The Weirdo

THE WEIRDO (2+ outta 5 stars) You know, sometimes there are movies that have terrible acting, bad scripts, a silly story AND lousy direction... and I *still* kinda like 'em. "The Weirdo" is one of those movies... sort of like a cross between "Psycho" and "Marty". As poor as almost every element of this film is... I think it still comes through that the people involved *cared* about what they were doing. So what if the actors have trouble getting their lines out? So what if you can guess everything that's going to happen about 20 minutes before it does happen? So what if the scenes of violence look ridiculously fake? Okay, so I wouldn't exactly recommend this movie to anyone... but I heartily defend its right to exist! The story involves Donnie, the "weirdo" who is constantly harassed by punk teens, busybody townsfolk and an abusive mother. No one ever talks to him... or treats him like a human being... so he is filled with all this repressed rage. Suddenly he meets a pretty young crippled girl who takes an instant liking to him (being somewhat of an outcast herself). They fall in love.. but, too late. All the years of abuse have made Donnie resentful and, ultimately, psychotically violent to those who have wronged him. He goes on a bloody rampage of revenge until he is suddenly beaten to death by the angry townsfolk... or... IS he dead???

My review was written in February 1990 after watching the movie on Raedon video cassette.

Goremeister Andy Milligan is in a relatively restrained mood for "Weirdo", an okay psychological thriller released direct to video. His higher-brow fans will mull over the scene of a preacher's wife stabbed in the chest with a huge crucifix.

Steve Burlington takes the title role, a backward youngster who is taken care of by kindly Naomi Sherwood. Taunted by other teens, he eventually steps over the line in a romane with runaway Jessica Straus.

Convoluted exploitation genre plot has a revelation by hero's mom that his slowness is caused by inbreeding (she had sex with her brother, resulting in Weirdo). Burlington freaks out and kills his mama, just in time because she was in the process of selling him into white slavery in Mississippi (!). Unfortunately for the fans, poor makeup effects are used on mama's severed head.

A mildly autistic, shed-dwelling loner improbably acquires an equally troubled girlfriend as he smotes his tormentors.

During his grindhouse heyday, Andy Milligan could excrete exploitation fare even faster and cheaper than Roger Corman. Unlike Corman, who (at least for awhile) aspired to better work, Milligan was content to line his pockets while expressing contempt for mankind. While predictably dour, THE WEIRDO features two prominent peculiarities.

Milligan films are littered with losers, cluelessly trying to claw their way out of hopeless situations. Though retarded, The Weirdo may be Milligan's only character cognizant that he's doomed, doomed, doomed from the getgo. Then, there's the slapping. Punks slap the weirdo. His girlfriend slaps the weirdo. His mother slaps the weirdo. A preacher's wife slaps the weirdo. The weirdo slaps his girlfriend. A caregiver slaps the weirdo. You'll swear that Moe Howard was the technical adviser.

The lumpy script bunches up all the killings at the end. Passive characters abruptly turn hostile to warrant a higher body count.

The psycho attack scenes are borderline competent, and for a flick with subterranean production values, the blood and flesh wounds look surprisingly good.

The inclusion of a cursing cleric was a cool touch, but this sad little film should only appeal to those bitten by the Milligan bug...you poor devils.

Okay, I'll admit that this film is as bad as the title would suggest, but really, it does manage to have a few good moments. But while I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's "so bad, it's good", I will have to confess that there were times when I laughed because of the overwhelming stupidity. Really, this film has it all: Bad acting, horrible editing, pathetic special effects...but what do you really expect from any film with a LOW budget, right? It's not good by any stretch of the imagination, but it does create enjoyment if you can laugh AT a movie. If you are a person who can enjoy BAD movies, then I think that you'll get a kick out of this...others beware.

If this seems a lot different from the rest of Milligan's sparse 80s output, it's because this is actually a remake of a mid-70s Milligan film that was lost. In many ways it is the ultimate Milligan film, undone by the same elements that did in Milligan's last few films: the gritty, sleazy ensembles of "The Ghastly Ones" and "Fleshpot on 42nd Street" are replaced by bland actors from the fringes of respectable Hollywood. Beyond that the crazy, manic energy of Milligan's early films, the screaming actors, traumatic camera-work, and canned background music are long gone, replaced by a modicum of "professionalism".

Unlike his other 80s films, however, there are lots of early Milligan elements: horrible, evil mothers, sadistic and cruel authority figures, freaks (I guess Donnie's crippled girlfriend counts), and Milligan's own obvious identification with the doomed monster. The weirdo, Donnie, is basically a harmless borderline retard a la Hal Borske in "The Ghastly Ones" who is bullied and humiliated before taking his revenge in an oddly satisfying but shoddy manner. If you've read "The Ghastly One" and actually like some of Milligan's films, parts might strike you as almost touching, since so much of Milligan himself seems to be on display here, but that said the high-school cast, awkward dialog, silly 80s gang, and characters who arbitrarily change at the drop of a plot point don't really help matters. Definitely not "the worst film" ever (none of Milligan's films are even close to that), but too lumbering and leaden for its own good. Too bad the original is "lost", I'd love to see it.