An attractive 15 year old school girl moves to a small desert town, all the boys take a liking to her but they end up meeting grisly ends.
This is a good example of a movie that comes with great artwork on the sleeve but the content is somewhat disappointing. Bo Hopkins, Susan Strasberg and Patrick Macnee are familiar acting names but they were obviously here just for the pay cheque, Macnee in particular almost sleeps through his lines. The acting ability of the rest of the cast is pretty poor, there are many instances of awkward silences between lines, quite amateur. The sound quality at times is as poor as the acting. The actors playing the "kids" are obviously aged about 20. Melissa is seen stark naked taking a shower, a very gratuitous nude scene (a common trait of slasher movies, nothing wrong with that in my opinion), but the fact that she is playing a 15 year old is a little questionable. The movie is slow, there are only a few kills, none of which are very gory. And throughout the 88 minutes we are subjected to the hideous song "Melissa's Theme" multiple times. The opening scene, a Gothic nightmare, was good, plus I liked the desert setting. Don't get me wrong, Sweet Sixteen isn't terrible. But for a film made during the "Golden Age of the Slasher Movie" it is a fairly lame effort. Perhaps if they could trim 10 minutes or so off the running time it would be an easier watch.