Lisa

Released by: Kino Lorber/Scorpion Releasing
Released on: September 22nd, 2015.
Director: Gary Sherman
Cast: Cheryl Ladd, Staci Keanan, D.W. Moffett, Jeffrey Tambor
Year: 1990
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The Movie:

Written and directed by Gary Sherman (of Dead And Buried and Vice Squad fame), 1990's Lisa isn't quite the horror picture that it's trailer makes it out to be, the film is actually more of a psychological thriller. The film revolves around the titular Lisa (Staci Keanan), a high school girl whose overbearing mother, Catherine (Cheryl Ladd), keeps a close eye on her. Although Catherine refuses to let the fourteen year old date, Lisa and her fellow schoolgirl Wendy (Tanya Fenmore) have a secret game of sorts that they play. This basically involves finding handsome, older men and following them until they find out their license plate numbers. From there they contact the DMV, dig up their personal information and then proceed to tease these guys with some reasonably lurid phone calls.

With this setup, we learn how Lisa meets her dream man, a man named Richard (D.W. Moffett) who runs a restaurant. Lisa decides that he'll be a fine choice for her next target but is blissfully unaware that he's in fact the man that the local newspapers have dubbed 'The Candlelight Killer.' See, Richard like to wine and dine ladies, earn their truest, get them into the boudoir and then do away with them permanently. With Catharine breathing down her neck and doing her damnedest to overcompensate for past mistakes and Wendy proving to be more popular than she with boys their own age, Lisa starts calling Richard. When he responds in kind and they agree to meet up, Lisa chickens out and breaks it off at the last minute, an act that will prove to have repercussions not only for her, but for her mother and her best friend as well.

Stylish and glossy, this is a well-paced thriller that builds nicely both in terms of suspense and character development. We learn enough about Catharine's background, mistakes she's made in the past, to understand why she'd be so overprotective of her own daughter (really to the point of stifling her) and so too do we understand how this shapes Lisa into the girl that she is. There's some clever cause and effect here in the script that makes events that take place later in the film count for a bit more. We also get to see a bit of a rivalry develop between Lisa and Wendy, one that obviously has repercussions as Lisa tries to outdo her in her attempts to woo Richard. Don't let the PG-13 rating on this one fool you - it may not be particularly graphic but it doesn't need to be, the film relies not on gory or sexy set pieces but on a clever script that builds to some legitimately impressive tension.

The performances definitely help to sell it. Cheryl Ladd does a fine job in her motherly role. She quite clearly cares for her daughter and wants the best for her but she needs it to happen on her terms so that Lisa doesn't repeat the mistakes that she made in her younger days. We have no trouble buying Ladd in the part. She's emotionally invested in it, she looks the part and she is quite believable. Tanya Fenmore as the best friend is also good here, and Staci Keanan as Lisa herself really does a good job crafting a character as devious as she is, quite simply, naí¯ve. D.W. Moffett is very well cast as the killer, Richard. He's handsome and charming and smart and you can see why Lisa would fall for him as she does, but again, we know right from the start who and what he is (even if the other characters do not), so the intriguing part of his work here stems not from seeing him play the psychopath but from seeing him NOT play the psychopath and instead work his charm all over this underage girl. His Richard is a very clever, manipulative type preying deftly on the weaknesses he sees in her almost immediately.

Sherman ties all of this together quite nicely, bringing it in for a strong finish. Add to that some nice cinematography and use of color (with Richard's scenes being cool, calm and maybe a little intentionally sensual when contrasted with the other scenes) that helps create a very specific look for the movie and this one turns out to be quite a solid thriller well worth seeing.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Lisa on Blu-ray from Kino/Scorpion in a 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and it is in pretty nice shape. Some scenes look softer than others but this would appear to be the way that the movie was shot. The colors come through quite nicely and detail is definitely stronger than DVD would have allowed fore. Skin tones look nice and there aren't any compression artifacts to note. The source used was evidently in nice shape as well, it's quite clean and nicely defined.

An English language audio option is provided in DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo Master Audio, there are no alternate language options or subtitles provided. No issues here, the movie sounds good. The score in particular takes nice advantage of the lossless format, it sounds quite deep and moving. Dialogue is clean, clear and nicely balanced.

Extras start off with a commentary track with writer/director Gary Sherman that is interesting enough when Sherman is engaged in the film. Unfortunately he falls prey to that unusually common habit of just telling us what we're already seeing happen on screen and simply describing the action. He does offer up some decent bits and pieces though, like how he wanted to make a horror picture his then teenaged daughter could enjoy, the various locations used in the shoot, his involvement with the cast and crew and some details on the specific look that he and his crew collaborated on for the film. Some long stretches of silence in the last half of the film hurt the track a bit, however.

From there we get a few featurettes, each of which is quite worthwhile. First up is D.W. Moffett who speaks for eighteen minutes about his work in live theater, how he became involved with this particular film, what it was like working with Sherman and how he got along with his various co-stars. Up next is a half hour piece where Sherman is interviewed alongside his editor Ross Albert. This covers much of the same ground as the commentary does but it does so far more efficiently. Albert's thoughts on piecing together the film and working with Sherman on that aspect of the production are also interesting as are their discussion of a few other projects they worked on together and Sherman's relationship with producer Frank Yablans.

A theatrical trailer for the feature is also included on the disc, as are static menus and chapter selection options.

The Final Word:

The Blu-ray release of Gary Sherman's Lisa from Scorpion and Kino Lorber is a good one. The commentary runs out of steam but the interviews are both interesting and well done and the technical presentation a nice improvement over what has come before it. The movie itself is an engaging thriller, not the slasher film might have been expecting but don't let that dissuade you. It's a great looking movie with some quality acting and a fairly tense story.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!