555

555. The VHS I never tried to rent. I still blame the perfectly framed pink and blood splattered cover. This is a dangerous film. My mother would never let this flick fly.

Flash forward twenty years. Making my own ends meet, I finally had enough scratch to get a DVD copy of 555. I feel both dirty and naive. With a dash of admiration.

555 is ambitious, but limited. While my childhood recalled a dark, slaughterhouse of decapitations and vomit inducing hallucinating gore set pieces, the real 555 film was a cheaply made detective thriller.

While delivering some bloodthirsty set pieces, the movie is mostly known for its VHS cover. And while I respect the filmmakers addition to the VHS splatter film videography, some experiences are better left on the rental store wall display.

555 is one of the best SOV movies I have ever seen. It's very gory and violent and there are a couple of scenes that are almost unbearable to watch (like when the killer is rapeing a dead girl and when it gets a close up of the knife going into a young girl). The movie trys to be violent and gory and it really is. The acting isn't exactly the greatest, either. This isn't a movie for the little ones nor for the people who are weak in the stomach to unsettling things.

2 out of 4 stars.

Contains adult language, adult content, extreme violence, and sexual situations.

Oh, the horror! I've seen A LOT of gore movies in my day, but this one just makes me gag with with laughter rather than repulsiveness. This is definitely a crazy movie and is very low-budget, I might add, but if you're able to look past the cheap audio, horrible dialogue, ugly girls, the obviously fake gore scenes, and overall cheeziness of the film, then you might find some of this film to be somewhat entertaining. The story is about a copy cat killer who goes on a killing spree every "5th day, of the 5th month, of the 5th year" (wow, how original), and it's up to two detectives (one of whom gave a valiant effort at trying to make the crapy dialogue good) to stop the killer's bloody rampage. The killing scenes (which are done with a plastic toy knife) are pretty brutal (which is a good thing), but very annoying due to the constant repetition of an obviously recorded scream (which is very ear piercing). As for the gore, there's plenty of it but it looks very fake; especially the blood - dude, c'mon, purple blood? But, if you're a fan of gore videos, like myself, then you'll find something in this video to cherish like I did (the crap-talking detective...he's the best thing going for this film). Other than that, all you're going to find is a bunch of senseless nudity (which is also a good thing, but too bad the girls are OOOGLY) and a very idiotic hippy necrophiliac serial killer. Sorry, but this one sucks.

Shot on video, this mystery serial killer would seem pretty typical of the '80s slasher genre, except for the cheap sets and the horrendous acting and bad writing. And I do mean seriously bad, but strangely enough that's what adds the charm to this little ditty. And, of course, its got sex and nudity and graphic bloody killings and even an attempt at a twist ending,(like anybody cares who the killer is)....

My review was written in February 1989 after watching the show on King video cassette.

Aimed squarely at the gore market, "555" is a competent video thriller made in Chicago.

Storyline, in the vein of '50s B pictures, has a serial killer operating by the lakeside who preys on couples, decapitating the man while mutilating and sexually assaulting the woman.

Mara-Lynn Bastian is the feisty reporter on the case, with various police and other officials as possible suspects. Jeffrey Lyle Segal and Maureen Kalagian's special makeup effects are interesting, and duly repeated at the end as "highlights".

Acting is a bit stiff while Lamar Bloodworth's video camera captures vivid-looking bloodletting presumably for hardcore fetishists.