Hidden behind the surface lies a blank, empty canvas at the center of it all. A clean slate, left mostly untouched: vacant substance and character depth beside it. Similarly, a tone of superficially unadulterated innocence rose to the challenge, occupying that canvas with the appearance of a progressively sincere romance with Sally and a genuine relationship with her son: a factual illusion, yet one that could evolve into reality. Turbulent (un)predictability underscores this film; grasping whatever direction it's going poses a challenge. A gradual but narratively uncertain rise in tension toward the end, heightened in effectiveness by Dwight Dixon's score, served as a transformation of the apparent mundane to a sinister underbelly, while demonstrating an apt and well-executed usage of misdirection and building suspense, creating a perfect and palpable level of doubt regarding what happened leading up to the final scene. And Paul Glickman's atmospheric and aesthetically pleasing cinematography was excellent from start to finish, as was Larry Cohen's overall directing, especially the shot of Matthew going in circles on the carousel/merry-go-round as Johnny was driving the truck. Possibly an too-obscure, underrated film, this was surprisingly intriguing, with more undertones of enthrallment than one might expect. Concurrently, and in contrast, the final piece was missing; with it, the finish line of an otherwise successful race. It could've been the below-average budget of $4.1 million, or the lack of a different, more prominent writer-director; someone besides me may know for certain. My existence began long after the 1980s, and this film is extremely obscure. So, even with the assistance and the automatic instillation of familiarity with the internet and social media from a young age, given the alignment of the rise of those things with me growing up, I had never heard of this. I only discovered it because of New Line Cinema: the production company of _Game Night (2018)_, the previous film I watched, as well as _Tag (2018)_, which I watched six films ago on September 13th—a common thread between those films and this one; in this case, it was the distributor, not the production company. After watching _Game Night_, I checked out a list of films produced by New Line Cinema, oldest to newest, and this film was the first one with a poster that immediately stood out to me. I'm adequately satisfied with my decision to watch it.