In a sex-and-violence film that emphasizes the physical abuse of young women, director
Joan Freeman may raise the shackles as well as the hackles of her distaff viewing audience. Cookie (
Melissa Leo) is a young runaway who arrives in New York City with her brother in tow and ends up working as a prostitute for the apparently easy-going Duke (
Dale Midkiff). Everything seems fine, at least as much as can be expected, until one of Duke's streetwalkers threatens to quit, and he nearly beats her to death. Sickened and shocked, Cookie runs away with an infuriated Duke hot in pursuit and unsparing of anyone who gets in his way. The murders, the beatings, the stabbings, and other forms of mayhem weigh heavily in the plot's sequences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide