in school. Where is Rynn’s father?
Rynn goes to the town hall and asks about the school board rules and meetings. She finds out that Cora was lying about the school board meeting. Officer Ron Miglioriti gives her a ride home, and they talk about the Hallets. He seems nice, but he wants to talk to Rynn’s father, who isn’t home. She buys a couple of raffle tickets for a turkey from him, and he warns her about Frank.
Cora comes over again and threatens Rynn, saying she’ll throw them out, but Rynn isn’t playing her game. Cora doesn’t believe Rynn’s father is there, and Rynn threatens to tell her father about Cora’s son. Cora insists on going into the cellar for the jelly glasses and screams. She hits her head on the door on the way back up, and then she’s quiet. Yep, she’s dead.
Rynn gets Cora’s car keys from the body but can’t start the car. Mario, a teenager dressed like a magician, stops and offers to help. He knows whose car it is. She makes him dinner after he helps with the car. He gives her points on disposing of the car and the keys.
Officer Ron turns out to be Mario’s uncle, and he stops over while searching for Cora. Rynn shows him the jelly glasses, still there waiting for Cora to pick them up. Soon after, Frank forces his way inside. He demands to know where Rynn’s father is, and then he burns Rynn’s hamster with a cigarette before throwing it into the fire. He’s obnoxious and bossy and argues with both kids. Mario actually runs him off with a sword.
Rynn takes Mario down into the cellar and shows him Cora’s and her mother’s bodies. She explains that her father was dying from an illness. He knew he was dying, so he set up everything for her to survive on her own without him before walking out into the ocean and disappearing. When her estranged mother showed up, Rynn poisoned her tea.
The next day, Mario helps Rynn bury the bodies in the yard. It rains, and he gets the shivers, so she gives him a hot bath and Father’s pajamas. She cuddles up with him to help him get warm.
Officer Ron comes by and admits that he doesn’t believe Rynn’s story about her father. She says that poets are flaky, and dad’s possibly an addict, but he’s real, and he’s up there. She calls her father, who comes downstairs and offers to sign one of his books for the officer. Ron believes it all, but we realize that it’s just Mario in a disguise. Rynn then goes upstairs and has sex with Mario.
Officer Ron comes by a few days later and tells her that Mario’s in the hospital with pneumonia. He’s delirious and talking out loud about Rynn. She goes to the hospital, but he’s unconscious the whole time.
Rynn goes back home afterward, and we see that Frank is hiding inside the house, dressed like a magician to make the neighbors think he’s Mario. He’s found a little evidence in the cellar, so he thinks he knows everything. She offers to make him some tea. Ron calls on the phone to tell Rynn that she won the turkey raffle; she doesn’t let on that Frank is there with her.
He offers to keep her secret if he can come around regularly and be “friends” with her. They eat cookies awkwardly, and they drink their tea. He takes her teacup, just in case, so he switches cups. She drinks it right down, so he follows suit. Then he starts to cough and look a little sick. Yeah, she did…
Commentary
People in this town have never heard of knocking at the door, nor do they ever lock their doors. Weird place.
It starts going one way, but then it goes in a different direction very quickly. I was expecting her to be kidnapped and raped by Frank after the first scene, but that’s not at all how it went.
This was Jodie Foster’s first starring role in a feature film, although she’d done a ton of supporting roles and TV work before this. She was only 13 at the time, and even though she had a body double for the nude scenes, she was always embarrassed by the film because people thought that was really her. Martin Sheen is a super-creeper her; I’m surprised he ever got any “good guy” roles after this.
The burning of the hamster was real, but it was supposedly already dead and procured from an animal research facility for use in the film.