Blu-ray Review – Julie Darling

Writer/director Paul Nicholas had quite a year in 1983. He's most famous as the helmer of "Chained Heat," the controversial women-in-prison picture that starred Linda Blair and Sybil Danning. Lesser known is his other contribution to the film year: "Julie Darling," which maintains the collaborative process with Danning. Ignoring good taste to run full steam ahead as an exploitation distraction, Nicholas cooks up a somewhat icky premise to play with for 90 minutes of suspicion, murder, and sex, toying with concepts of innocence and jealousy which, because this is a B-movie with little interest in morality, leads directly to incest, or at least the fantasy of it. "Julie Darling" isn't polished work, and it certainly isn't lovable, but for those with the ability to free themselves of expectation are likely to find a compelling offering of illness, and one that gleefully merges moves from "The Bad Seed" and softcore pornography to create a strange chiller that never bores. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com