Murder Weapon

Dawn (B movie goddess Linnea Quigley) and her friend Amy ("Tenement" hottie Karen Russell) are the mentally unstable daughters of mobsters. They spend some time in a mental institution before being let back into the real world, and decide to invite a bunch of ex- boyfriends to a party to celebrate. Wouldn't you know it: a mad killer arrives to make mincemeat of the partygoers.

This ultra cheap trashy slasher from writer Ross A. Perron and the prolific David DeCoteau is hard to stick with for a while. It drags like you wouldn't believe, with a lot of set-up to sit through. Much time is devoted to institution flashbacks, with the sexy gals being interviewed by doctors played by Lenny Rose and token big name Lyle Waggoner. Fortunately, DeCoteau is smart enough to include a bit of sex and T & A to break up the tedium. It's also a mild bit of fun to watch a cast that also includes Eric Freeman of "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2" infamy. But it isn't until late in the game that this gets a lot more amusing. The makeup effects are crude but deliciously over the top. The movie also ends with a pretty decent fire gag. And Linnea and Russell prove quite easy to watch.

A passable time killer for 83 minutes.

Six out of 10.

I imagine most people watched this for Linnea Quigley, I did. Whilst much of her work is in B movies this is bottom of the barrel stuff.

Her acting is ok and thats just about all of the positives folks. 1st gripe is that the Scenes are far too long, long scenes are fine if you have the right calibre of actors, this would have been better served with more action and shorter scenes. The sound editing is shockingly bad, the music soundtrack is so loud in places that you cannot hear the characters clearly (Although perhaps thats a blessing given the awful dialogue). The first 40 minutes is all over the place and actually kind of confusing with flashbacks sequences and badly written exposition. They did have something to work with when it came to the storyline, it wasn't bad, it was just so terribly executed that a promising idea came to nothing.

I am a fan of low budget trashy movies so I am quite forgiving but this one just didn't work at all. Sadly, not worth your time.

To celebrate their release from a mental hospital, two hot young girls (played by blonde scream queen Linnea Quigley and sexy brunette Karen Russell) hold a party, inviting their ex-boyfriends (all stud-muffins—this is, after all, a David DeCoteau movie). While the party-goers chill, drink beer, play ball, soak in the pool and have sex with the two girls, someone starts to kill them one by one.

The first forty or so minutes of Murder Weapon are a real test of patience: overly talky, with numerous lengthy flashbacks in which the girls talk to a psychiatrist (played by Lyle Waggoner, Steve Trevor from Wonder Woman), only a smattering of T&A prevents this half of the film from being a total loss (wearing a skimpy bikini, Russell is given a full five minutes to oil her arms and legs).

Then, at roughly the 45 minute mark, a guy gets his head smashed to pulp with a sledgehammer and things pick up a bit from thereon-in; the talky stuff continues, but is now interspersed by sporadic sex and violence. Linnea Quigley strips off and humps a dude, a guy is force fed his own heart (a hand inexplicably erupting from his chest), someone gets a broken champagne bottle in the throat, and another guy is shot in the head. The effects are cheap and trashy, but enthusiastically gory, and the film ends in style with an impressive full body burn stunt, the killer doused with petrol and set on fire.

Overall, an unexceptional late '80s slasher, but worth persevering with for the inept but juicy deaths, and Quigley's sex scene. 5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

My review was written in January 1990 after watching the film on Cinema Home Video cassette.

From the makers of "Deadly Embrace" comes another minimalist video feature, aimed squarely at fans ol scream queen Linnea Quigley. Static, talky nature of this cheapie is a big drawback.

Incomprehensible plot line, which is unusually scatterbrained even for the video thriller genre, has Quigley and buxom Karen Russell as nutcases let loose from the asylum who invite some boys over for a party. Some maniac is killing off the boys and the bogus ending comes as no surprise.

Before then, the star (who also produced) removes her clothes for some sexy footage, while Russell is uncharacteristically prudish this time out.

Script crudely establishes that both heroines come from gangster families, but little is made of this irrelevant plot peg. Executive producer David DeCoteau, directing as "Ellen Cabot", fails to generate much humor or campiness here. Likewise, guest star Lyle Waggoner has little to do in his token role as a shrink.

Tech credits are threadbare, with a confusing editing structure and many scenes consisting of simply talking heads.

Two friends with mobsters for fathers get out of an asylum and plan a party for all their male admirers, but a psychotic black-gloved killer crashes the party and begins killing them one by bloody one.

Part slasher and part exploitation cheapie, Murder Weapon somehow has both way too much going on and not enough going on. It feels as if most of the script was written by throwing darts at a list of character types, themes, and genres and the overall mix can be a bit mystifying.

It's very hard to hear a lot of the dialogue and film equipment frequently make cameos, but Linnea Quigley is nothing if not dependable, lending a lot of tongue in cheek charm to her role. Some of the makeup effects during the death scenes are very impressive and some are painfully hokey, but that's all part of the fun. Have a few beers, sit back, and enjoy the movie.