A homicidal maniac
Howard Johns (Solly Marx) who was in an
asylum due to a bunch of sorority murders
years ago is accidentally released from
an insane asylum due to a computer error
and heads back to the sorority site where
he commited his last murders.
Howard's shrink Dr. Joan Gilmore (Belinda
Montgomery) takes off after him and tries
to get help from the local county Sheriff
Liggett (Sydney Lassick) yet he is too
hard headed to do anything about it so
she meets up with a charming man named
Mark McGowan (David Greenan) whom he
helps her to the area of an all girls
sorority house which she meets the
headmaster Mrs. Collins (Viveca
Lindfors) who tells her what had happened
there but one of the sorority sisters
Jane (Katherine Kamhi) seems
disturbed about it all whenever the
subject is brought up.
It seems that Howard beat her to the
place and tried to attack her but no one
believes her when she warns the others
about this maniac so one by one he slays
these people away.
Meanwhile, the hospital administrators
lead by Dr. Kruger (Roderick Cook) sets
out two thugs Virgil (Dennis
Helfend) and Jesse (Philip Levy) out to
get her while they try to cover up the
mistake on Johns' bail.
When I started
watching this film during the beginning I
had a feeling it was going to be a real
bad one by how everything was set out
which looked roughly paced and boy was I
ever right. The story is extremely rushed
with alot of bad performances. It's also
a typical run of the mill slasher film
which has been overly done with others
which tries so hard to be scary with the
killer attacking his victims but it looks
very obvious.
There's a
crummy conversation between a couple Paul and Susan while they're making out near a campsite
which looked too obvious as well as close
up shots on Paul himself in a van
with her as well as a glimpse on Howard Johns peeking near the van as well as
a good shot on him swinging a sledge
hammer when the back door opens I must
say towards the camera.
Of course there's twisted scene's with
the psych ward, corny moments with the
patients (Which doesn't look at all
believeable) and shocking stuff from the
lead character when she discovers on how
the patients are treated which you don't
see everyday. Good shots on these
patients in a lab sleeping with Dr. Joan Gilmore looking shocked by what
she sees which leaves a nice impression
as well as Virgil and Jesse giving her heck for entering in
which it looked not too bad like these
two people had something hiding from her.
There's good takes on Joan in
a meeting with Dr. Kruger, Dr. Anderson and Dr. Van Dyke having
a discussion with her along with a good
shot on Kruger being firm and
serious with her which looked fairly
good.
There's many good discussions between Mark McGowan acting charming towards Joan which
looked nicely done between the two of
them showing good
chemistry with one another surprisingly
compared to his other situations in this
flick.
There's also bland moments with sorority
sisters at an all girls sorority house
that doesn't pick up at all except for
certain areas with mentions of a murderer
and one of the sisters really bothered by
this or a headmaster with some dark
secrets that no one knows about which as
well as the killer appearing to kill one
of the first sisters or almost finding
the psychiatrist is one of the only
interesting moments. Then it goes
downhill when this killer kills the other
sorority sisters which is oboviously
expected instead of surprising you.
For example a wooden conversation between Pam and Cheryl playing Monopoly
in a sorority house for girls which
looked way too
unnatural.
But there's a great moment with Mrs. Collins coming down the stairs and
lashing out towards them for doing a
dirty trick which looked quite
intimidating along with a good moment on Jane by calming her down and taking her up the
stairs.
A fairly average conversation between Mrs. Collins acting pleasant with Joan when
she introduces herself as well as telling
her about what happened
there years before showing a good black
and white shot with two sorority sisters doing things to
their pledges along with close up shots
on the pledges bending over and getting
their butts whacked by a paddle. There's
also good shots on them crawling over Howard as well as a good shot on him losing
control and shooting them with good
frightened reactions on them too.
A good moment with Joan in
a room and spotting Howard staring
at her and trying to talk calmly to him
and he tries to grab her which is a good
jumping moment. There's a
good shot on Howard looking above
later on expressionless which leaves a
good creepy feeling to the picture.
Plus there's two bumbling thugs driving
an ambulance who act like twiddle dee and
twiddly dum that are supposed to be
suspects to this killer and with their
suspenseful actions are not taken
aeriously at all. It just looks stupid
when they are supposed to be goofy but in
a dangerous way and not coming across
like that at all due to on how this plot
was written and done.
There's corny discussions between Virgil and Jesse when they are driving
an ambulance and acting crazy about stuff
which looked a bit too comedic and
unfunny too.
Stale choreography with the
fighting scene's between the two of them against Howard with
their struggles against one another as
well as Joan trying to get
away. It really needed improvement big
time.
There's good shots on Joan trying
to get away from Howard's grip
when she crawls into a vent as well as
good shots on him using a sharp steel
object to stab theough the metal. There's
also good shots on her in
the vent dodging from his stabbing
actions.
There's a cheesy moment with Mark with his hands tied trying to shoot Howard with a shotgun regardless as well as him
and Joan trying to
struggle against Howard whenever
he tries to attack the two of them.
Yet the near ending was quite impressive
with the final confrontation on the
killer, psychiatrist, her boyfriend and
the headmaster.
Bottom line is this is a boring and
amateurish slasher flick that we've
already seen in Black Christmas,
Halloween (In which it
almost seems like a close spoof to) and A
Nightmare On Elm Street which
offers no twists at all although it tried
so hard to. Heck even Slumber
Party Massacre was alot more
entertaining. I can see now why this film
was almost unheard of and hard to find in
which Media probably discontinued it for
not renting too well after it's
theatrical release as it was probably a
very small run if you ask me.
The acting was a
little off and some of it quite bad and
due to the low budget and weak direction
and plot didn't make things better for
any of the cast members but let's take a
look here.
Belinda
Montgomery (Dr. Joan Gilmore) seems to do her trick as
a psychiatrist by
trying to bring a good character to her
part with her nice attitude as well as
her frightened actions too. A good reaction
on her in a scene by trying to run away and scream for
help which looked energised. She pulls off
some good energy to her role so I will
give her good credit to what she had to
do in it.
David Greenan (Mark McGowan) brings on a great
charm by playing that guy
next door type of attitude and seemed
natural with doing so especially with his
outgoing behavior. He also shows nice a
nice anxious attitude too in a scene when
something terrible has happened. He is
the man for sure to play this part.
Solly Marx (Howard Johns) really stood out very big
as the killer Howard Johns and does look
intimidating too but yet when you see him
perform you can tell that he will have
limitations for future work with his
silent behavior as a Michael Myers type
of killer.
Viveca Lindfors (Mrs. Collins) really stole the
film with her performance as the
headmaster of the girls sorority house
by having a disturbed
attitude and going in a rage when
something sleazy happens and yet having a
calm and pleasant behavior when things
are okay in which she portrayed a perfect
key role to the film as someone with some
skeletons in the closet making her role a
good horror character.
Roderick Cook (Dr. Kruger) showed a good stern
attitude as the employer at the asylum
named Dr. Kruger and stood out quite well
with what he had to do in the flick. He
could be well remembered for his work in
it.
We have a supporting role by TV daytime
soap actress Katherine Kamhi (Jane) who
plays a sorority sister got cast in
this due to her success in the 1983 cult
slasher classic Sleepaway Camp in which she did a much better job than
with this one as she seemed quite rough
in her role. Yet she knew on how to act
disturbed when there's a discussion on a
murderer. A good reaction after she discovers that something is
wrong at a campground when she visits her
sister yet she seems a
little too melodramatic when she gets
emotional and screaming too. She does her best with her
upsetting emotions when she encounters
some dead bodies but yet it lacked a bit.
Sydney Lassick (Sheriff Liggett) was
another actor in the film who has done
better jobs in other shows but he wasn't
too bad in this one but has done better
in which he plays an obnoxious county
Sheriff Liggett. He comes across well
with his closed minded attitude but yet
tries to bring some humor to his part and
fails.
There's a shirt change by
bit part actress Daisy White with
full breast shots on her.
A sorority sister flashes her breasts in
a flashback scene and another one does
much later in the story.
There's some open
stabs wounds
A head is bashed by a hammer which almost
exposes the skull
Some bloody gun shots on some sorority
sisters in a flashback scene
A head is drilled
There's trashy sounding
high pitched music as if it suppposed to
sound like a violin which was quite
annoying. However there's great technical
sounds along with deep organ music which
sounds very similar to the music in the
Linda Blair cult classic Hell
Night in which this was brought
together by Barry Salmon.
Mrs.
Collins: All right girls listen up.
This is probably a simple prank. Just to
be safe I want you to lock up and stay
together. |