Victims!

"Victims!" follows two psychopaths who go on a killing spree in Los Angeles before accosting a group of female campers in the San Gabriel Mountains and turning their excursion into a nightmare.

This extremely obscure no-budget slasher film from 1985 would likely have been lost to the sands of time had Slasher Video/Olive Films not resurrected it on DVD and Blu-ray several years ago (albeit in a dismal-quality print ripped from VHS, apparently the best elements that could be found). "Victims!" begins in a slapdash manner, with a montage of disparate arbitrary murder sequences that occur one after the other with no context. Almost immediately, the film gives the sense that it was cobbled together in a fairly thoughtless manner, and, well--that's because I'm sure it was.

The film does begin to come together to some degree as it progresses, following the women's abductions and torture at the hands of the two villains. While it's difficult to comment on the artistic merit of its visuals given that the source materials here are so lo-fi, it can be said that the film does have a nasty blunt edge to it, and the sequences wash over you in a way that renders the whole thing feeling like a hazy bad dream.

While there is little to base an argument on that "Victims!" is a good film, fans of Z-grade obscure horror will find this to be a semi-interesting curio. The only way I can describe it is if Doris Wishman had directed "Last House on the Left," and if you know what I mean by that, then this movie is for you. 6/10.

Four unattractive girls are raped and subjected to sexual degradation by two sleazy criminals.The desert setting is full of screams.After watching Jeff Hathcock's "Night Ripper" I decided to check out his debut "Victims".In comparison to "Night Ripper" "Victims" is far more exploitative and misogynistic.The acting is awful and some scenes are extremely cheesy,but the misogyny is rampant and some scenes of abuse are actually pretty mean-spirited.The film is obviously influenced by "Last House on the Left" and "I Spit on Your Grave",two exploitation staples of 70's.6 out of 10 for this low-budget piece of smut.Can't wait to see Jeff Hathcock's "Streets of Death".

There are times when you see a movie that is so bad that it simply has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. This is one of those movies. The sound quality is so bad that at times you simply cannot hear what the characters are saying. At other times the lighting is so subpar that you are unable to see what is going on. This movie is meant to be someone's version of sexploitation which is okay with this viewer, but it is done so unprofessionally and with such a lack of taste that the viewer cannot enjoy themselves. The actresses in the movie are not actresses at all and in all honesty they are as ugly as a bunch of wounded goats. Despicable film!

"Victims!" is an ultra cheap, ultra crude exploitation feature notable for a misogynistic edge. Two lowlife bad guys played by Robert Axelrod and Lonny Withers go on a crime spree, and target four nubile ladies. These ladies have gone into a remote part of the desert to supposedly study rock formations for a geology class, but seem to be more interested in having fun. The cretins proceed to humiliate the gals for an extended period of time.

Written by John O'Hara and directed by Jeff Hathcock, this movie looks and sounds pretty damn bad. But the writer & director know what their audience demands, and deliver various scenes of nudity and degradation. They get off to an awfully funny start with a couple of random scenes of tacky violence. Soon, they ease into what passes for this movies' story. Still, even at a running time of a mere 77 minutes, they're obliged to pad the thing as much as they can.

The largely unattractive cast give what are some of the worst performances to be seen in this genre. Only Axelrod had a somewhat decent career after this, turning up in some of the Charles Bronson / Cannon Group pictures as well as the remake of "The Blob". That said, these performances *are* fairly amusing in their badness. Axelrod and Withers are stone cold creeps, and a flashback late in the movie reveals the origins of their hatred for women.

And that music score! Composed by Glenn Baxley, it's a mind boggling assortment of inane, keyboard and piano based drivel.

If the photography were of a higher quality, the use of the desert locations would come off better.

This is worth a gander if you're interested in unearthing obscure trash movies, but be warned that it's more tedious than other cinema of its kind.

Five out of 10.

Victims! (1985)

** (out of 4)

Two lunatics are running around town killing anyone they cross paths with. At the same time four female friends are hopping in their car for a camping trip and sure enough both sides eventually meet up.

VICTIMS! is a film I had never heard of until it hit Blu-ray and after watching the film I'm a bit shocked that it doesn't have more of a following. With that said, there are countless flaws in the movie that prevent it from being what I'd consider "good" but at the same time there's enough decent "slasher" things here to make it worth watching.

The film starts off in an incredibly fast mode as we get three killings within the first couple minutes of the movie. Being in the era of the slasher, the killings are quite gory as director Jeff Hathcock obviously knew who him main audience was going to be. The film gets off to a fast start and things really don't slow down as these maniacs run into several other people with gore that follows.

So, what happens? For some reason all of the killings pretty much come to a complete stop once the two killers and the four females meet up. The film completed changes gears and to be honest with you it gets very boring very quickly. It's really too bad the wild, over-the-top style that was the first part of the movie didn't continue throughout. I'm not sure if these earlier scenes were shot afterwards when they realized there wasn't enough gore or what but there's no question that they are missed during the second half.

Those who complain about horror films being misogynist will certainly hate this picture. There's a lot of women murdered. There's a lot of nudity. There's even some sexual torture as two of the ladies are forced to make out with one another. VICTIMS! is a pretty nasty little film and I just wish it had kept this up the entire time. At 76- minutes it's still worth watching for the nasty stuff.