Lisa (1990)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Staci Keanan of 'My Two Dads' and 'Step by Step' stars as the title character, a girl in her early teens. She's a little too eager to grow up, especially since her mother Katherine (Cheryl Ladd), doesn't want her dating for at least another two years. One night, Staci literally runs into older man Richard (D. W. Moffett), and is struck by his good looks. She develops an obsession with Richard that includes following him to see where he works (he runs a restaurant). This escalates to a point where she goes ahead and phones him, and they engage in some seductive calls, with him not knowing that this mystery caller is the young girl whom he's just met. Ultimately, she's playing with fire: we learn early in the movie that Richard is the evil Candle Light Killer who has been offing various unlucky local women.People who love the other works of director Gary Sherman, such as his horror features "Deathline" (a.k.a. "Raw Meat") and "Dead & Buried", and his sleaze drama "Vice Squad", may be caught a little off guard at first with the tamer nature of this film. But in his own words, he basically made this for teenage girls, having also co- written it with Karen Clark. Taking it for what it is, it's watchable enough, with some adequate suspense and a climax that actually doesn't go overboard with violence. Joe Renzettis' music is good, and the lighting by Alex Nepomniaschy is appropriate from scene to scene.Keanans' appealing performance does go a long way towards making this work as well as it does. Moffett is similarly effective - he's charming when he needs to be, and refrains from being an over the top bogeyman, playing the part with some restraint. Ladd is good as the overprotective mom who believes to have the best interests of her daughter at heart; she doesn't want her to make the same mistakes she did as a kid. Tanya Fenmore is engaging as the best friend, and a rather under utilized Jeffrey Tambor gets little to do as the best friends' father.Even if "Lisa" is not really anything special, one could also do a lot worse.Six out of 10.

I watched this movie back on Cinemax and Showtime on cable when I was a kid and just got my hands on a VHS release of it not to long ago. Just as good as I remember it. Lots of obscene phone stalking by a 14 year old. Anyway the movie involves 2 cute supposedly 14 year old hotties and they toy with a serial killer and don't know how far they have pushed this psycho!!A really cool movie with a gory ending. Slasher reviewer gives this one a thumbs up and yells check it out for sure!!!!!Great acting, great storyline, cute chicks, unique kill scenes, what more could you ask for?

This movie freaked me out when I saw it many years ago. The plot concerns a young single mom raising a rebellios teenage daughter(Lisa) who, tired of what she deems her mom's overprotectivness, begins crankcalling handsome strangers and unwittingly begins a phone flirtation with a serial killer.This movie would be a great choice for mothers and daughters to view. What makes it so scary is it's realism.This is a situation that could happen to anyone, It stays with you, there are a few really terrifying scenes.I'd recomend this movie to anyone who likes thrillers, "Lisa" will make girls wonder just who it is their striking up a conversation with.

Chilling, well-observed thriller, whose message seems to be: "Careful when you're making telephone pranks, you never know whom you might mess with!". The bland cinematography gives it a TV-movie look, but it still has natural , believable performances by Ladd and Keanan, a well-cast actor as the handsome psycho, a good ear for dialogue and some moments that would make Hitchcock proud (especially the scene where the girl is trapped in the back seat of the killer's car). (***)