In this melodramatic variation on THE BAD SEED, Julie (Isabelle Mejias) is deeply in love with her surgeon father, Harold (Anthony Franciosa), and in essence will do whatever it takes to have him all to herself. Julie's tense relationship with her mother, Irene (Cindy Girling), is aggravated when she lets her pet snake loose around the dinner table, which freaks out Irene. Irene gets a grocery delivery man to take the snake away, which in turn angers Julie. When the grocery man returns and attempts to rape Irene, he accidentally kills her. Julie witnesses the attack but does nothing to stop it.
Assuming she and daddy can now live happily ever after, Julie is thwarted yet again when daddy brings home Susan (Sybil Danning), with whom daddy has been having an affair. This leads to a war of nerves between Susan and Julie that quickly escalates to attempted murder, when Julie locks Susan's young son in a refrigerator and the boy nearly suffocates.
The plot veers into implausibility when Julie blackmails her mother's rapist into killing Susan. This arrangement backfires on all concerned, in a clever twist ending.
Director Paul Nicholas provides a remarkably subdued and realistic atmosphere, and coaxes good performances his players, especially from Danning and Mejias. Given the incest theme, this even-handed approach keeps DAUGHTER OF DEATH from becoming a purely exploitative exercise.
Assuming she and daddy can now live happily ever after, Julie is thwarted yet again when daddy brings home Susan (Sybil Danning), with whom daddy has been having an affair. This leads to a war of nerves between Susan and Julie that quickly escalates to attempted murder, when Julie locks Susan's young son in a refrigerator and the boy nearly suffocates.
The plot veers into implausibility when Julie blackmails her mother's rapist into killing Susan. This arrangement backfires on all concerned, in a clever twist ending.
Director Paul Nicholas provides a remarkably subdued and realistic atmosphere, and coaxes good performances his players, especially from Danning and Mejias. Given the incest theme, this even-handed approach keeps DAUGHTER OF DEATH from becoming a purely exploitative exercise.