There Was a Little Girl (1981)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Ovidio G. Assonitis

Writers:

Ovidio G. Assonitis (writer)
Stephen Blakely (writer)
(more)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Julia thinks she lives alone... she doesn't!

Plot:

Julia, a teacher in a school for the deaf, has a hideosly disformed and deranged twin sister that resides in the local looney bin...

Plot Keywords:

Birthday Party | School | Twins | Dog | Power Drill

Cast

Trish Everly	...	Julia Sullivan
Michael MacRae	...	Sam Edwards
Dennis Robertson	...	Father James
Morgan Hart	...	Helen
Allison Biggers	...	Mary Sullivan
Edith Ivey	...	Amantha Beauregard
Richard Baker	...	Sacha Robertson Jr.
Don Devendorf	...	Principal
Jerry Fujikawa	...	Mr. Kimura
Doug Dillingham	...	Golden
Joe Camp	...	Hospital Guard
Janie Baker	...	Sacha's Mother
Huxsie Scott	...	Secretary

Directed by
Ovidio G. Assonitis		(as Oliver Hellman)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ovidio G. Assonitis		writer (as Oliver Hellman)
Stephen Blakely		writer
Roberto Gandus		writer
Peter Shepherd		writer

Produced by
Ovidio G. Assonitis	....	producer (as Oliver Hellman)
Peter Shepherd	....	producer

Original Music by
Riz Ortolani

Cinematography by
Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli

Film Editing by
Angelo Curi

Art Direction by
Stefano Paltrinieri

Costume Design by
Serena Severini

Makeup Department
Nilo Jacoponi	....	makeup artist
Gino Zamprioli	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jacques Goyard	....	executive in charge of production
Roger Salvadori	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Stratton Leopold	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Piero Fondi	....	sound
Romano Pampaloni	....	re-recording mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Maurizio La Monica	....	assistant camera
Maurizio Maggi	....	camera operator
Fabrizio Vicari	....	assistant camera

Casting Department
Stratton Leopold	....	casting: Georgia

Other crew
Daniela Puccini	....	continuity

Distributors

• Dark Sky Films (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Virgin Video (????) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

And When She Was Bad (USA)
Flesh and the Beast (USA) (video title)
Madhouse (UK) (video title)
Scared to Death (USA)

Runtime:

USA:92 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M (cut) | Norway:18 | Germany:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Savannah, Georgia, USA

Trivia:

The film was originally listed (as "Madhouse") as one of the official UK DPP 74 video nasties. It was released fully uncut in 2004.

Plenty attractive thriller - Beware The Dog

And so the Video Nasty train that I'm on arrived here, at the MADHOUSE. And it's proved to be quite a scenic stop. In the context of Video Nastydom, it's a shock when you come across a title from the list of thirty-nine which mobilises production values as high as this one does. By any standards, this 1981 Italian psych-horror flick (though shot and set in America) is a film of remarkable aesthetic beauty. The widescreen photography is crystalline, the framing immaculate and Riz Ortolani's 'Cannibal Holocaust'ish score is well used. Ostensibly, this film could almost give Video Nasties a good name. The 'madness' is that it was banned in the first place. There are several scenes of strong gore that leap out, including the best dog attack scene since Suspiria, but for the most part this is a serene, slowly tense film, with a heroine who teaches deaf children. In keeping with the production values of this film, the school for the deaf children is sensitively and authentically portrayed.

Reading all this is potentially enough to make you forget that this is supposed to be a horror film. A horror film about identical twin sisters, one good - the teacher of deaf children, Julia, played by gorgeous Trish Everly - and one BAD! The bad one's in the local madhouse-cum- hospital, felled by multiple diseases and physically deformative medical problems, but she wants out for her birthday to wreak vengeance on the good sis. Her main tool of violence is one of the worst dogs in cinema history, a trained rottweiler who just loves tearing out human throats. If you're dog phobic in general, this is probably a bad film to see. Everything's suspenseful and well acted for the first half of the film, but some extremely odd developments and pacing in the second half (a completely minor character being stalked by a villain turns out to be the longest setpiece in the film - stuff like that) drag proceedings down somewhat. This makes Madhouse less satisfying overall than I'd expected, but it definitely has enough fine qualities that I still think of it with a degree of favour. It's also nifty that the gory moments, as spaced apart as they are, are very gory.

Note that Film 2000's DVD edition of this film has exceptional picture quality but godawful sound.