The New Kids. The teenage son and daughter of an army Colonel are forced to go live with relatives in a small town in Florida when their parents are killed in a car crash. As if the culture shock of their new lives isn't enough, things get even worse when the girl attracts the unwanted attention of several members of a notorious local teen gang - and they don't take kindly to being rebuffed, beginning a campaign of harassment and intimidation. The brother decides he's had enough and retaliates and puts them in their place - but standing up to these bullies only enrages them further, and the teen siblings soon find themselves fighting for their very lives... I've never seen this mid 80s flick before, or even heard of it till recently, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable thriller with a decent cast including Lori Loughlin, Eric Stoltz and cult fave Tom Atkins (albeit for about five minutes!) but stealing the show is undoubtedly a young James Spader as the main villain, already leaving teeth marks in the scenery as the drug-snorting, leering, unbelievably narcissistic and just plain deranged leader of the gang. He and his cohorts are so thoroughly, irredeemably loathsome that the last act, in which their attempts to murder the siblings in cold blood backfires and each of them gets taken out in true grisly 80s movie fashion, is enormously satisfying. This movie is AWESOME.
