Although hampered by a very low budget, by the looks of things, this is still a passable thriller which is along the lines of THE TERMINATOR and THE HITCHER in that it charts the murders of an unstoppable killer. There's even a police station massacre which bears direct resemblance to the former film. Probably the best thing about this film is the talent involved, from William Lustig (big-time horror fan and director of gritty urban horror MANIAC) as director to the all-star, cult cast of familiar faces: not only do you get Bruce Campbell in the leading role, the underrated Tom Atkins appears in a supporting role while blaxploitation star Richard Roundtree also cameos!
The most disappointing thing about this film is the lack of action; the low budget means that there's only really one notable action sequence in it, and that occurs at the very end with the van chase. Other moments which could have been spectacular are only hinted at, for instance : the police station massacre sees a number of officers being strangled and hanged, but we only get to see the aftermath of this event. A spooky moment, yes, but one which could have been phenomenal with the right money to spend. The plot is adequate and quite complex to begin with, and at least the script writer figures out a psychology and motive behind the crimes. I also liked the fact that the maniac cop is a zombie (how else could he survive all those bullets?) is never explained, just left to the imagination.
The film is pretty grisly in places but the death scenes are kept brief. There are a lot of them to compensate for this, with about 95% of the cast being slaughtered through and through. Bruce Campbell looks too young to be a cop but, as per usual, he's charismatic and likable in his leading role. Tom Atkins, a familiar face in '80s films, is also fine as the older policeman investigating the crimes. One person I didn't like was Laurene Landon, who plays Campbell's mistress. As much as I hate to be rude, this actress's acting was a definite down side to the film! Richard Roundtree is good and gruff as usual but underused, while William Smith's croaky-voiced commander is another plus point for the film.
This is one of those films which keeps the face of the killer hidden for the entire running time and then ruins the shock at the end with some extremely poor makeup. The cop - played badly by Robert D'Zar - just has a few scars on his cheeks, that's all, which doesn't explain why everybody screams when they see his face. What this film does succeed in doing is painting a dark and gritty picture of life in New York - realism is at a high here. Plus the scenes of people being chased by the cop are successfully tense and suspenseful. Although not a brilliant film and slightly disappointing for most people, I did fully enjoy this movie and look forward to watching the sequels some day.
