Luther the Geek

All in all, this film could have been much worse. I make this assertion in consideration of it's genre. Scanning the shelves in your local video store's horror section, one can definitely see some truly larcenous attempts at the movieviewer's dollar. This film at least makes an earnest attempt at a feature. The shots used are stable, in focus, and decently lit. It also offers the obligatory (at least in any decent horror flick) female nudity and crudely created gore effects. While the plot is laughable and the pacing is horribly slow the movie is most noteworthy for it's revolutionary use of chicken clucking for sizeable amounts of on screen dialogue, truly one of a kind. Low budget horror fans should give it a peek.

Revisiting old films that you thought were average isn't necessarily a good thing. They sometimes get worse. Championed by the Fangoria camp (in Gorezone they labeled it "the scariest film since Texas CHAINSAW"…um, no), LUTHER THE GEEK inexplicably developed a cult following as an "intense" horror picture. Actually, it is just an average stalk and slash…uh, bite film that briefly sets itself aside from the pack by featuring a killer who clucks like a chicken. Yes, clucks like a chicken. To the filmmaker's credit, at least they didn't make the killer sound like a duck a la THE NEW YORK RIPPER. That would just be silly.

Narrative logic is completely abandoned in LUTHER THE GEEK. I'm not saying that slasher films are abound with reason, but at least in HALLOWEEN Michael Myers escaped. Luther is actually paroled after a lengthy scene where people argue he is reformed, even though he clucks like a chicken and has razor dentures (which he apparently fashioned in prison). It is the kind of film where a couple sees a bashed in door and the girl dismisses it by saying, "Oh, my mom must have forgotten her keys. She forgets a lot of things since my dad died." The kind of film where the hysterical mother runs into a cop looking for Luther and tells him, "The killer is in my house!" So what does he do? He grabs her and literally drags her back to the house and says, "Just show me where he is and I'll do the rest." Why not call back up?

It is too bad the film is filled with such horrible action and dialogue because the Luther character is actually pretty interesting. Most of the credit goes to Ed Terry, a dead ringer for Tom Noonan in MANHUNTER, who gives the clucking Luther a genuine air of menace. In the hands of a right director, LUTHER THE GEEK could be on the same level as SONNY BOY or SANTA SANGRE and be a true cinematic oddity. But Albright is not that director and merely places the fascinating character of Luther in tedious slasher trappings.

Odd, original and entertaining horror. The film concerns the disturbed Luther, who witnessed a Geek perform as a child and also lost his teeth. Eventually the weirdo kill numerous chickens and 3 people, and is incarcerated for 25 years. Paroled, the first thing he does is tear an "old" woman's throat out with his homemade metal dentures and escape to the country to terrorize a woman and her daughter. He never speaks, clucking and behaving like a chicken. Surprisingly well acted, with great fx. Despite the unintentional humor provided by what must be the stupidest cop in the state, it's a very well made and interesting film.

As a child, little hillbilly Luther once witnessed a sideshow geek doin' his thing in a barn and was immediately transfixed by the man's bloody antics. Now Luther is grown and incarcerated on three counts of murder, but he is about to be granted parole...

Pretty much as soon as Luther hits the street he mauls an old lady (who for some reason is a young actress made-up to look old) with his razor sharp set of steel dentures, then while on the run from the police, he jumps into a parked car's backseat to hide. Shortly thereafter, the owner of the car, Hilary, hops in and drives home to her secluded farmhouse to prepare dinner for her daughter Beth, and her boyfriend who are soon to be returning home from college for the holidays. Luther's about to have a feast fit for a king! The first thing I noticed about this film is that it looks like it was made in the late 70s-early 80s; with the faded colours, grainy film stock, and overall atmosphere it really feels just like some grimy piece of trash discarded and forgotten about by the local grindhouse (though I loathe to use this now filthy word!). The other thing that immediately sticks out is that its almost a silent film - there is very little dialog aside from the constant clucks, squawks & crows that emit from Luther's mouth as he does his bizarre chicken act.

Now to the violence and nudity! There's definitely some bloody scenes here as we witness Luther gorily tear into necks, fingers and chests with his grill, but it's nowhere near as ultra-violent as its reputation / reviews suggest. The only nudity here is from Hilary's daughter, Beth, (TV star Stacy Haiduk who played Lana Lang in the Superboy TV series) who has a lengthy shower scene - of which there is a whole seven more minutes of in the outtakes section for all you sleazefiends - and a sex scene.

All in all, a decent semi-slasher flick with plenty of grubby ambiance. Luther is a total freak and it's fun to watch him gore people up and run around like a retarded chicken, especially when he does his wacky victory / death dance after a kill.

One major negative with this disc though, is the idiotic Troma extras: first off we have an utterly witless intro to the film with Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman introducing Troma's "freakshow" which consists of some fag that pretends to suck Kaufman's dick and another f@ckwit who tries to suck his own cock, but farts instead. These childish attempts at humour are really not funny and had me p!ssed off before the film even started. Aside from the brainless intro there's also Troma extras like a global warming awareness short and a twelve minute PETA propaganda film trying to convince us all to become vegetarians. I really don't think this kinda proselytizing bullshit should be on a DVD - yes, I understand that Kaufman is obviously worried about the environment and a vegetarian who wants to get the message out there, but I'm sure most of us know what goes on in a slaughterhouse and what the short life of a battery hen consists of, why force it onto the unsuspecting public who just wanna watch a campy horror film?

Man, what an odd movie. It's one of those horror films that's so off-the-wall that I had to watch it more than once to figure out if I liked it or not. I have decided that I really do like it. Can you believe a killer with steel dentures who thinks he's a chicken and bites people's throats out like a carnival geek? Even if you can't, this movie is warped fun. The acting is pretty much top-notch in my opinion, and the gore FX are good enough to exceed the low budget. Interesting also is the fact that most of the movie is achieved without a whole lot of dialogue, making it all the more strange. And to boot we get some great nudity and sex scenes, as well as that sexy Joan Roth tied spread on the bed and gagtalking! Mm-mmph-good! A neat, weird little horror/exploitation movie that deserves some major cult status. What have you been waiting for? See "Luther the Geek"!