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Verdict: Cliched, tawdry psychodrama offers little more than a few cheap thrills.

Details: Starring Susan Ward, Lori Heuring, Matthew Settle and Nathan Bexton. Rated PG-13 for violence, sexuality, language and drug content. 1 hour, 48 minutes.

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Review: The In Crowd's exclusive ways evidently extend to film critics. The teen thriller was not screened for the media before its Wednesday opening.

However, Warner Bros. Pictures did allow that it "would appreciate the press' cooperation in not revealing the ending of this film to their readers, viewers or listeners."

It's sort of like not getting an invitation to the party, but then being asked to clean up afterward.

No problem--this shallow soiree isn't worth attending. As for the studio's request, you'd have to be as brain dead as the characters not to have The In Crowd's ending figured out long before the finale. The tawdry psychodrama is obvious and cliched and offers little more than a few cheap thrills.

Set at a posh country club in some undisclosed beachfront locale, the Melrose Place-caliber story follows Adrien Williams (Lori Heuring), who is newly released from the psychiatric hospital, where she had been diagnosed as an "Erotomaniac Type."

Sounds promising--in a late-night, Cinemax sense--but those expecting a steamy psycho-sexual thriller will be sadly disappointed. Apart from a few breast shots and some lesbian subtext, the flick is strictly PG-13.

Adrien's doctor, Henry Thompson (Daniel Hugh Kelly), recommends her for a post-release staff position at his golf resort, where she can make a fresh start serving drinks, cleaning the pool and fetching things from the dark basement.

The club's wealthy and beautiful young brats attempt to give Adrien a hard time, which is sort of like poking a snake with a stick. She takes their pranks in stride and in return is taken under the wing of Brittany Foster (Susan Ward), the "luscious brunette" leader of the clique.

Brittany introduces Adrien to her inner circle, which includes tennis pro Matt Curtis (Matthew Settle), martini-swilling Bobby (Nathan Bexton) and catty Kelly (Laurie Fortier).

Soon Adrien--who just happens to be the spitting-image of Brittany's estranged sister--is playing golf and attending parties with her swanky new friends.

Slowly--much more slowly, in fact--she discovers they harbor secrets that are darker than her own. Suffice it to say, they take their "backstabbing" all too literally.

The In Crowd is directed by Mary Lambert, whose credits include Pet Sematary and its sequel. Given her fright-film credentials, this belated entry in the teen-horror genre features surprisingly few shocks until the rote slasher climax.

The dialogue is fairly dreadful, typified by lines such as: "You would kill in that dress."

The no-name cast is attractive, but only Bexton--who appeared as Sarah Polley's rave kid cohort in Go--manages to instill any sense of personality into his character.

The In Crowd is likely to enjoy the exclusivity of empty theaters.

— Cox News Service

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