Milo Reviews

To the roster of horror villains with ordinary names like Jason, Michael, and Freddy, one can't quite add Milo, a promising character underserved by this movie. Five young girls are lured by a boy named Milo Jeeder (Asher Metchik) to the office of his gynecologist father, where he murders one and wounds another. Sixteen years later, the injured girl, Claire (Jennifer Jostyn), is a schoolteacher who returns to her hometown for the wedding of Ruth, one of her old pals, only to discover when she arrives that Ruth has been killed in a car accident. Taking over Ruth's class, Claire starts seeing the rain-slickered Milo lurking around the school. The other survivors of the doctor's office incident, Abigail (Maya McLaughlin) and Marian (Paula Cale), put down her fears, as Milo apparently drowned years before. Soon, however, Abigail is assaulted by Milo and disappears. Claire and Marian go to see Dr. Jeeder (Vincent Schiavelli), who shows them Milo's grave. That night, the two women spot Milo and follow him, only to have Milo attack Marian and drag her off. Later, while Dr. Jeeder is meeting with Claire after school, Milo stabs custodian Mr. Kelso (Antonio Fargas), and Dr. Jeeder takes Claire and Kelso to his clinic. There, he reveals that Milo was a stillbirth he was able to bring back to life, and the boy attacks Claire. As she is chased through the house, Claire discovers the freshly murdered Dr. Jeeder, and Kelso attempts to protect her, only to be killed himself. Claire finally dispatches Milo in the cellar. A final scene suggesting that Milo is still alive is as half-hearted as most of what has preceded it. It's a shame that a movie that starts so strongly can end so weakly. The opening scene with Milo and the girls in Dr. Jeeder's clinic is unnerving, and sets up promising possibilities for the main story to come, but the movie doesn't follow through. The idea of an ageless young boy haunting a small town is dramatized in Craig Mitchell's script in too literal a fashion to be believable; Pascal Franchot's direction is equally half-hearted and unimaginative. Nor is Jennifer Jostyn convincing enough in the lead--perhaps a clue as to why she's third-billed in the movie and on the video packaging. Milo himself cuts a fairly creepy figure, pedaling an old bicycle and wearing a yellow raincoat (calling up memories of the young, slickered killer in 1977's cult favorite ALICE, SWEET ALICE). Yet the more the movie insists the viewer accept him at face value, rather than as a manifestation of Claire's fears, the less effective he becomes. (Graphic violence, adult situations, profanity.)