Angel Review

Angel (1984) Poster

I was first exposed to the movie "Angel" when I saw the poster at a video store in Inglewood, California. I was a kid, but the poster looked like a porno movie, and I always had a fascination with porno posters. This movie came out in 1984, and it is an exploitation movie, that has a tinge of horror, but mostly it's a thriller with notes of sexploitation. This is a grindhouse picture that would play in theaters alongside other B-movies, but it has some good moments. The movie was directed by Robert O'Neill, and stars Cliff Gorman, Susan Tyrrell, Dick Shawn, and Donna Wilkes.

The plot of this movie features an underage girl who is just an average prep school teenager by day, but at night, she becomes a hooker. She walks the streets with her friends, and they are all part of the sex trade, or performing on Hollywood Blvd. After you are introduced to both sides of her world, you start to meet her friends, and they are all performers, or prostitutes. Once the introductions are done, a serial killer strikes, killing prostitutes in brutal fashion. A rogue detective comes on board and talks to the ladies and men of the night and tells them to work in pairs and to keep an eye out, and that he's not going to bust them, he wants to get the killer. Well, the movie progresses and we see the killer stalking Angel and her friends, even her transgender friend, and things get way out of hand. When Angel has enough, she gets found out, her life starts crashing down, and she gets even, with a revolve and street justice.

This is the same kind of movie that you would expect from Charles Bronson and others at Cannon. It's a good movie, in the sense that it has the tropes of a grindhouse movie, with bad acting, illicit elements of sex, and of course vigilante justice. That alone makes this movie one of the many standouts that you'll get to see when it comes to the world of cinema. It's the start of a 4 movie picture series, and it features the same premise nearly every time, with a woman that is working the streets by night, but by day is a normal school girl.

I'm not sure if this is a true to life tail, but it has a bit of sex, violence, and mostly drawn out dramatic moments. It's nonsensical at times, that's for sure. There's a bit of film grit to the movie, and at times I think it's similar to a porno movie that would star Ginger Lynn from the same time frame. In fact, some of the sets even looked like one of her movies that I reviewed online before.

"Angel" is a movie that walks the line between sexploitation and horror. It's not quite horror, it's more exploitation and grindhouse than anything else. It's a stellar ride, and it's something that many people will enjoy, but it's definitely not purely horror. It's a sign of the times, and something that wouldn't get made today. I love the plot, the killing fields, and the idea of the main character being a prostitute trying to make ends meet. She makes the choice, she's not being exploited.

You can order Angel from 1984 by clicking here, and getting the trilogy in one box set. Or you can order below: