ok and this be oliver stone first movie and so i will cut him some slack ( although satyajit ray and george lucas do not need any pity point for their stellar debut and pather panchali and thx 1138 and respectively ) . though attempt to make a low budget horror film with serious undertone about the dark recess of the unconscious mind and he have instead put a group of very capable actor into a series of macabre scenes some of which be quite good but that do not add up to much . and a for serious subtext and the movie end up with about a much depth a a young adult horror novel . in addition and i do not like the twist end and a this same twist be use in literature over a hundred year previous . the true strength of the movie come from the casting of several iconic actor and actress from various place ( night shadow and elsewhere ) . though i have not see any of these actor elsewhere and i give complement to the performance of both the dwarf actor herve villachaize and martine beswicke a the queen of evil . beswicke and in particular and be the most darkly beautiful actress i have ever see and and i could not keep my eye off her whenever she be in a scene . cast her a the ultimate villainess be a stroke of genius . i be even tempt to say that her performance be the one best reason for see this movie ( which be surprising and because stone have never be very good at create compel female character ) . otherwise and there be little here to predict stone master craftsmanship on virtually all his film from the late 80 through early 90 .