Fine, so when your director's (Mary Lambert) most notable credits are Pet Semetary and its sequel, and your vacuous lead (Susan Ward) is best known for the televisual carbuncle Sunset Beach, things will always be an uphill struggle.
Nevertheless, The In Crowd still, somehow, manages to snatch humiliation from the jaws of defeat. It's not even that the acting is laughable, the "thrills" non-existent and the plotting as predictable as it is slow. Oh no. Because while all of the above are undoubtedly true, the nail was banged into this grubby little coffin from the off, when Morgan Creek decided to churn out yet another re-jigging of the teen peril template.
A new girl (Heuring) encounters a group of bitchy rich kids, only to discover that beneath the plush veneer lies a web of murder and intrigue? Stone the crows! Or is that flog the dead horse? Either way, this is cobblers.