Angel 1984

Fifteen-year-old Molly Stewart, an honor student at a private preparatory school in the Los Angeles area, leads a dangerous double life: by day she shines in class, and by night she becomes Angel, a leather-clad street teenage prostitute who works Hollywood Boulevard. To survive the harsh streets, she relies on a makeshift family: aging film cowboy Kit Carson, street performer Yo-Yo Charlie, and fellow sex workers Crystal and Lana, plus her landlady, the eccentric painter Solly Mosler. Their fragile circle anchors Angel as she navigates danger, loyalty, and the thin line between protectors and predators.

As the neon lights flicker, a nameless necrophiliac serial killer begins stalking prostitutes, turning the night into a haunted corridor of fear. Lt. Andrews from the Los Angeles Police Department is assigned to the case but keeps hitting dead ends, while Angel’s world tightens around tragedy: Crystal is murdered, a brutal strike that reverberates through Molly’s already fragile balance between school and the street. The investigation threads through the city’s shadows, with Molly offering a streetwise perspective that hardens the investigators’ resolve.

At school, Molly is confronted by Patricia Allen, a teacher who worries about Molly’s extracurricular absence and the secret she keeps behind her studies. Molly explains the weight at home—her mother’s stroke left her to shoulder both tuition and survival—an explanation that makes any guess about the future feel precarious. The tension between Molly’s two worlds grows as Lt. Andrews urges prostitutes to work in pairs for safety, and Angel reluctantly pairs with Lana to watch each other’s backs.

The cracks in Molly’s masquerade deepen when she buys a pistol and returns to the streets, determined to even the score. That night, some classmates spot Angel on the street, and news travels fast through the private school halls: Molly’s double life is no longer private. In the ensuing tension, Ms. Allen visits Molly’s apartment, hoping to meet her mother, but Mae—Mae, the loyal street ally who has become a mother figure to Angel—pretends to be Molly’s parent. The confrontation spirals into violence when the killer appears, and Mae is fatally wounded in the struggle. A moment of tenderness between Molly and Mae underscores the human cost of this violent life.

The tragedy cements Angel’s resolve to seek vengeance, and Lt. Andrews teams up with Kit Carson to hunt the killer down. A ruthless showdown unfolds, with Carson finally directing a decisive shot to the killer’s chest, ending the threat. The city’s nightscape finally yields to daylight as Molly, Lt. Andrews, and a wounded Carson walk away from the devastation, bound by a fragile hope that healing might come after the storm. The story closes on a quiet, bruised note: survival comes at a steep price, and trust must be earned anew in a world where danger lurks behind every neon sign.