Witch Bitch - Tod aus dem Jenseits

After reading the glowing reviews for this film I had to seek it out, especially as it's been compared to Aerobicide (Killer Workout). However I found that Death Spa was not as good, despite the fact that there's more gore.

The plot to Death Spa is a bit muddled and I found it hard to follow to start with. It seemed to be about a mans dead wife who was coming back to haunt him, causing deaths at the spa. There are some nice scenes such as when the naked girls are showering and bits of glass fly at them. And there's the scene where the guys ribs split open. The thing is, the deaths are not quite as 'gory' as some reviewers here would have you believe (at least on the Witch Bitch VHS I saw). The best scenes are at the end when all the mayhem occurs. The highlight is the frozen fish death scene that many have mentioned, which is hilariously cheesy. There's plenty of naked breasts too if that's your sort of thing.

Overall, Death Spa is fairly good but not amazing. The frozen fish scene is priceless. If you liked Death Spa you may also like Killer Workout, which I personally think is much better.

Holy crap, this was put on late at night in drunken good fun and somehow this is a late 80's camp gem. The colors, music, and cinematography are crazy good fun.

The premise is solidly ridiculous - a murder spree at an LA fitness club seemingly caused by a malfunctioning computer. There's a playfulness to the whole enterprise, from the lighting, cinematography and lighting, to the overall high camp feel of it all. It's slightly surreal but in an offhand kind of way. The opening scene is pretty spectacular - a long take set to some sweet 80's synth with a great title "card". And the kills ramp up nicely - ending with a head exploding in a gale force wind and some killer flying fish.

Death Spa (1989)

*** (out of 4)

Michael (William Bumiller) runs a health club that's the biggest thing in the city thanks to new technology that allows a computer system to run things. However, things take a dark turn when a couple members are severely injured and after more deaths happen it appears there's something much darker at play.

If you rented videos back in the 80s or 90s then I'm sure you stumbled across this film in the horror section at some point. I must have passed the video by countless times, picked it up a few times but I never left the store with it. After all, it's a horror movie set in a health club, how good could that be? Now that I've finally caught up with the picture I can't help but be disappointed in myself for not giving it a shot back in the day.

Look, if you're wanting high art or some sort of hard-hitting drama then you're not going to find it here. DEATH SPA is basically a low-budget slasher movie that appears to have been directed by someone who knew what the people watching a film like this wanted to see. Director Michael Fischa and writers James Bartruff and Mitch Paradise all do a wonderful job because what you've basically got here are a bunch of gory murders and a bunch of hot ladies taking their clothes off. These are staples of the VHS-era and this film offers plenty of both.

I really liked the death scenes in the film as they were not only creative but we also got some extremely gory moments. There are several highlights among the death scenes but there's one where a woman gets some sort of acid on her and just gets eaten away. As for the nudity, yeah, there's the required shower sequence but with a twist. DEATH SPA certainly isn't a masterpiece and it really would have benefited by being ten-minutes shorter but at the same time this is exactly what a film should be like if it wants to be in that low-budget horror field.

****SPOILERS**** Extremely gory movie about a health spa, The Starbody,haunted by the owners Michael Evens, William Bumiller, wife Catherine, Shari Shattuck, with some of the most gut turning scenes even put on film.

The movie starts out with what at first seems like a number of tragic accidents where Michael's girlfriend Laura,Brenda Bakke, gets blinded by what seems like a defective steam room. Later one of the costumers at the spa Darla, Chelsea Field, almost gets killed when the diving board that she was on gave way and broke. When another spa member Robert, Hank Cheyne,is torn to pieces working out on one of the exercise machines Michael as well as the police begin to suspect David, Merritt Butrich, who works in the control room which controls the exercise equipment in what's been happening to the people at the spa.

It turns out that David holds his ex-brother in-law Michael responsible for his sisters death. Catherine committed suicide by dousing herself with gasoline and setting herself on fire because she became crippled giving birth to Michael's child. Michael refused to let Catherine have an abortion which David feels would have prevented her from becoming crippled and thus driving her to kill herself. The movie moves to it's final and bloody conclusion with an horrific ending that ends up killing almost everyone in the spa.

Over-the-top special effects back then, 1987, that are as good as they are in any horror or slasher movie made now makes "Death Spa" rank right up there with slasher movies like "Halloween" made back in the 1970's and 80's. Some of the scenes in the movie were really terrifying as well as eye-popping and there was a number of times when I said to myself watching the movie "How did they do that?"

The plot of "Death Spa" was fairly routine with Catherine's spirit taking over her brother David's body and doing in her husband Michael's business, the health spa, and his friends. Especially Michael's girlfriend Laura who Catherine felt that Michael had an affair with while she was still alive. It's the really unbelievable special effects that makes the movie worth watching.

I watched the film Deathspa under the title Witchbitch in 1990 and i found it quite enjoyable, It is fairly difficult to find but worth it.

The following review contains *Spoilers*

This film is not your conventional slasher flick but more of a horror/mystery film that does not take itself too seriously. The story is about a health spa which has been cursed by the spirit of a woman named Catherine who dies shockingly and her husband and brother work there. Unexplainable accidents and even deaths occur in the health spa and while this happens two detectives try to unfold these unexplainable occurrences, could Catherine be responsible for all the mayhem going on at the Starbody Health Spa.

We are introduced to at least a couple of dozen characters of various stereotypes including two workers in the club who are con artists, bimbos and vain people that like nothing more than to look good.

This film also contains many classic death scenes including a woman who is killed with a food processor!It also has many celebrity cameo appearances from Karyn Parsons who played Hilary in the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air and Brenda Bakke from Demon Knight.

Recommended to horror fans who want to watch a film for enjoyment and have some fun 7 out of 10!