Luther the Geek

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?

Even though this is an 1990 movie, it still feels and looks like a typical '70's exploitation flick/slasher. It uses the same sort of style and approach and it is more successful in this than most other modern attempts that try the recreate the '70's style of slasher.

And really, as far as low-budget horror film-making goes, this is quite a good movie, that is only being held back by its writing.

It's really only the writing that makes this quite a weak and stupid film to watch at times. First of all, its main premise is already quite flawed. Here we have a psychotic killer, that doesn't talk at all and acts like a chicken, that is nevertheless getting released from prison because it is thought he is no longer being a danger to the society. Why? It's not like this guy ever does anything normal. And all that the rest of the movie basically is, is the guy biting people in the neck and terrorizing a family at the countryside. No, there isn't that much to the story really and to be honest, it all gets progressively worse.

About half way through the movie isn't that interesting to watch anymore because it sticks to mostly just one location, with all of the same characters, who never seem to be doing enough to get or kill the Geek. But if they did the movie of course would had been way shorter than its already mere 80 minutes of running time.

It's still a fun movie to watch for the lovers of slasher/exploitation flicks. It's no better or worse than the average genre attempt and it besides also has some good gore in it.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I rented the out of print video version of this about a year and a half ago from a mom and pop video store down the road from my house. I watched it and liked it. I asked the old guy who ran the place to sell me the video but he declined. A couple of days ago I saw Troma re-released this and I quickly snatched it up. I'm glad I didn't buy the video. The Troma DVD has some really good extras (love the shower scene outtakes). Anyway, this is a pretty good horror movie and the first hour has plenty of out-of-nowhere twists and turns and the villain in this is entertaining to watch (he clucks like a chicken). The gore is spaced out but heavy and the story moves at a fast pace even though it's pretty slim. A chunk in the last half hour features a cop sleuthing through a dark barn and the scene takes an eternity (my girlfriend then fell asleep). Thats the only downfall of the movie. Otherwise, an original, gruesome, fast-paced time-waster that I don't mind watching now and then. Features gory neck bitings. Three stars.

I can remember back in the early 1990's bootleg VHS copies of this going around, that was the only way you could see this here in the UK. I didn't bother but 30 years later I have just watched the official Blu-ray release, it was kinda worth the wait. Sold as a slasher but there is no slashing, Luther uses his metal teeth to not only rip the heads off chickens but also to make a very bloody mess of peoples' necks! He also drinks blood so arguably he is part crazed vampire but without any supernatural elements. The timeline is all wrong, we first see Luther as a young boy in 1938. He is convicted of several murders in his late teens and serves 20 something years in jail before being released. I would date that sometime during the 1970's but this is clearly set/filmed in the late 1980's! Most of the film has Luther holding a woman, her sexy daughter and her lucky boyfriend hostage in their farmhouse, so it is in part a home invasion movie. Although the acting is rather amateur Edward Terry puts in a memorable performance as the horrible. Freakish Geek. I often side with the bad guy in slasher movies, for example Jason in the Friday the 13th's, but Luther is truly vile and I wanted him to suffer. Sadly his victims make so many dumb decisions that I found it hard to side with them either. Stacy Haiduk gets naked for some almost soft pornographic sex scenes and she looks amazing. Despite its failings Luther the Geek packs in some serious gore and should appeal to most splatter movie fans.

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.