It's Venice (the California variety) in the 1970s. Ayn Ruymen, a runaway, moves into the King Edward Hotel. It's owned by her aunt, Lucille Benson, and is pretty run down. There are also a great many creepy individuals at the residential hotel, including Laurie Main as a purported priest who likes to go cruising, and John Ventantonio, a photographer.
It's Paul Bartel's first feature and combines the sexual freak-show he was fond of as an auteur, with a script that's derivative of PSYCHO, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, and Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM. Perhaps it was because it was the early 1970s, and theatrical movies were thought to be on their last legs; sex had always sold, but the low-key horror of this flick, and its au courant dialogue from the younger cast members was probably seen as just the thing to sell a few more tickets at the nabes before they shut down for good.
It's Paul Bartel's first feature and combines the sexual freak-show he was fond of as an auteur, with a script that's derivative of PSYCHO, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, and Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM. Perhaps it was because it was the early 1970s, and theatrical movies were thought to be on their last legs; sex had always sold, but the low-key horror of this flick, and its au courant dialogue from the younger cast members was probably seen as just the thing to sell a few more tickets at the nabes before they shut down for good.