The In Crowd

The In Crowd

Late-night Cinemax fare inexplicably granted a theatrical release, The In Crowd stars Lori Heuring as a troubled young woman released from a mental hospital on the condition that she stay drug-free, not leave the city, and remain employed at an exclusive country club. Through the job, she encounters a group of semi-photogenic idle rich led by Susan Ward, a woman with a dark secret and a missing sister who happens to look exactly like Heuring. Oddly dated and transparently cheap, from its washed-out look to its amateurish cast to its nonexistent production values, The In Crowd is 200-proof B-movie trash, carried out with the ambition and substance of the Poison Ivy direct-to-video sequel it often resembles. The forgettable cast seems to consist solely of people who resemble better-known actors: Heuring, a dead ringer for Christina Applegate, and Ward, who looks like a less comically buxom Denise Richards, are joined by a doctor who resembles erotic-thriller fixture William Katt. Veteran schlockmeister Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary, Pet Sematary II) isn't above including ham-fisted intimations of lipstick lesbianism whenever the sleaze level needs a boost, but The In Crowd lacks the gonzo conviction that separates transcendent trash from run-of-the-mill garbage. Even so, a few unintentionally hilarious moments are scattered throughout, including Heuring and Ward's final confrontation—a climax so overheated it could have come from an EC comic—and a backstory for Heuring that's too howlingly funny to reveal. (Let's just say it involves both erotomania and a golf club.) Never quite bad enough to enter sacred so-bad-it's-good territory, The In Crowd is just so bad it's really, really awful.

 
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