By Melissa Antoinette Garza
To make an omelet, you need to break a few eggs. Likewise, to make a good wig you may have to kill an scalp some sexy college gals. At least, that’s the route Mrs. Pringle (Elizabeth Davis) and her grown but mentally challenged and psychologically unwell son Rodney (Chris Martell) take.
Old lady Pringle owns a wig shop and runs it from her home. She advertises a room to rent, but it’s really just to lure young women. When prospective tenants show up, they are pushed into Rodney’s room where he attacks.
A news report warns the co-eds that the police believe a murderer is on the loose. Kathy (Gretchen Wells) is on the case despite her lame ass boyfriend Dave (Rodney Bedell) being a constant buzzkill about everything.
When she misses a date, Dave bitches. When she helps out her friends, Dave bitches. When she is worried about the murders and wants to investigate the creepy people around campus, Dave bitches. David is a bitch!
Kathy, to her credit, says “fuck that noise” and ignores her beau’s annoying pleas. Dolled up in a pink skirt and matching buttoned down shirt separated by a thin brown belt, she hides in the bushes. She dons two cute ponytails and a 60s makeup job to die for. She has an innocent but stubborn sex appeal that comes on strong.
She first investigates Mr. Spinsen (Karl Stoeber) who she sees burying a bone. She screams and the police come running. They question Mr. Spinsen, but he has an explanation. The bones are just from the science department throwaways and Spinsen’s dog keeps digging them up. Spinsen then reburies them to avoid any hassles.
The cop recognizes Kathy as a girl who had called in an accidentally false report before. She thought there was a dead body when it was a skunk. Her credibility is sort of shot with authorities. As if they’ve never been wrong about anything! I watch LAW & ORDER SVU! The whole show is them fucking up. Give Kathy a break. She’s not even trained for this line of work. She’s a goddamn volunteer and a cute one at that!
Kathy tries to rally her classmates/roommates, but they think she’s aloof too. No one is giving this girl credit and she has had enough. She tells them not to call her when the shit hits the fan.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Pringle is commissioned for a new wig. The customer wants it for her daughter who recently cut her hair short. Pringle needs to match a certain brown hair so she begins looking for another tenant.
Beyond just being an advantageous business woman, Mrs. Pringle is a loving mother and pet owner, though her cat, Napoleon is a small taxidermal wild cat similar to a leopard. She still talks to Napoleon and as someone who still talks to her two deceased bunnies – no judgement. At least, not there. Having her intellectually disabled son scalp women is a bit messed up, I mean, if you really need to look for a flaw!
Still, as long as Rodney promises to be a good boy and do exactly as mother says, she promises she won’t sent him a way to the place ‘bad boys’ go. When he does promise, she gives him an electric knife as a present and tells him his favorite story Rapunzel.
Meanwhile, Dave and Kathy go on a double-date to the drive-in. The other couple are all hot-and-heavy, but Kathy is out with Bitch Dave. He wants to get sexy with her, but he’s not yummy! No wonder, she would rather talk about murders and mystery. That is far more fascinating than Dave and his gimme-gimme hands that go nowhere and do nothing. If you want to turn that girl on, you gotta do better than that. Kathy deserves better! On the beach, he tries to heat it up once again and gets all bitchy when she stats talking about the murders. Get a clue, boy! She wants an adventure. Bring her scouting in the area, turn her on with some dirty danger talk about lurking bad guys and then you may get somewhere. You still need a tutorial about where to touch a gal in the right place, but it’s a fucking start. Hell, she’ll probably show you where to find the G spot if you figure out the words to say to turn her on!
The next day, Kathy’s friend Dawn (Dianne Raymond) goes to get a room from Pringle. She meets the same fate, but Mrs. Pringle doesn’t know Dawn left a note for Kathy to meet her there. When Kathy stops by, Mrs. Pringle first denies that Dawn ever came, but then lies and says she merely stopped by for a wig. Kathy’s confused but thinks the error is on her side. After all, who would suspect a nice old woman of scalping women for wigs?
Mrs. Pringle walks Kathy out of the house to avoid suspicion. Not wanting to be rude, she does pretend to go. She then wanders back in, fearful for her friend’s safety. She knows something isn’t right, but doesn’t yet understand the scope of what she’s dealing with. She does her best Nancy Drew and sneaks around the house. Mrs. Pringle catches on quickly and locks her in Rodney’s room. When Kathy sees the wigs and Rodney with a knife, she puts two and two together.
Dave is actually helpful for once and when he finds out Kathy went to Mrs. Pringle, he brings the police to investigate. They’re skeptical and whether they decide Dave’s words are worth acting on, Kathy is busy fighting off Rodney.
This is a weird little find that is currently on FULL MOON thru AMAZON PRIME. It’s definitely worth the watch. Kathy and Mrs. Pringle are my favorites within the movie. Dave is a dick and Rodney is a sympathetic villain, but he’s so affected that it’s hard to take him seriously. Mrs. Pringle hams it up too, but it comes across more genuinely crazy with her. I like it.
Though sex is non-existent in this cult classic, there are a few scenes of cheap gore done very well. Check this one out. It’s not scary, but is quirky and fun.
Scared Stiff Rating: 6.5/10
