Monday, March 17, 2008

THE ANOREXIA FILES

Color 1984 running time 90 min.

Country Canada

Director Kit Lempse

Starring Katie Tabitha Smiley and Deborah Carny


This movie isn’t half bad. It’s some kind of warped version of Degrassi Junior High. First we meet Katie Nickels (played by Katie Smiley), she is sixteen and working at an old folks home after school. We see her tend to the elderly and develop an almost instantaneous sympathy for her. She is cute and full of moxie. We follow her to the cafeteria where she orders two giant mac and cheese dishes and a hotdog. She sits alone eating her meal seeming a bit depressed. Suddenly we are in the bathroom behind a stall we hear the sounds of vomiting and we know where we are going; and that is straight to teen drama via the barf highway. Next we are on to the High School Cafeteria and we get a glimpse of Katie’s life. We meet her friend Sandy as they are both harassed by a jock senior named Steve Daniels. He calls out to Katie “Hey Candy-Tits, why don’t you come sit on my lap”? For which, he is chastised by a beautiful queen-of-the-cheerleaders type. Obviously we are in an Animal Factory, some kind of Canadian Lord Of The Flies only this Cheerleader is holding the Conch. Her name is Marie and she commands a mighty army of the popular and loved. Next we meet Sandy and her family. She is Katie's best friend. Her mother works in a factory and her father is unemployed and just gets drunk most of the time. We also learn that he has recently gotten out of jail. And it’s implied he was in for some sort of sexual assault. He is cruel and unrelenting towards Sandy so she turns to the bong. What would you do? Sandy and her father finally come to blows and Sandy runs away to stay with Katie, but she doesn’t want her parents to know that she’s “harboring a fugitive”. So Sandy sleeps under Katie’s bed! Soon Sandy moves on to dosing acid everyday at school and telling people she’s a vampire. Katie doesn’t know what to do, but her problems are multiplying. She begins to have fainting spells do to lack of food. This is compounded by an encounter with Steve Daniels who once again proceeds to taunt her with lewd gestures. He asks her if she is “a good girl. Or a bad girl”. Katie runs away, frightened. Then Marie catches Katie puking in a restroom and threatens to expose her secret if she doesn’t bring her twenty dollars in a brown bag and leave it on her lunch tray every Friday. Katie quickly agrees to the bargain. The interesting thing about the exchange in the bathroom is that we kind of like Marie. She tells a story of heartbreak in her life and explains how she knows how difficult it is being a young woman. She is sympathetic to Katie, but not enough not to take advantage of the situation. Marie also confesses her extreme hatred for Steve Daniels. Meanwhile Steve has turned his animal affections on Sandy. Who is still in some sort of drug haze. That night Sandy comes back to Katie’s house. She has blood all over her face and mouth. Katie is of course shocked at this and demands an explanation. But Sandy has moved on mentally. The next day at school we learn that Steve Daniels is dead. It’s not rocket science to figure the way it played out. And Katie does just that. She concocts a plan to get Sandy out of town before the cops get wise. Everyone’s is in class and Katie is freaking out when there is a commotion outside. Everybody runs to the window to see what is happening. Marie has lit Steve Daniels car on fire in the parking lot. She is screaming “he got what he deserved” over and over. The faculty wrestles her to the ground and the police arrive and take her away. Now she will be blamed for the murder. Or maybe she did it. These questions go unanswered. Katie tells Sandy she should seek help for her mental problems. But Sandy only says “your bed is my coffin”. Katie cries. They walk home together over a long bridge and Sandy asks Katie if she has ever seen anyone fly. And on that note she hops off the bridge into the frigid waters below. The last scene is Katie alone in the cafeteria for the elderly eating a hamburger.

THE ANOREXIA FILES is the 1990's Re-release title of this film. The original title was, THE GIRLS OF STELLA HIGH

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, this movie really spoke to me. I agree with the Kong on most everything,

Anonymous said...

This film was way better than Short Circuit 2. Both films were clearly attacks on ex-pat Regan Democrats, but The girls of Stella high definitely said it better.

Kong, do you know why they changed the name when they re-released it?

King "the kong" Clampfield said...

I believe they changed the title to cash in on the fame of the show THE X-FILES, which was quite popular at the time.