The Sadist

Believed to be the first film production inspired by real-life killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, the low budget effort "The Sadist" is a fine example of its kind: tense, affecting, sweat-inducing, and very well acted. Writer & director James Landis creates palpable suspense, and with the assistance of a capable crew (including cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond), gets a lot of use out of their desolate settings. This is one film that looks very good in black & white. One genuinely gets involved with these characters; our protagonists are all sympathetic and our antagonist is one hell of a dangerous psycho.

Three schoolteachers - Ed Stiles (Richard Alden), Carl Oliver (Don Russell), and Doris Page (Helen Hovey) - are on their way to a ball game when car troubles force them to pull into an isolated service station. Nobody seems to be around - that is, until Charlie Tibbs (Arch Hall Jr.) shows up, with his girlfriend Judy Bradshaw (Marilyn Manning) in tow. Charlie, feeling empowered by the gun he wields, enjoys dominating and intimidating the helpless trio. With little hope of any Cavalry riding to their rescue, they must rely on their wits to survive this situation.

Hall Jr. doesn't just dominate his victims, he dominates the whole movie, in an endlessly amusing and disconcerting performance, as he mugs, sneers, and hisses his dialogue, while also giggling in a manner inspired by Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death". You wonder how Ed, Carl, and Doris are ever going to get out of this, and you do feel for them. Russell has one particularly distressing scene where he begs for his life, as Charlie has imposed a time limit on him. Ed is clearly the one person who stands the best chance of taking Charlie on should he drop his guard, or the gun, but he doesn't see an opening. Lovely Hovey (Hall Jr.'s real life cousin, in her only movie appearance) is good, but the slinky Manning is just as watchable, not having very much in the way of spoken dialogue but often whispering ideas to Hall Jr., encouraging him with childlike glee.

Directed with great efficiency by Landis, "The Sadist" has an incredible atmosphere and you can really see the sweat on peoples' foreheads here. You keep waiting and waiting for Charlie to get his comeuppance, resulting in a rather unexpected denouement.

Eight out of 10.

If you have seen the bizarre cult movie Eegah (1962) before approaching The Sadist, you could be forgiven for being a little concerned. After all, both films are notable for featuring Arch Hall Jr in a starring role. Hall displayed such a remarkable lack of acting talent in the earlier film that it seemed inconceivable that he would be in the least bit threatening as a psychopath in a gritty thriller. Well, all I can say is that the Arch hall Jr of The Sadist is like a man reborn. He quite literally is excellent here.

The film has a plot as simple as can be - three teachers pull up at a deserted junkyard in a remote location and are quickly held captive by a psychotic young couple. It's a lean story with no wastage whatsoever. It really is a very good example of how to make an effective low-budget movie, where the lack of resources never gets in the way. In fact, this is a quite hard-hitting thriller for its era and has some tough scenes. Some characters are killed when you don't think they will be and, generally, it surprises.

As I said before Hall plays the sadist of the title but he is not the only standout performer, Marilyn Manning is very good too as his unhinged girlfriend. Her character is an interesting one, as she says nothing throughout except inaudible whispers to Hall, yet she manages to create a fascinating character and projects a quite magnetic screen presence. There are only five other actors in the entire cast, they all do solid rather than memorable work. The film benefits too from great cinematography from Vilmos Zsigmond who went on to be director of photography in such high profile later films such as Deliverance (1972), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and The Deer Hunter (1978). In this little movie he manages to utilise the clutter-filled environs of the junkyard to fantastic effect, especially in the latter suspenseful pursuit scenes where three different characters navigate their way around the junk-filled landscape where we sometimes see them all captured simultaneously on screen in different parts of the yard. The direction by James Landis is pacey and certainly makes the most of the limited set-up. Ultimately, this is well acted, photographed and directed. And this combination amounts to one of the great 60's B-movies.

'the sadist' starring none other than arch hall jr. who was practically skewered to death by the mst 3000 gang's jabs in the hilariously bad 'eegah!' stars and carries this great exploitation shocker from the early 1960s. this movie proves, if anything, that anyone can make a good movie if they put their mind to it, even arch hall jr. the script keeps you on your toes, as all good thriller scripts do, it is surprisingly brutal for a movie made in 1963 and there is no way that one of the majors would've even touched this thing because of that very reason. one of the great dps of all time, academy award winner for the 'deer hunter', vilmos zsigmond shot this thing and it has all the visual flare of a french new wave film, which you never saw in low-budget exploitation films of the time. i can see how some people might think that arch hall jr.'s performance is over-the-top, but i see it as stylistic. i am surprised that arch hall jr. wasn't given more legitimate roles after his performance in the sadist. anyway, i highly recommend this for a friday night movie when there is nothing else good on the shelf at the video store.

adam rant studio city

Three teachers are driving to Los Angeles for a Dodgers game when they're sidelined with car trouble. They pull into an automobile junkyard for assistance, but the place appears to be deserted. If only they were so lucky. It isn't long before they're set upon by the unhinged Charlie Tibbs and his silent girlfriend, Judy. Held at gunpoint and subjected to almost nonstop psychological torment by the murderous couple, the teachers may find this auto graveyard to be their final resting place as well.

Having been curious about it via a reference book, I made a point of catching The Sadist on TCM a few years back. I found myself ordering the Collector's Edition DVD the very next day. As far as 60's horror goes, I'd say it's close behind Rosemary's Baby. It's a tight little affair that doesn't take long to get going. Once the three teachers meet Charlie and his gal, it's wall-to-wall tension for the remainder of the film. Charlie is as unpredictable as he is sadistic, and these people are completely at his mercy. We're kept on the edge of our seat by never knowing what sick game he'll come up with next, or how long it'll be before he tires of his captives. I was impressed with the film's relentless, nary a hope nature. Some scenes are genuinely shocking, particularly for 1963. Who figured a soda pop could bring about such dread? The Sadist is really rather groundbreaking when you look at it. It can be seen as sort of a blueprint for some of the torture films that would follow in years to come. It's also worth noting that it's subdued shocks are more effective than the graphic shocks seen in the majority of those later films.

The acting is fine all around, but the film belongs to Arch Hall Jr. Long considered a camp king, he is chilling as the Starkweather-inspired sadist. He plays Charlie as a real oddball with some bizarre quirks and mannerisms. This could have come off as cheesy, but it doesn't. His performance feels authentic, and he is believably threatening... as long as he has a gun to hide behind, anyway.

It's also a wonderfully shot picture. Vilmos Zsigmond, who went on to award wins, delivers some stunning cinematography his first time out. With his keen eye and Landis' direction, a sense of desolation really shines through.

The Sadist is one that's not to be missed.

Forget everything else that Arch Hall jr. appeared in. This is one unforgettable, independently produced gem. I remember first seeing it in the wee hours of the morning many years ago and it left a horrifying impression.

SADIST doesn't impact through gore, but sheer psychological torment and absolute fear. No cute gimmicks, just a candid depiction of an excruciating incident. Struggling independent film makers should check this out as brutal proof of what an innovative artist can truly achieve with practically no money.

Three school teachers (two men and a young prim and proper woman) arrive at a deserted rural service station after having car trouble. From the word-go you have that apprehensive feeling that something is not right. Misfit Charlie Starkweather (Hall), along with his girlfriend, Judy, make their sudden appearance, holding them under the gun. Hall brilliantly portrays one of the most dangerous pychopaths in the history of cult cinema. He simply loves to intimidate, threaten and murder. Period.

He boasts to his next victims that he murdered the station owners and orders them to fix their car so he and his female partner-in-homicide can make their getaway. They've acquired an infamous reputation as road killers and are being hunted by the law.

What makes this film so powerfully suspenseful is that it follows real time from start to finish, imprisoning the viewer (like the victims) within every second by second development. YOU are definitely there and you have enough time to fearfully wonder what you would be feeling and doing if you were in the their unfortunate place. The photography is very impressive, utilising many unique angles, giving you a clear sense of the entrapping, isolating surroundings.

I won't be a clot and tell you what happens but I am confident enough to bet that you will be extremely freaked by a totally unexpected surprise/shock that haunted me for a long while after seeing it.

This film has so much integrity that it couldn't be camp no matter how hard it tried, but it does have the ironic humor in the respect that the joke ends up being on you. You won't be relieved by even the slightest ha ha, and I challenge the boys at MST3000 to try to lampoon this. I bet they can't. That's how effective this obscure, disturbing slice of cinema actually is. The kind of picture that no one has the courage to make in todays' commercially cowardly "Oh no! We'd better not offend anyone", movie scene. Pity.

If you don't believe anything I've said, then challenge me by checking it out.