The Girlfriend From Hell (1990)

One dark landscape of cinema that has yet to be touched by the G.B.U as of this writing has been the teen/young adult sex comedy, which reached a zenith in the 80s (although certainly it had a massive if quickly burned out renaissance in the late 90s) and is probably best exemplified with the Porky's trilogy. But when any genre explodes in popularity, audiences are always burned by cheap attempts to jump on the bandwagon. Girlfriend From Hell is a perfect, if mildly amusing, example of this.

Girlfriend From Hell is a textbook example of the 80s young adult sex comedy, for better or for worse. All men are at heart horny scum, and women can sometimes be divided into three categories: the openly slutty; the pious virgins and/or the awkward nerds; and the embittered and/or feminist women, but of course all women despite whatever category they may fit under possess the 'inner slut.' In Girlfriend from Hell, though, while the entire plot revolves around Maggie finding her 'inner slut,' David is also liberated from sexual rigidness, if much less radically.

Although this movie was released in 1990, there's more 80's culture packed in here than in a Flock of Seagulls album. Bad hair, bad slang, bad clothes...it's all there, and there's really no way to get past it. Another possibly distracting element here is the bad use of budget restrictions. Although the movie's plot kicks off with a supposed party with lots of guests coming, there are only ever four people there. Plus later there's a supposed "exclusive" restaurant that looks like a family reunion picnic. And finally, while bad special effects aren't necessarily a terrible thing, it is when said effects are not only used relatively frequently, but used as though they are meant to be taken perfectly seriously.

One good thing about the movie is that everyone seems to be generally enjoying themselves. Liane Curtis is pretty good at her portrayl of this particularly party-loving but emotionally vulnerable Embodiement of Evil. Dana Ashbrook plays the archetypical sexist jerk in Satan's boyfriend/eternal nemisis Chaser with somewhat hokey but appropriate gusto. With the rest of the cast, the acting sometimes isn't that great, but it's rarely groan-inducing.

Ultimately, though, this movie is far from great comedy, but it does have a few inspired moments-the conversation between Satan and the missionary couple, for instance-even if they are bogged down by some overused gags. If you liked Weird Science (and fess up, I won't tell), you might want to check this out if you just happen to find it lurking at your mom-and-pop rental store since this is, in quite a few ways, pretty much the same movie.

"This movie is dedicated to all girlfriends from Hell everywhere, with love."