Luther the Geek

One thing's for certain: there aren't a lot of horror movies like this one. If this is a good or a bad thing however is for you to decide. Although Luther The Geek isn't your average splatter film, it obeys the basic rules of the genre and provides its viewer with all the classic ingredients. There is the psycho killer, remorseless and cruel, slashing his victims' neck with razor sharp metal teeth. There is the woman living isolated on a farm in the middle of nowhere, resembling the perfect victim. There is her beautiful, busty daughter who brings along her college boyfriend for some nude and even sex scenes. And there is the small town cop, who heroically takes on the killer all by himself due to his evident lack of intelligence.

It's all there - yet, this movie definitely is different. You'll quickly recognize the unusually silent atmosphere. Furthermore, the movie maintains a slow pace which reinforces the intensity of the pictures and leaves the viewer alone with the strange and sometimes pretty sick action he is forced to witness. A good example is the opening sequence when little Luther meets the chicken killing circus geek in a dark barn. There is no distraction from the picture, no cheap dialogue to fill the silence, no fast cuts. In a time when the typical splatter movie maintains a fast pace, has a high frequency of cuts, is filled with senseless dialogues, with screams and dramatic music, Luther The Geek manages to disturb its viewer by doing quite the opposite. And if this wasn't enough, Luther's behavior does the rest, walking around clucking like a chicken throughout the whole movie.

I don't know if you should consider "Luther The Geek" a classic but it's certainly a memorable movie you won't forget that easily. If you're really into horror movies and especially into those that are somewhat strange and different from mainstream films, you'll like this one. If you're looking for a "cool" scary movie - go and look somewhere else! Anyway, if you consider yourself a splatter film fan you just have to give this one a try! Me? I liked it! Well, kind of...

As a child, little hillbilly Luther once witnessed a sideshow geek doin' his thing in a barn and was immediately transfixed by the man's bloody antics. Now Luther is grown and incarcerated on three counts of murder, but he is about to be granted parole...

Pretty much as soon as Luther hits the street he mauls an old lady (who for some reason is a young actress made-up to look old) with his razor sharp set of steel dentures, then while on the run from the police, he jumps into a parked car's backseat to hide. Shortly thereafter, the owner of the car, Hilary, hops in and drives home to her secluded farmhouse to prepare dinner for her daughter Beth, and her boyfriend who are soon to be returning home from college for the holidays. Luther's about to have a feast fit for a king! The first thing I noticed about this film is that it looks like it was made in the late 70s-early 80s; with the faded colours, grainy film stock, and overall atmosphere it really feels just like some grimy piece of trash discarded and forgotten about by the local grindhouse (though I loathe to use this now filthy word!). The other thing that immediately sticks out is that its almost a silent film - there is very little dialog aside from the constant clucks, squawks & crows that emit from Luther's mouth as he does his bizarre chicken act.

Now to the violence and nudity! There's definitely some bloody scenes here as we witness Luther gorily tear into necks, fingers and chests with his grill, but it's nowhere near as ultra-violent as its reputation / reviews suggest. The only nudity here is from Hilary's daughter, Beth, (TV star Stacy Haiduk who played Lana Lang in the Superboy TV series) who has a lengthy shower scene - of which there is a whole seven more minutes of in the outtakes section for all you sleazefiends - and a sex scene.

All in all, a decent semi-slasher flick with plenty of grubby ambiance. Luther is a total freak and it's fun to watch him gore people up and run around like a retarded chicken, especially when he does his wacky victory / death dance after a kill.

One major negative with this disc though, is the idiotic Troma extras: first off we have an utterly witless intro to the film with Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman introducing Troma's "freakshow" which consists of some fag that pretends to suck Kaufman's dick and another f@ckwit who tries to suck his own cock, but farts instead. These childish attempts at humour are really not funny and had me p!ssed off before the film even started. Aside from the brainless intro there's also Troma extras like a global warming awareness short and a twelve minute PETA propaganda film trying to convince us all to become vegetarians. I really don't think this kinda proselytizing bullshit should be on a DVD - yes, I understand that Kaufman is obviously worried about the environment and a vegetarian who wants to get the message out there, but I'm sure most of us know what goes on in a slaughterhouse and what the short life of a battery hen consists of, why force it onto the unsuspecting public who just wanna watch a campy horror film?

Revisiting old films that you thought were average isn't necessarily a good thing. They sometimes get worse. Championed by the Fangoria camp (in Gorezone they labeled it "the scariest film since Texas CHAINSAW"…um, no), LUTHER THE GEEK inexplicably developed a cult following as an "intense" horror picture. Actually, it is just an average stalk and slash…uh, bite film that briefly sets itself aside from the pack by featuring a killer who clucks like a chicken. Yes, clucks like a chicken. To the filmmaker's credit, at least they didn't make the killer sound like a duck a la THE NEW YORK RIPPER. That would just be silly.

Narrative logic is completely abandoned in LUTHER THE GEEK. I'm not saying that slasher films are abound with reason, but at least in HALLOWEEN Michael Myers escaped. Luther is actually paroled after a lengthy scene where people argue he is reformed, even though he clucks like a chicken and has razor dentures (which he apparently fashioned in prison). It is the kind of film where a couple sees a bashed in door and the girl dismisses it by saying, "Oh, my mom must have forgotten her keys. She forgets a lot of things since my dad died." The kind of film where the hysterical mother runs into a cop looking for Luther and tells him, "The killer is in my house!" So what does he do? He grabs her and literally drags her back to the house and says, "Just show me where he is and I'll do the rest." Why not call back up?

It is too bad the film is filled with such horrible action and dialogue because the Luther character is actually pretty interesting. Most of the credit goes to Ed Terry, a dead ringer for Tom Noonan in MANHUNTER, who gives the clucking Luther a genuine air of menace. In the hands of a right director, LUTHER THE GEEK could be on the same level as SONNY BOY or SANTA SANGRE and be a true cinematic oddity. But Albright is not that director and merely places the fascinating character of Luther in tedious slasher trappings.

I can remember back in the early 1990's bootleg VHS copies of this going around, that was the only way you could see this here in the UK. I didn't bother but 30 years later I have just watched the official Blu-ray release, it was kinda worth the wait. Sold as a slasher but there is no slashing, Luther uses his metal teeth to not only rip the heads off chickens but also to make a very bloody mess of peoples' necks! He also drinks blood so arguably he is part crazed vampire but without any supernatural elements. The timeline is all wrong, we first see Luther as a young boy in 1938. He is convicted of several murders in his late teens and serves 20 something years in jail before being released. I would date that sometime during the 1970's but this is clearly set/filmed in the late 1980's! Most of the film has Luther holding a woman, her sexy daughter and her lucky boyfriend hostage in their farmhouse, so it is in part a home invasion movie. Although the acting is rather amateur Edward Terry puts in a memorable performance as the horrible. Freakish Geek. I often side with the bad guy in slasher movies, for example Jason in the Friday the 13th's, but Luther is truly vile and I wanted him to suffer. Sadly his victims make so many dumb decisions that I found it hard to side with them either. Stacy Haiduk gets naked for some almost soft pornographic sex scenes and she looks amazing. Despite its failings Luther the Geek packs in some serious gore and should appeal to most splatter movie fans.

...and they both belong to Stacy Haiduk! Largely a piece of garbage, this low-budget horror film is only memorable today due to the wonderful nude scenes of beautiful Stacy Haiduk. The story is about a freak who clucks and bites the heads off of people. Basically it's a slasher only the weapon of choice for the killer is metal teeth this time. Anyway, nobody cares about this movie's stupid plot. The selling points to this crapper are Haiduk's large breasts, which are pretty close to perfect. So sit back and enjoy what God made and surgery can never duplicate. Just remember the FF button is your friend. The DVD has more of Ms. Haiduk's glory, so check that out. A must-see for big boob enthusiasts!