IMDb RATING
6.3/10
4.8K
YOUR RATING
An orphaned teenager finds himself being dominated by his aunt who's hell-bent on keeping him with her...at all costs.An orphaned teenager finds himself being dominated by his aunt who's hell-bent on keeping him with her...at all costs.An orphaned teenager finds himself being dominated by his aunt who's hell-bent on keeping him with her...at all costs.
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination
Bill Paxton
- Eddie
- (as William Paxton)
Steve 'Bunker' de France
- Lab Man
- (as Steve DeFrance)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDespite playing a high school age couple, Julia Duffy was about ten years older than Jimmy McNichol. Duffy was approximately 30 years old at the time of filming.
- GoofsWhen aunt is tenderizing meat, it changes from not being tenderized to tenderized and back to not being tenderized between shots.
- Quotes
Cheryl Roberts: College is for rich kids and people with brains- you wouldn't fit in
- ConnectionsFeatured in Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (2010)
- SoundtracksLittle Boy Billy
Words and Music by Joyce Bulifant
Featured review
Recommended for fans of off-beat cinema
Unbalanced maiden aunt Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell) has cared for her nephew Billy (Jimmy McNichol) since the boy was three and his parents died in a car accident. Now that Billy is turning 18 and looking to move away for college, Cheryl is acting increasingly bizarre, leading to violence.
I was expecting another routine early 80's slasher flick but instead this is an unusual, although not entirely successful, psycho-drama with some hack and'slash flourishes near the end. Tyrrell is as unhinged as usual, and your enjoyment may be tempered by your tolerance for her over-the-top histrionics. I recall McNichol being a teen heartthrob back in the late 70's, but not much else. He's a terrible actor, at least in this, and I'm not too surprised he quickly faded into obscurity. Julia Duffy, later a co-star on Newhart, was nearly 30 when this was filmed, yet believably plays the 20-year-old McNichol's high school sweetheart. I really enjoyed seeing the late lamented Bill Paxton in one of his earliest roles (credited as "William Paxton") as a school bully.
The strangest aspect of this film concerns Bo Svenson as the hard-nosed cop investigating the incidents in the film. He becomes convinced that there's a conspiracy by local gay men, and he won't consider any other explanation. At first I thought it was going to be another instance of throw-away homophobia that was not uncommon in genre films of the time. However, it becomes the driving focus of the Svenson character, with his personal hang-ups about gay men making him irrational. Added to his character being a short-tempered jerk to every other person he encounters, and it's one of the more unsavory acting jobs of his career. In the end I have a feeling that the filmmakers were sympathetic to the gay characters (there are a few, and not just in Svenson's mind), but it's handled in such a way as to make it confused, to say the least. I thought this movie was one of the more unique in a sub-genre that was glutting screens at that time, and would recommend it to fans of off-beat cinema. Others, especially those repelled by screen violence, should probably avoid it.
I was expecting another routine early 80's slasher flick but instead this is an unusual, although not entirely successful, psycho-drama with some hack and'slash flourishes near the end. Tyrrell is as unhinged as usual, and your enjoyment may be tempered by your tolerance for her over-the-top histrionics. I recall McNichol being a teen heartthrob back in the late 70's, but not much else. He's a terrible actor, at least in this, and I'm not too surprised he quickly faded into obscurity. Julia Duffy, later a co-star on Newhart, was nearly 30 when this was filmed, yet believably plays the 20-year-old McNichol's high school sweetheart. I really enjoyed seeing the late lamented Bill Paxton in one of his earliest roles (credited as "William Paxton") as a school bully.
The strangest aspect of this film concerns Bo Svenson as the hard-nosed cop investigating the incidents in the film. He becomes convinced that there's a conspiracy by local gay men, and he won't consider any other explanation. At first I thought it was going to be another instance of throw-away homophobia that was not uncommon in genre films of the time. However, it becomes the driving focus of the Svenson character, with his personal hang-ups about gay men making him irrational. Added to his character being a short-tempered jerk to every other person he encounters, and it's one of the more unsavory acting jobs of his career. In the end I have a feeling that the filmmakers were sympathetic to the gay characters (there are a few, and not just in Svenson's mind), but it's handled in such a way as to make it confused, to say the least. I thought this movie was one of the more unique in a sub-genre that was glutting screens at that time, and would recommend it to fans of off-beat cinema. Others, especially those repelled by screen violence, should probably avoid it.
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- AlsExGal
- Dec 31, 2022
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- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Night Warning
- Filming locations
- Los Angeles, California, USA(on location)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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By what name was Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981) officially released in India in English?
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