Once again YouTube helps me relive my childhood. They usta show this horror jem on Saturday afternoons on the local NY stations. The way the gargoyles looked ‘n the way they moved in slow motion hit a nerve.
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Some highlights of just the gargoyles (Spoiler Alert!)
Little Darlings is a 1980 teen film starring Tatum O’Neal, Kristy McNichol, Matt Dillon and Armand Assante, directed by Ronald F. Maxwell.
The screenplay is written by Kimi Peck and Dalene Young. The original music score is composed by Charles Fox. The film is marketed with the tagline “Don’t let the title fool you,” a reference to a scene in which Randy comments on Angel’s name, to which Angel replies, “Don’t let the name fool you.”
The film was notable for having a contemporary pop soundtrack, with music by artists like Blondie, Rickie Lee Jones and Supertramp. The original video release (blue box VHS and laserdisc) kept the soundtrack intact. However, many songs in the film such as Supertramp’s “School”, John Lennon’s “Oh My Love” and The Bellamy Brothers’ “Let Your Love Flow” were removed from the second round of home releases (VHS red box) due to licensing issues and replaced with sound-alikes. As of 2010, the film has not been released on DVD, but was briefly available for digital video rental on iTunes and Amazon with the original soundtrack. It has since been removed from both services.
“…Little Darlings somehow does succeed in treating the awesome and scary subject of sexual initiation with some of the dignity it deserves.” — Roger Ebert
When video stores first came out I was sweatin’ the box for this film
The Trailer
A TV talk-show hostess and her boyfriend investigate a shady magician whom has the ability to hypnotize and control the thoughts of people in order to stage gory on-stage illusions using his powers of mind bending.
A magician performs a show where he selects a female volunteer and appears to put swords, drills, and such through them. They walk away and everyone applauds, then they show up somewhere else, dead of the same injuries they sustained in the magic show. Police are baffled and can’t tie the murders to the magician. A man whose girlfriend is infatuated with the show begins to investigate on his own.
The film is about a magician called Montag the Magnificent (Ray Sager) who delivers hectoring speeches about the nature of reality to his audience and then performs mutilation tricks on female “volunteers”. The women appear unharmed immediately afterward but later collapse, dead, in public or at home–mutilated in the same grisly fashion suggested by Montag’s stage tricks (cut in half with a chainsaw, drilled through with a punch press, etc.). Audience member Sherry Carson (Judy Cler), a local TV talk show host, and her boyfriend Jack (Wayne Ratay) begin to suspect that Montag is somehow involved in the murders. He and fellow reporter Greg (Phil Laurenson) attempt to research the case but are unable to come up with any solid evidence.
