Victims!

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!

The only remotely intriguing thing about this terrible dud is that, on my bootleg DVD-copy at least, the film starts off with the bloody murders of no less than three young girls, but they are seemingly irrelevant to the rest of the plot and remain unexplained. One girl has an ax planted in her head, another one is sliced up naked in her bed, and the third one gets stabbed in the back by a guy dressed up as an old lady. The killer gets apprehended, but none of these events are ever brought up again throughout the entire film; - very weird. Not that it gets any better, though. Quite the contrary, "Victims!" looks like a typical 80s slasher, but in fact it's more of an overdue and insignificant rape & revenge thriller (like they made many in the 70s). Four free-spirited and deliberately provocative teen girls head out for a weekend in the desert mountains, supposedly for a school project but naturally they are more occupied with parading half-naked in front of gas station attendants and skinny dipping. The four girls encounter two thugs who are hiding because they committed a bank robbery, so I reckon you know what happens next? "Victims!" is extremely unoriginal and boring, boring, boring. The film only lasts 75 minutes, including the random footage at the beginning, but still it outstays its welcome. The abuse of the girls isn't shocking or harrowing, like it was the case in the classics of the seventies ("Last House on the Left", "I Spit on your Grave", "House on the Edge of the Park", ...) and the revenge part is even more tame and pitiable.

"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.

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.

This is, without a doubt, what everyone will agree that it is: awful, trashy, hateful, and sleazy. Still, being a conossieur of things nasty, I don't think it's all that worthless to fans of awful, trashy, hateful, sleazy movies (and by awful I don't mean movies like the mighty "I Spit on Your Grave", which applies to every trait other than awful in the sense that it was at least well-done). Not that I'm some sicko who gets off on rape or anything, but I did like the earlier rape scene based on its bondage qualities. The movie has some moments that are so cheezy and bad, you have to laugh or cry, which earns it some very generously given minor points from me. But, unless you're looking to blow a couple of bucks on renting this BAD movie with awful sound, cinematography, acting, music, gore FX, writing, etc., etc., don't even waste your time. I would give this piece of crap no more than about a half star myself for the very few substitutes for qualities I found in it, which again is VERY GENEROUS.