Deadly Daphne's Revenge (1987) User Reviews

weird, boring yet intriguing

[ethylester · 4/10 · 27 August 2002]

This movie is a very average movie until the last 20 minutes. It starts off being about a hitchhiker who gets picked up by four guys traveling around in an RV. One guy is a mean trashy sexist idiot, one guy is a cowering softspoken yet frustrated insurance salesman, one guy is a poor, Mexican stereotype, and the last guy is your "nice guy" with lots of money and no personality. Why are they hanging out together? I don't know, but I guess they're all friends that like to go up to some isolated cottage and hang out together. Well the sexist guy of course is hell bent on getting with this 17-year old blond hitchhiker who hates him from the start. So everyone goes to the cottage (against the hitchhiker's will) and starts getting drunk and stoned. The nice guy and the hitchhiker end up making out and being friends, but then when night comes, everyone's passed out, and the sexist guy and the Mexican get up and the sexist guy rapes the hitchhiker while the Mexican just watches.

So then you are forced to watch scene after scene of annoying lawyers and office scenes and people talking on the phone for what seems to be hours because the hitchiker decides to sue the rapist. Every stupid scene for long time after this is just set in an office with somebody sitting in a big chair and somebody standing up argueing with them. It's very tedious and annoying. And it's funny how the nice guy is the only one never in an office, but sitting in a tropical location outside next to a beach all by himself with a phone on a little table.

So time drags on, and on, but THEN, just as you think the movie couldn't get any more boring, you are introduced to a new character that you had forgotten about. See, during the opening credits, you hear a radio news broadcast about a mental patient who had escaped named Daphne. Then everything goes weird.

YOu'll have to see it. It's totally random.

I wouldn't recommend this movie except if you're not going to have to sit and watch the whole thing. It's fun if you're just half-paying attention.

Deadly boredom

[polysicsarebest · 1/10 · 15 January 2005]

Troma films -- ALL Troma films -- have a pitch. They have something to them to make you want to see them. Either they star someone who went on to be a major actor who first appeared in B-Movie crap (Billy Bob Thornton in Chopper Chicks) or they have a cult following (Bloodsucking Freaks) or they have something infamous about them (the ending of Beware: Children at Play). Or they just have cool titles (Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator, Rabid Grannies, etc...). This film has none of those elements. In fact, it's pretty much useless garbage that seemingly has no reason to exist.

I guess this film was made to cash-in on some kind of rape/revenge craze like Last House on the Left, I Spit On Your Grave, etc., and things actually start out pretty interestingly. 10 minutes in, we have racist rednecks. 20 minutes in, we have racist redneck raping. 30 minutes in, we have boredom. And that continues on and on and on and on until... DEADLY DAPHNE APPEARS! Now, lemme talk about Deadly Daphne for just a moment: She is mentioned (almost as an afterthought) in the background near the beginning of the movie. She is then mentioned later. Then, she appears in the last few minutes and the film ends. Indeed, she gets her revenge... on the viewer. I'm not sure what I did wrong to watch this film, but I can safely say it's the worst Troma film ever. They tried to do some interesting things with the mob and such, but it never materializes and the film just never comes up with anything compelling. Is it a drama? No, it's not dramatic! It's not a comedy, because it's only funny if you laugh at how awful it is. And it isn't action, despite a gun or two being drawn. Hey, it isn't even worth watching for the rape scenes or the revenge scenes. In fact, it isn't even worth watching. Period.

One of the worst films ever. And I LOVED Nightmare Weekend!

Just try to stay awake through this...I'll bet you can't !

[Drive-In-Freak · 1/10 · 4 October 2004]

Just so you know what I'm all about: I love drive-in shlock exploitation "B" films and find most mainstream Hollywood productions to be quite lame and boring...

Not your usual Hollywood garbage,but boring none the less.....Sloooooooow paced crime drama pawned off as a horror film.It has a lame "made for TV" production feel to it.Not what you would expect from the fine folks at Troma at all.The first reel had me thinking it was going to be interesting,then it takes a sharp turn for the worst into a crime drama .Let's put it this way: I'm typing this review as I watch the film,just to have something to do!When is something going to HAPPEN already?Fighting off sleep now....stay awake you can do it...Finally (1:15:00 into the movie) the maniac shows up!Can she save this waste of film?Nope....forget it.Shame on you Troma!....and you thought "Manos" was bad ,at least it was watchable.I can't even say that for this film.....do something more entertaining like stare at a wall.I think I hurt my brain watching this junk.

This total waste of time came in the otherwise watchable 3 DVD set "Toxie's Triple Terror #1" Watch the other 2 DVDs and use this one for a Frizbee or coaster.

1/10 on the Drive-in freak-o-meter The DVD makes a handy coaster.

Deadly Daphne's Revenge

[Scarecrow-88 · 1/10 · 9 December 2006]

Charlie Johnson(who looks like Hank Williams, Jr. but sounds like an aging hippie)rapes Cindy which places him and his buddies(they were at the scene of the crime..an old lodge which seems to have an escaped mental patient living in it's woods)under the microscope with heavy scrutiny changing their once comfortable lives. When hope seems lost, Charlie goes to his mob boss(who he markets a drug trade for through his wealthy trucking line)for assistance by way of a hit-man. Charlie's half-brother Steve made love to Cindy that night(he is a teacher), and with her being a minor(she says she's 17, but looks 32)his profession takes a turn for the worse. Cindy's lawyer informs her that she must file charges against all four men that were there for "sex with minor" so that Charlie will go to prison. This conflicts her because Steve is indeed innocent..and she actually cares for him and vice versa. The "Deadly Daphne" of the title is indeed the loony who is living in the lodge woods and she has a history with Charlie we find out about towards the end.

For a Troma production, this sure is formulaic and dull..made-for-television-esquire tripe all the way. The acting by the rotten cast would work better if this film didn't take itself so seriously which is quite uncommon for a Troma film. Terrible, terrible film.

Uncle Phil's in it! :D

[brodiebruce_405 · 6/10 · 4 April 2012]

This film wasn't so bad really, it's about TV movie level, not as exciting as you'd hope for from a Troma pick up at it's best (and nothing like the synopsis on the box) but nowhere near Troma's worst, either. Relax! The highlight was the scene where James Avery shows up, best known as Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince and the voice of Shredder in the original 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. It's nifty when a sort-of star like that shows up in a Troma film.

The film, by the way, is clearly a lot older than 1987. James Avery is considerably thinner than he was in either Fletch (1985) or Fresh Prince (which began in 1990), plus everyone's wearing flares, the woman has Farrah Fawcett hair...I imagine it was shot the best part of 10 years earlier.

Something quaint about this.

[vehementrinds · 7/10 · 24 June 2018]

One well off seriously ass headed bigot (not too far removed from the new white trash money that seems to be prevalent in some parts of our fair country these days) gathers the boys together in his RV for a hunting trip up at his lodge. When stopping for some beers to fill the fridge they spy a young hitchhiker and offer her a lift. Obviously things go awry pretty quickly once they arrive and the booze really begins to flow. There's wanton racism, rape, a suicide, romance, a dog is killed... Not to mention the escaped mental patient whose story bookends this whole affair. Totally sleazy and unwarranted. But definitely worth your time.

"I Don't Go Huntin' Without No Gun!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 14 July 2021]

DEADLY DAPHNE'S REVENGE opens with the title character crawling around with her dog. This goes on for 5 whole seconds before Daphne disappears- for the next 80 minutes!

The scene switches to a group of four men who pick up a hitchhiker, named Cindy (Laurie Tait Partridge). They take her to a rustic lodge where one of the men rapes her. His name is Charlie Johnson (Anthony Holt), a detestable redneck-type who looks like Hank Williams Jr. And sounds like Tommy Chong.

The next hour of the movie is gobbled up by Cindy and her attorney going over the finer points of the law. Nothing else of importance happens until Daphne -remember her?- returns for vengeance during the "shock" finale. Alas, even this is dull.

A tie-in between Daphne and Johnson is wedged into the story at the last minute, and this is supposed to make up for the total lack of any real plot.

There are so many empty spots where some sort of action, any action, would have made this semi-endurable. No such luck...

A Drama That's All Over the Place

[Michael_Elliott · 8 July 2018]

Deadly Daphne's Revenge (1987)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Four buddies are on a camping trip when they decide to pick up a 17-year-old hitchhiker (Candy Castillo). It does take long for the leader of the pack to get drunk and start making advances towards the young girl. She eventually willingly sleeps with one of the men but later that night she is raped by two others. She eventually goes to the police and the local DA brings up charges on all four men but that's not the end of the story.

DEADLY DAPHNE'S REVENGE is a film that was released from Troma and they changed its title to try and make it seem more like an exploitation movie. In fact, this picture has been sold as some sort of rape/revenge thriller with horror elements but it's certainly not that. In fact, I'm really not sure what the filmmakers were intending when they made this film because it doesn't fit into any genre really. If I had to force it into something I'd call it a low-budget drama.

The film's story is incredibly active because it's constantly doing something but that doesn't mean it's entertaining. The story starts off like a typical drama but it then gets into the rape and then the law gets involved. You'd think the film would follow some sort of plot that we've seen countless times before but it doesn't. No, I give the filmmakers credit for doing things a bit differently but the screenplay takes the story all over the place and there are just too many boring moments or things that just lead to non-stop dialogue scenes that get rather tiresome.

Richard Gardner directed, co-wrote and plays a major role in the film so obviously this here was his baby. As I've said, I give him credit for trying to do something different but there's just nothing here that makes the film stand out and in all honesty it's easy to see why Troma would have to make stuff up to get the picture sold. There's some nudity and some mild violence but very little else. The performances are the best thing about the picture but this here isn't going to keep you glued to what's going on.