Point of Terror

Point of Terror (1971)

BOMB (out of 4)

I need to admit that I have no idea what this film was about or what it was trying to say but here's the so-called plot. Tony (Peter Carpenter) is a nightclub singer at the Lobster Lounge where he's hoping to catch a break but most of the time he ends up in the beds of older women. Lately Tony has been having grisly nightmares of women being brutally murdered. Soon, one of these older woman (Dyanne Thorne of Ilsa fame) offers him a record contract. Tony, thinking he's going to get popular, starts acting like a star, which upsets the older woman.

Make any sense? I really don't know what the horror elements are doing in this film because it's mostly about Tony and his record contract. The horror elements are mainly shown through the nightmare images but trust me, hearing Tony sing is a lot scarier than anything we see violence wise. I kept watching this movie and expecting it to turn into a horror film but it remained a record contract film with a few doses of mystery, which were just downright boring and hard to follow as well.

The director at least knew to make the women get naked and yes boys, that includes Ilsa herself. Dyanne Thorne might not be the best actress around the block but she's got a lot of what the others don't have, if you get my drift. There's also another silly sex scene on a huge boulder (wouldn't that cause bad scratches to the back?) that the director shows using split screens. The film is bad enough to get a few laughs, especially the look at the bar, which seems to be decorated out of colored tin foil. Point of Terror fails on all other levels but I'd recommend you giving the soundtrack to someone you really hate.

Like its earlier companion feature "Blood Mania," 1971's "Point of Terror" was plainly a vanity piece for writer-producer-star Peter Carpenter, a Vegas hoofer whose death remained shrouded in mystery for decades, dates as varied as late 1970, late '71, even the late 70s-early 80s, finally confirmed as 1996, resulting from AIDS. As an actor, he displays neither emotion nor charisma, and appears to be miming his three songs, all non hits from (believe it or not) Motown! ("Lifebeats" was actually recorded by The Supremes, minus Diana Ross). Imagine a singer so bad he has nightmares on the beach about his singing, and his apartment looks like his decorator was 'Bela Lugosi!' Another surprising name prominently featured in the opening credits is future Oscar winning editor Verna Fields, who earned her Academy Award for her work on Spielberg's "Jaws" just a few years later. The director is Alex Nicol, who at least had a genuine horror title on his slim resume behind the camera, 1958's "The Screaming Skull" (he had far more credits as an actor). Leslie Simms fondly recalls her working with Peter Carpenter, who may have been a likable fellow off camera, but insisted on playing lowdown sleazeballs in his own films. He juggles three different women in this picture, even flirting with the attractive Miss Simms, yet insists on rushing off to get married even after one girl announces she's pregnant! Dyanne Thorne (whom I first saw in STAR TREK's "A Piece of the Action") had already appeared with Carpenter in 1970's "Love Me Like I Do," here playing the man hungry wife of wheelchair bound record mogul Joel Marston, best remembered by genre buffs for 1957's "The Disembodied," plus his film debut in the 1949 Charlie Chan finale "The Sky Dragon" ("Blood Mania" had featured Jacqueline Dalya, from 1941's "Charlie Chan in Rio"). For all the wildly misleading ads depicting this as a horror film, the only scene that qualifies is Dyanne's bloody murder of Marston's first wife, just a brief flashback. Considering all her misdeeds, her character just isn't as maniacal as she should be, as one reviewer commented, the whole thing remains curiously tame, rather than outrageously lurid (it's never boring however). "Point of Terror," being part of Crown International's television package, debuted on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater on Feb 26 1977, broadcast twice more over the next 4 years ("Blood Mania" earlier debuted on Nov 27 1976).

Point of Terror huh? I don't think so. Maybe Point of No Return or Pointlessness, or even Point Blank - but Terror - NO WAY! This is one of those cheesy, sleazy seventies offerings that are known for real bad acting, virtually little plot, and lots of skin. Point of Terror has all that, and it has so much more. I knew what this film was going to be like right from the beginning when Pete Carpenter, the male lead, dances in the foreground of a ridiculous bright red background ala a poor man's Tom Jones in red attire from head to toe. Things then move to Carpenter, perhaps having one of the biggest self-inflated egos I have seen in any film, play with a girl who loves him but can not offer him any career advancement. Carpenter then lies on a beach, finds an older but beautiful woman(the lovely, buxom Dyanne Thorne), realizes she happens to be married to the man in charge of a recording company that could give him his big break, and you can imagine where things go from there. The story is not overly inventive at all, the acting is quite pedestrian with Carpenter doing a less than workmanlike job parading shirtless and wearing pants made for adolescents. Carpenter, who is credited with writing this as well, even feels compelled to show his backside and then act - with his "skill" and the script - like he is doing all of womanhood a huge favour. One big Yikes! and Yawn. Despite all of this film's problems - and they are legion, Point of Terror is easily very watchable, laughable, and fun in a so bad its good way. And as an extra bonus, there is a scene, probably the best in the film, where Ms. Thorne disrobes and show us why she was in so much demand during those years. Her attributes easily overshadow her unconvincing yet somewhat credible acting style. As for the rest of the thespians, everyone does an OK job. None of the actors are real good nor real bad. The story, although obvious from the beginning, is also at least handled with some flair from the director Alex Nichol. Terror surely was misused in the title as there is virtually no horror at all in this film - a couple of rather tame deaths, though one is with a man in a wheelchair being goaded like a bull with "Ole" into a pool. You will only find something like that in the seventies for sure!

Crown International Pictures + Peter Carpenter = match made in trash heaven!

The legendary Peter Carpenter started his film career starring in a Russ Meyer film, VIXEN. He then made three other films before disappearing from the face of the earth. And what films they were. BLOOD MANIA and this one, POINT OF TERROR (I haven't seen "LOVE ME LIKE I DO" but with such a great title, I'm dying to see it). Carpenter stars as a lounge singer who sounds/looks like Tom Jones. The story is totally inconsequential. It's about people scheming to murder other people who murdered other people, etc. Basically, people using people because of money and greed kinda of story.

With better production values than BLOOD MANIA, POINT OF TERROR sometimes looks/sounds like a Russ Meyer film, without the extreme excess that's usually found in Russ Meyer's films. But the rest is still there: sex, trash, hopelessly dated dialogue, violence, buxom babes, beefcake, greed, 1970s gaudiness, did I say trash? It's Russ Meyer-lite.

I love everything in POINT OF TERROR: the music (did Carpenter really sing those songs?), the fashion, the sudden sporadic bursts of violence, the focus on sex, sex, sex. The swingers dialogue: "Hey, Chickie". The acting. The tackiness of it all. Though not as memorably over-the-top as BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, POINT OF TERROR is, IMO, much more entertaining than the over-baked BTVOTD.

Favorite scenes: the opening credits, with Carpenter singing/dancing in a red fringe get-up. The beginning on the beach (Dyanne Thorne's bikini is definitely not sexy). The musical bits. The sex scenes (the triptych one is cool). The scene around the swimming pool when the husband confronts Thorne. Ole! The "surprise" ending. But nothing beats the scene with Leslie Simms, as Fran, in that purple hat. Fran is such a badass! Arf.

Michael J. Weldon, of Psychotronic Films fame, wrote in his books that he hates Peter Carpenter films, which surprises me because Peter Carpenter films are so perfectly Psychotronic: entertainingly bad. The main reason Weldon (and other fan boys) dislikes POT and BLOOD MANIA is probably because the focus is mainly on hunky Peter Carpenter (both films were produced by Carpenter himself...ah, narcissism). But for me, this obvious difference is what makes these trashy movies unique/one of a kind.

Long live Peter Carpenter.

Tony Trelos is a slick crooner at a nightclub called the Lobster House. Screaming and waking up from a nightmare (of his own terrible, terrible nightclub act) on a secluded beach he meets evil- looking and decadent Andrea (Dyanne Thorne) who's wearing a tasteless bikini. They get involved, as she's the wife of the crippled and bitter head of National Records. After one night of love- making in the pool she kills her defenceless wheel chaired husband. When the beautiful Helayne (daughter of the crippled homicide- victim) arrives, Tony falls in love with her, and he's torn between the two women. Things get outta hand and Tony throws a foul- mouthed Andrea off a cliff when she puts pressure on him for witnessing the murder and refusing his upcoming record contract. Things get even worse when Tony is suddenly shot dead by his waitress ex- girlfriend Sally, who's pregnant with his child. And then the magic starts... Tony screams and wakes up at the beach (it was all a bad dream), Andrea comes up to him, and highlights from the movie follows, only to be topped by Tony waking up and screaming once more!!! THE END. Very original.

This is not a good film. The Lobster House is decorated with tinfoil, Tony Trelos looks like a disturbing mixture of Tony Curtis and musician Herb Albert, and a lot of screen time is used showing him with his shirt off. Note that Carpenter who plays this ambitious Vegas sleazebag is also writer and producer. Scenes of Helayne and Tony horseback- riding is pure (and poor) excess, and Tony's crazy/ridiculous songs are downright awful. Pointless scenes of flashbacks to Tony's unhappy and clichéd childhood are seemingly endless. The ending with it all being a bad dream, and then a bad dream within a bad dream is not clever, just stupid. Some sequences appear experimental. I guess this isn't intentional, but proves a laughable lack of basic filmmaking skills. A clumsy and boring movie. Avoid. Avoid.