Made by a teenage Joe Zaso, this movie was exactly what I was looking for: a SOV Giallo that’s “Phenomena meets Eyes of Laura Mars by way of an ABC Afterschool Special.” Made in the director’s teen years — he was 15 — it finds Susan Galligan (Karen Komornik) starting at a new school by the name of Hartcourt Academy, a dark and foreboding place — shots from the outside look very Tanz Akademie — that has already claimed the lives of several schoolgirls. Much like an Argento Giallo, Susan is also psychic, which means that she can see things before they happen, leading her to become the detective in this and discover who the killer is.

Between the drone music on the soundtrack, the toughness of the girls with NYC accents and the soft VHS quality, this was a dream odyssey into Joe’s teenage mind. I had the chance to ask him some questions about the making of this film and I’m so excited to share them with you.

B and S About Movies: Joe, I have a million questions.

Joe Zaso: It’s Argento’s Greatest Hits as told by a 15-year-old? If you took a shot for every Argento nod, you’d be bombed within the first 2 minutes.

B and S: I’m amazed you had access to all of these Argento films in 1986 and at such a young age. All we had in my hometown was the VHS of Creepers.

Joe: I had just seen Creepers on video before I made this.

B and S: Had you seen Suspiria before you made Maligno?

Joe: Yep. Donald Farmer from Splatter Times sent me a bootleg VHS of Suspiria (the R-rated version) filmed off a screen and a decent UK screener of Tenebre. I had also seen Deep Red shredded on Channel 9’s Fright Night. Plus, I had just seen Demons in a theater the same weekend that Poltergeist II opened, just before I started shooting.

I was going to do a third horror anthology as well as a very ambitious zombie movie (monsters from VHS rentals come to life) in Horrormax. But after seeing Creepers, I was in LOVE!

B and S: This feels like a slasher made by someone who has just had their mind opened by Italian movies.

Joe: I was into slasher movies and Romero. H.G. Lewis and Argento sparked it. As you can gather, it’s a hodge podge of so many Argentos. It’s my favorite of all my 80s movies, because it probably works the best and isn’t too incoherent or over-ambitious.

It basically foreshadowed the Giallo being my favorite movie type to make.

B and S: It’s a wood-paneled New York Giallo!

Joe: All the music came from Pennsylvania. Tim Frey and Richard Han, who was from New Castle. He was a penpal who almost got me a role as a zombie in Day of the Dead over Thanksgiving weekend.

B and S: I love the accents.

Joe: “Yeahhhh, Mawww. I know. It’s rainin’ really hoddd.”

B and S: It’s just amazing that at 15, you made a full Giallo.

Joe: It was my calling.

Thanks, as always, to Joe. You can check out a past interview with him and reviews of some of his other films, like Screambook, Screambook II and It’s Only a Movie. You can watch this on YouTube or order it as part of the Lost In the 80s: The Joe Zaso Collection from Terror Vision.