⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Stacy Keach is a photo-journalist on his way to California via the backroads of America. Somewhere in Nowhere, TN he comes across a young boy wandering the side road with a heavy bag and gives him a lift to his farmhouse in the middle of deep south wilderness. Well, this is the seventies and as seventies backwoods films have taught me; no good deed goes unpunished. A stalled car and bad storm gets him postponing his hasty exit but he won’t be leaving anytime soon anyways. The farmhouse is home to a gang of orphans and they’ve decided Jimmy Wheeler is the perfect man to be their new father figure. Samantha Eggar is stuck there as well, playing the mother figure and obviously terrified about her situation. Jimmy realizes how serious these kids are and that the string of men who have refused or failed at playing the part are no longer walking this earth. Dogs and violence keep the “parents” in line. Keach takes the role of strict father eventually but he’s still planning on making his escape. The group of children is led by eldest son Peter, a young John Savage (looking both youthful and old at the same time) who is just as intense as he’s ever been. TV terror is family friendly but still weird enough to work, which you can say about a surprising amount of television horror from the time. Hell, I was even rooting for a happy ending, a strong cast is to blame for that and it may be cheesy but fuck it. That 1974 release date had me expecting the worst.
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