LouHomey From my favorite movies..

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Scott LeBrun Staci Keanan of 'My Two Dads' and 'Step by Step' stars as the title character, a girl in her early teens. She's a little too eager to grow up, especially since her mother Katherine (Cheryl Ladd), doesn't want her dating for at least another two years. One night, Staci literally runs into older man Richard (D. W. Moffett), and is struck by his good looks. She develops an obsession with Richard that includes following him to see where he works (he runs a restaurant). This escalates to a point where she goes ahead and phones him, and they engage in some seductive calls, with him not knowing that this mystery caller is the young girl whom he's just met. Ultimately, she's playing with fire: we learn early in the movie that Richard is the evil Candle Light Killer who has been offing various unlucky local women.People who love the other works of director Gary Sherman, such as his horror features "Deathline" (a.k.a. "Raw Meat") and "Dead & Buried", and his sleaze drama "Vice Squad", may be caught a little off guard at first with the tamer nature of this film. But in his own words, he basically made this for teenage girls, having also co- written it with Karen Clark. Taking it for what it is, it's watchable enough, with some adequate suspense and a climax that actually doesn't go overboard with violence. Joe Renzettis' music is good, and the lighting by Alex Nepomniaschy is appropriate from scene to scene.Keanans' appealing performance does go a long way towards making this work as well as it does. Moffett is similarly effective - he's charming when he needs to be, and refrains from being an over the top bogeyman, playing the part with some restraint. Ladd is good as the overprotective mom who believes to have the best interests of her daughter at heart; she doesn't want her to make the same mistakes she did as a kid. Tanya Fenmore is engaging as the best friend, and a rather under utilized Jeffrey Tambor gets little to do as the best friends' father.Even if "Lisa" is not really anything special, one could also do a lot worse.Six out of 10.

Cujo108 Lisa (the lovely Staci Keanan) is 14 and boy-crazy, but Katherine, her overprotective single mother, refuses to let her date until she turns 16. While Lisa is out getting groceries one night, she literally runs into Richard and instantly develops a crush on the much older man. Along with her best friend, she finds out where he works and uses sneaky tactics to get his phone number. She begins calling him repeatedly, engaging in seductive conversations without revealing her identity. When Lisa's stalking gets more and more risky, her friend convinces her that if she revealed herself to Richard, he'd be furious about the age difference. Lisa then devises a plan to push Richard and Katherine together in an attempt to get her mother's mind on something other than controlling her life. What Lisa doesn't know is that Richard is a serial killer who was leaving the scene of his latest crime when she bumped into him.Director Gary Sherman's output has always been largely ignored. Even "Dead & Buried", which is one of my absolute favorite horror films, wasn't widely known for the longest time. "Lisa" is no different. Unlike the aforementioned gem, however, it doesn't have a DVD or Blu-ray release to help it gain more viewers. That said, it is certainly worth seeking out.The film contains some strong performances. Staci Keanan, who was the sole reason to watch popular sitcom, "Step by Step", carries the picture. She is infinitely charming with a quick wit and my kind of quirkiness. She's also great at portraying this naive, vulnerable girl who thinks she's tougher than she is. Lisa and her mother share a good relationship, but we see the wedge that is driven between them as the former grows increasingly bitter due to the rules placed over her. It doesn't help that she witnesses Katherine spurn a friendly guy at the local bowling alley, an act which leads Lisa to believe that she's being punished for her mother's past mistakes. Cheryl Ladd is well-cast as Katherine, and her chemistry with Keanan is palpable. Short of casting Jordan Ladd herself in the titular role, I don't think we could have seen a more believable mother and daughter pairing. D.W. Moffet makes for an interesting maniac. Rich, good-looking and suave, he could easily get women, but he would rather slaughter them. Dubbed the "Candlelight Killer" by the press, he leaves messages on his victims' answering machines warning them of what he's about to do before he does it. Jeffrey Tambor is in the film too, but he's underused in a throwaway role.We get some solid suspense here, particularly during a scene where Lisa finds herself stuck in Richard's vehicle. It's made worse by the fact that she doesn't know just how bad it would be if he found her. The film's climax is also tense and surprisingly violent. We also get an amusing bit, be it intentional or unintentional, where Richard uses Katherine to head-butt her own daughter. I will say that the film falters a bit towards the end, mainly due to a poor decision made by one of the characters. This in turn makes for a predictable finale. I also thought that the look of the film wasn't as impressive as it could have been, especially taking into account the eerie, fog-drenched photography of "Dead & Buried". The score sort of made up for the generic look, being moody whereas the atmosphere wasn't.In the end, this is a worthwhile effort thanks in large part to the performances on display. It's a well-acted film, and the suspense benefits as a result.

kim t i was shocked cuz i placed a bid for a VHS on ebay and 10 other people wanted it also, so i lost. but i found another old VHS copy on ebay. it never got to DVD for some reason.so, great movie, mainly cuz its like a cautionary tale to warn girls a guy can be hot, rich and successful and still be a psycho. they need to make more movies like this, not a goofy scream type movie but a real edgy serious thriller like this one. richard is exceptionally hot in this film. great acting. whats creepy though is i did all this stuff when i was 14. i talked to strange men from chatlines. i thought i was so smart i never told them where i lived or met up with them. i also lied about my age. i was lucky i never met a psycho. or then again some of them were, but they never found out where i lived. my friend and i thought we were so cool we made our voices sound sexy and would have late night chats with 25 year old guys. i remember one night my mom walked in and heard me, of course i lied and told her it was a joke if she only knew what we were doing, so dangerous. Cuz chatlines are dangerous because predators go on there often looking for victims. And sometimes we'd randomly call people and start talking to guys. teen girls are boy crazy and there are a lot of psycho's out there. This movie is so creepy the way they did it was you knew all along who he was, instead of finding out at the end, it made it more creepy that she was playing with his mind and it turns out he was a serial killer. pretty spooky.also, the mouth on those girls, holy hell! "if you got laid every once and a while you wouldn't be such a bitch" "if you're mom had a boyfriend and "got it" once and a while she might leave you alone and let you date" lol, i forgot how sassy teenagers can be. i should know cuz a couple of those guys from the chatlines wanted to dirty talk and i may have let them so yeah, now that im much older, thats straight up creepy!! lol

Larkin-2 I thought this movie was horrible!!I had wanted to see this movie because of Staci Keanan. She was actually pretty good, but the movie in itself was just horrible. It might have been an A title movie, but it portayed itself as being a B title. If you ever see this movie some where don't waste your time with it. It's trying to be suspenseful and it is pretty thrilling at times but all and all it's a pretty bad movie!