Death Spa

I watched the film Deathspa under the title Witchbitch in 1990 and i found it quite enjoyable, It is fairly difficult to find but worth it.

The following review contains *Spoilers*

This film is not your conventional slasher flick but more of a horror/mystery film that does not take itself too seriously. The story is about a health spa which has been cursed by the spirit of a woman named Catherine who dies shockingly and her husband and brother work there. Unexplainable accidents and even deaths occur in the health spa and while this happens two detectives try to unfold these unexplainable occurrences, could Catherine be responsible for all the mayhem going on at the Starbody Health Spa.

We are introduced to at least a couple of dozen characters of various stereotypes including two workers in the club who are con artists, bimbos and vain people that like nothing more than to look good.

This film also contains many classic death scenes including a woman who is killed with a food processor!It also has many celebrity cameo appearances from Karyn Parsons who played Hilary in the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air and Brenda Bakke from Demon Knight.

Recommended to horror fans who want to watch a film for enjoyment and have some fun 7 out of 10!

Judging by the movie poster, I expected a really bad, almost unwatchable B-Movie. Don't be fooled by the poster, though, 'Death Spa' was better than expected.

It is still a B-movie, we can't escape that fact. But the film featured better characters and a better story than expected. William Bumiller stars as Michael, the owner of an executive, high-tech health spa - and this man is so sexy! When club members start dying, the film becomes a murder mystery thriller - and a rather interesting one at that.

Michael's wife, Catherine, died a horrible death a few years ago and he is trying to move on. Only, Catherine won't allow him... Yup, there's a supernatural element here as well. The effects during the film's finale also weren't too shabby. In general I found 'Death Spa' surprisingly good, and it kept me glued from beginning to end. So many 80's horror movies are in fact horror comedies, but there's no humor here. I rather enjoyed it.

Would I watch it again? Yes.

I have been waiting to find a copy of this movie since I saw a preview for it about 15 years ago. Finally, a few weeks ago I got a copy of the uncut version and I laughed my way through most of this movie. OK, most of the dialogue in this movie is just bad. Not even one of my personal favorite actors (Ken Foree) could save this bad script writing. But hey, this is a movie that takes place in a gym most of the time. How good could the dialogue be? The story line is decent enough to keep interest. Although, things do start to crumble near the end of the movie. But hey, that's OK because the end is the best part of the movie. And I can't forget the gore. This movie is rather graphically violent and I think that's where most of the laughs come in. Mainly, at times the gore takes you by surprise with certain scenes like peoples hands blowing to pieces or throats be impaled through. Yes, this movie is a lot of good fun and if you can stand bad dialogue and extremely bad eights music check it out, if you can find a copy.

Death Spa (1989)

*** (out of 4)

Michael (William Bumiller) runs a health club that's the biggest thing in the city thanks to new technology that allows a computer system to run things. However, things take a dark turn when a couple members are severely injured and after more deaths happen it appears there's something much darker at play.

If you rented videos back in the 80s or 90s then I'm sure you stumbled across this film in the horror section at some point. I must have passed the video by countless times, picked it up a few times but I never left the store with it. After all, it's a horror movie set in a health club, how good could that be? Now that I've finally caught up with the picture I can't help but be disappointed in myself for not giving it a shot back in the day.

Look, if you're wanting high art or some sort of hard-hitting drama then you're not going to find it here. DEATH SPA is basically a low-budget slasher movie that appears to have been directed by someone who knew what the people watching a film like this wanted to see. Director Michael Fischa and writers James Bartruff and Mitch Paradise all do a wonderful job because what you've basically got here are a bunch of gory murders and a bunch of hot ladies taking their clothes off. These are staples of the VHS-era and this film offers plenty of both.

I really liked the death scenes in the film as they were not only creative but we also got some extremely gory moments. There are several highlights among the death scenes but there's one where a woman gets some sort of acid on her and just gets eaten away. As for the nudity, yeah, there's the required shower sequence but with a twist. DEATH SPA certainly isn't a masterpiece and it really would have benefited by being ten-minutes shorter but at the same time this is exactly what a film should be like if it wants to be in that low-budget horror field.

Witch Bitch… For the (alternative) title alone this movie should be considered a "classic" in the industry of silly-n-cheesy 80's horror! "Death Spa" delivers everything you can derive from the title and cool DVD-cover (mine actually displays a girl's bare ass): rancid sleaze, a retarded plot and loads of gooey make-up effects. Recent widower Michael Evans runs the fancy and hi-tech Starbody Health Spa, where all the gym devices are computer-driven and sexy young girls become a member if only to get close to hunky Michael. Business is great until peculiar 'accidents' begin to take place. Michael's girlfriend Laura is the first victim when she gets heavily burned after using the spa. The next incidents are even worse, resulting in the death of several guests. Michael suspects his brother-in-law to sabotage the place, as he never got over his sister's tragic suicide, but it's more likely that Catherine's vengeful spirit returned from the grave herself. "Death Spa" is wacky nonsense, completely without tension or atmosphere, but the gory murders are tremendously fun to watch! Some of the cheese-highlights include a girl literally blown to pieces by an exploding mirror and another hottie melts down to the bones! An elderly guy (a cop investigating the case) even has his throat bitten open by a deep-frozen fish!!! How many times have you seen that before? Everything in this gym center is bewitched, even the cocktail blender and the bathroom tiles. The dialogs & acting performances are horrible, the typical 80's music is atrocious and all the characters are so dumb they really deserve to die. Ken Foree ('Dawn of the Dead') briefly appears as the gym center's caretaker, but his share in the plot is hardly worth mentioning. "Death Spa" is insignificant and brainless 80's trash, and I enjoyed it A LOT!