Three on a Meathook

A young man is terrified to bring anyone home because, when he does, they always turn up dead. Is it his jealous father or maybe one of his alternate personalities? Everything is tested when he finally meets the girl of his dreams and wants to bring her home to meet daddy.

Three on a Meathook is Psycho filtered through a dusty and grimy grindhouse lens. You look at the way this is shot and it's a miracle that it makes any sense at all. Not a lot of coverage, all the actors seem amateurish, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn the main farmhouse location was given to the filmmakers for free by a relative or friend. That said, this is an interesting revamp of some classic themes and ideas and I found myself glued to the screen.

It's surprise after surprise in this elegant shocker from auteur writer/director Bill "The Girdle" Girdler. This is the kind of high-speed, chase-riddled thrillfest that others can only dream of emulating. Another masterpiece from an American original!

Ultra-low-budget, skid row version of Psycho lands firmly in the category of so-bad-its-good!

Why is it that every time handsome, young Billy brings a girl home that she ends up butchered?

One of a number of drive-in horror flicks that William Girdler made in the '70's, this one being fairly memorable. As with many films of its budget, the raw, natural settings add to the moody believability of the picture. James Pickett turns in a decent performance as the films main character, who seems to have some problems indeed. Charles Kissinger plays off well enough as Pickett's odd father. Girdler gives the film a gritty, but nicely moody music score.

As with many exploitation films of its day, there's plenty of gore and skin to see. After all, what would you expect from a movie with this memorable title!

All in all, Three on a Meathook is a film that's certainly not for all tastes! Fans of the B genre, especially from this era will likely enjoy this horrific and unintentional funny flick.

** 1/2 out of ****

I came across this movie in Psychotronic Movie Guide Vol I, and was surprised I could watch it on YouTube. I have done this for Ms. 45, went a few years back to the movie house re release and bought the Blu Ray. What I say on YouTube was unimpressive, the script really was the problem, as the story does not flow as in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I suspect this was the director first or one of his early movies and did not attend film school, and this is true for many independent directors who learned what they could from other directors and production staff including Clint Eastwood. While TCM plays like a reality movies TOaMC is more like a HS dropouts nightmare and I would not have done any better. Watch it, just to say you included it in your viewing history of B movies, but try to watch it free the first time before you invest in a copy.

Taking a page from Psycho's playbook, Three on a Meathook opens with 4 young woman looking for a good time and finding themselves stranded when their car breaks down. They're found by a good samaritan named Billy who takes them back to the farmhouse that he and his odd father share in the country. As the night progresses, each girl comes to a nasty end and Billy's father is scared that his son has relapsed into his old murderous ways. As Billy struggles to keep his sanity, he meets a waitress who he falls for. Will he able able to keep her murderous cravings at bay and start a new life with her?

Three on a Meathook won't win any awards for fantastic cinematography or wonderful acting. If anything, these are the things that keep the film down. It feels like it's everyone's first time making a movie both in front of and behind the camera and some of the actors feel like they're playing to the back row of a community theatre house with every word overennunciated to freakish effect. It does give the film an odd quality that sometimes benefits low budget horror films like this.

The story itself is obviously a riff on Psycho, but had it been written with a little more skill and finesse, it could have really been something great. As is, it's still incredibly entertaining and, at about 70 minutes, it does get to the nitty gritty of things pretty quickly, but there's a more interesting psychological character study in here.