A young woman named
Valerie was badly burned after going into
a tanning salon as the machine backfired.
Two years later Valerie's twin sister
named Rhonda Johnson (Marcia Karr) runs a
local workout gym and is apparently
having a bitter attitude.
Suddenly one the regulars there ends up
being murdered by a sharp object of a
sharp giant needle while taking a shower
and Rhonda is being questioned by a
detective named Lt. Morgan (David James
Campbell) about the murder case.
Suddenly Morgan spots other murders which
were caused by a sharp needle around the
local area besides at the gym and tries
to find out who is killing all of these
people which started out since a new
employee named Chuck Dawson (Ted Prior)
started working there.
Well I picked this little video up at a flea market in which it's a hard one to come by and I didn't spot any movie guides reviewing it since it's obscure and can see why. There's a beginning not revealing the character but her feet and being excited finding out that her fitness is going to be in business and then going into a tanning salon. You can guess what's going to happen as there's painful situation with the tanning booth being caught on fire but this looked quite cheesy and took a longer time to watch before the beginning of this film really happened.
Next up of course there's people doing aerobics in which seemed exciting to watch and I thought to myself that this may be a cheesy fun horror movie to watch after all since it looked nicely put together with this but that was one of the only good things about this film saving it from bombing. Also it focused on women's behinds and hips while doing their workouts which I was aware that this was gonna be one of those types.
Then there's the first victim who is in a changing room and was taking a long shower (Of course this has been a tradition since Psycho) and the killer is holding a large sharp pin in the air for such a long time that this is so unconvincing to be taken seriously. We have seen similar stuff in Sorority House Massacre 2: Nighty Nightmare but that was alot more fun to watch than this.
Then there's two body builder men having a brawl as one of them is jealous cause of the main owner Rhonda since we have seen stuff before in these types of films but it's sloppily done and the writing for this was hokey too. Almost as bad as watching a Troma Team type flick but without the dark comedy.
There's also a quiet scene with one of the employees in her home in which seems to draw in that the killer is about to get her. This wasn't the least bit suspenseful or scary either.
To add some flavor to the story there's teenagers causing vandalism during after hours at the fitness centre which also seems to be a drawing card that they're next on the list for the killer and the makers tried to make the killings seem quite dark on these kids being hacked away but that misses by a longshot.
Throw in a dream sequence with an employee seducing one of the bodybuilders and then a clone of him killing her as well as him next. This is not as good as it sounds even if certain slasher films have these moments. Very trashy and amateurish to watch and more bad writing too.
There's some twisted moments on Rhonda revealing what has happened to her which seemed to work well and draw in the history of the horror slayings and making her suspect of the murders but that's saying very little while looking at the whole story in general.
There's a moment with someone who is hung which looked a bit darjk and convincing on how this was which is the only good moment for the bodycount in this film. Yet you can tell that this actress who did this was blinking her eyes a bit.
There's a moment when a detective points a gun at someone who's a possible suspect and this suspect still throws a punch showing that this detective is too much of a bimbo to have a serious job at what he's doing looking like he failed at Police Academy or worst of all Vice Academy.
When the story tries to explain itself on who the killer could be I couldn't figure out who it was since none of it made any sense at all but I kinda figured it out with all the bad writing that was involved with all of this in which this moment was supposed to look suspenseful to watch. Again this really fails big time.
I did like the very ending that involved Rhonda which seemed quite funny to see. But I was glad that the story was finally over.
A totally bad
slasher dud with lots of beautiful actors
being hacked away by a killer at a
fitness centre. This story really goes nowhere even if
they try to make this slasher flick
mysterious iof having certain characters
as suspects.
This film wasn't very well publicised and
I can almost see why but it's not yet a
turkey but it's very close to being one.
The acting is
terrible performed by many virtual
unknowns. There was hardly any energy
with the cast involved as it's extremely
stale for a typical Z grader like this
one.
Marcia Karr (Rhonda Johnson) was better off with
her supporting role in the cult action
flick Savage Streets. She portrays a different role as someone who has a bitter attitude and acting incredibly bitchy in which she seems to be a little too over the top when she does this. I found her to be quite mellodramatic while she does this and is trying way too hard. Was phony with her argumentive behavior as well as trying to be a cockteaser as she was phony by doing this too. There's a scene with her whacking someone in the head with a shovel as this looked very amateurish. This was a terrible miscasting on her behalf and could win a raspberry award for worst actress.
David James Campbell (Det. Lt. Morgan) seems to have the right looks to portray this type of role with his masculine looks but this does all the talking in which he was making a fool out of himself by his performance as he was supposed to play an aggressive type and needed acting lessons desperately. In a scene he was lacking by pounding on a door yelling out commanding to have the door opened. He was also lacking big time when he was getting aggressive towards his fellow actress while getting demanding with her which was laughably performed and not in a good way. He was very goofy as he was supposed to be serious. Another raspberry performance folks.
Fritz Matthews (Jimmi Hallik) played the bodybuilder with the macho like attitude and asshole type of behavior in which he looked right to play this part but how he performed this was another story. He just wasn't convincing by doing this and seemed like he was borrowing off other types of these kinds in other shows and not being himself at all portraying a role. In a scene he was trying to get intimidating towards his fellow actor which needed some improvement. After being shot in a scene with him acting injured choking out his words seemed very phony. Too bad folks as I almost thought he'd be a good one here. Yet in a certain scene he seemed to do well throwing his punches looking fairly brutal.
Ted Prior (Chuck Dawson) seemed to try his best here as the clean cut type and a possible suspsect and he seems to almost pull off a character with what he does. However, he doesn't go too far with it. Still he's better than the rest here showing an okay intelligent attitude here and coming off across nicely with how her performed. JHe attacks someone by punching him in which this looked quite amateurish and low on energy too along with poor reactions him when this happens.
Teresa Van der Woude (Jaimy) seemed to have the healthy girl next door type of look to her and tries her best to add some spunk into her role and can seem to do the trick for the most part in her performance. She is a bit cheesy in certain spots when she gets anxious or scared but other times can pass with portraying a character. There's a cheesy reaction on her by getting on top of her fellow actor as well as acting lustful which looked very wooden. She's no award winning material nonetheless. However in a scene she does a turn around movement on her acting shocked taken by surprise which looked fairly energetic.
Joel Hoffman (Weightlifter #2) has a small role in this flick but was worth mentioning as he seemed cheesy in his conversations with his onscreen friend while weightlifting and makes another appearance by straining while weightlifting in which he seems to be pulling on nothing but an act and not letting it be natural as well as a phony looking strike in the head and him almost losing conciousness as his reactions were fairly rough.
A woman strips
down to nothing but the bottom of her
swimsuit in a tanning salon breasts fully
exposed.
A corspe of a black woman's breasts are
revealed.
During a dream sequence Teresa Van
der Woude takes off her top showing
off her breasts during a makeout scene.
Also Marcia Karr's character
exposes her scarred breasts.
There are some
bloody stabbings and slit throats
A head that was bashed by a dumbbell
A corpse is bloodily hung but nothing too
over the top gory.
The music is cheesily
composed by Todd Hayen which is
nothing at all spectacular but
synthesizer music and keyboard playing. We hear some high plunking sounds during the still moments trying to make this moment sound a bit suspenseful but it fails. Plus there's some odd screeching sound effects too that sounds quite trashy too.
We have a soundtrack by
cheesy 80's music groups with some fairly good female singing like:
"Woman on Fire" by Jill Colucci
"Only You Tonight" by Donna De
Lory
"Some Things Never Change"
& "Dust it Off" by The Lost
Playboy Club
"Love Is a Four Letter Word" by
Didi Nelson
"Knockout" by Robert Michaels
& Lisa Duran
"Animal Workout" by Robert
Michaels |
