Bullet Points: Slipping Into Darkness

There are some bad people out there. What causes these people to do bad things? Is it based on their surroundings or actions of others? Or are some people just inherently bad? I can’t tell you but I know where to look for the answer. Action movies! The 1988 movie Slipping Into Darkness takes a look at some bad people and makes you think about the questions I just asked you. Luckily for you, I just happen to have some Bullet Points for Slipping Into Darkness so you can have a preview before you watch it on your own and come up with an answer.

• Bad Girls – Carlyle (Michelle Johnson) is a student and the local university and daughter of the dean. She is used to getting what she wants and along with her friends Alex and Genevieve are usually up for a good time, even if that means being bad. A good time in the podunk college town means following a biker gang, the Blue Bloods, and doing a little rabble rousing. The bikers give Carlyle a hard time, like trying to get her to kiss their bare asses, before former biker turned student Fritz (John D’Aquino) saves the day. The girls aren’t done causing trouble for the day, as on their way back to town they injure a dog owned by Fritz’s brother Ebin. Ebin has an intellectual disability so the girls decide to take him for ice cream and his dog to the vet. We don’t get to see much at the beginning of the movie of how it happens, but the ice cream leads to Ebin getting killed by a train with his pants down. Makes sense.

• Biker Boys – When Fritz finds out about the death of his brother he knows someone will have to pay and when he sees Carlyle return Ebin’s dog his revenge is on. Fritz goes back to the Blue Bloods to recruit two of his old biker brothers, Otis (Vyto Ruginis) and T-Bone (David Sherrill) to help him get even with the girls. Fritz hatches a plan to get close with the girls at a museum and Otis and T-Bone get a clean shave to fit in (that explains their wigs and fake mustaches from earlier). The three bikers kidnap the three girls and take them to an empty factory which leads to one pair (Otis and Genevieve) having cemetery sex and the other pair (T-Bone and Alex) having mud sex. Makes sense.

• Who To Believe – Carlyle convinces Fritz that girls had nothing to do with Ebin’s death, but too bad Otis took the idea that someone had to pay to the extreme as he kills Genevieve in the cemetery. Slipping Into Darkness has entered the paranoia stage. Otis starts to go crazy and paranoid that the girls are going to turn him in, his biker brothers don’t want to go against a biker, and the girls are trying to stay alive. The group decides to get Otis out of town (after suggestively putting Genevieve in a coffin with a skeleton) but unfortunately they run out of gas and end up at an abandoned farm and this is where the action goes to ten. Combine chase is not a chase that I usually expect in any action movie, but when it comes I am on the edge of my seat. I have never seen someone so nonplussed at having their thumb shot off. I have also never seen someone no sell a switchblade through the forehead, but like Otis says, it is a “shit world.” It all leads to death by combine so it is no harm no foul. Except for the thumb, knife in the forehead and bifurcation. Makes sense.

The farm scene is the last big action set piece in Slipping Into Darkness, but that doesn’t mean the movie is over. There is still the resolution about what happened to Ebin and who will come out on top. I won’t spoil the ending because there is definitely some mystery and twists to Slipping Into Darkness. I will let you know that most of the characters are unlikeable which means there is not a happy ending. What caused these characters to do what they did? Were they just bad people? Was it an upbringing that provided everything or one that provided nothing? Was it hanging out with a bad crowd? We may never know what caused the characters in Slipping Into Darkness to slip into darkness, but we do know that you can slip into some Slipping Into Darkness Bonus Bullet Points. Makes sense.

• Soundtrack – It was a stroke of genius to use the 1971 War song “Slippin’ Into Darkness” as the theme song for Slipping Into Darkness.
• Not To Be Confused With – Slipping Into Darkness is also another name for the 1978 Horror film Crazed.
• Unforgettable Quote – “I’m a can of smashed assholes.”
• If You Ever… – Wanted to see a woman eating a carton of ice cream while taking a bath then Slipping Into Darkness is for you.
• Misunderstood Bathroom Quote – “It is a little pink in here.”
• Egg-in-a-Hole – Do you call it an egg in a hole or a toad in the hole? Slipping Into Darkness goes with the egg but acknowledges the toad.
• F-Town – Slipping Into Darkness was filmed in Fremont, NE and after watching I have no desire to visit.