Body Count

On the surface this looks like a fairly nondescript entry in producer Shenken's made-for-Hamilton-TV oeuvre, lacking both high concept and flamboyant weirdness while suffering the usual lapses in script, performance and direction. Nonetheless, this time there's actually something to lapse from: the killer-on-the-rampage narrative is remarkably coherent by the usual Emmeritus standards, the actors generate an impressive amount of interest, and the direction is focused and terse. Strictly formulaic Canadian action-movie stuff, suffused with unintended camp, and yet the site-specific miniaturism of the cheeseball SVHS production somehow gives added texture (if not depth) to the pervasive born-loser fatalism. From cop to cabbie to cashier, these characters are really going nowhere, and that we can call them characters at all places this a good cut above the norm.

A serial killer is knocking off people in small town Canada. On each victim, he leaves a number indicating where they fall on his Body Count.

We first see a taxi cab driver who is listening to the radio. A news broadcast comes on telling viewers that someone murdered an 89 year old woman and left a note with the number "1" written on it. Shortly after that, a young couple is shot dead late at night and the numbers "2" and "3" are left on their bodies. The police seem to suspect our main character Mark the taxi driver, but the killer is quickly revealed as someone else. With Mark being wrongfully accused by a bumbling police department, how many more murders will take place?

Body Count is a pretty weak late 80's crime/thriller which was also apparently made for TV in Canada. The problem lies with the story, the dialogue, and character direction. We are pretty much following the daily life of our lead male character the taxi driver, and also this other guy who we find out is the killer mid way through the movie. Both of them don't seem to be going anywhere as characters, and they have no connection to each other outside of one scene where they cross paths. It was a bit bizarre and made it feel like a time waster having to follow both of them as they do their jobs and find love/lust.

The acting was nothing special, Jonathan Potts led the way as Paul Carter and he did a fine job. James Lukie was the taxi driver wrongfully accused of the murders. I found him to be a bit slapstick and comedic in a very campy way, which did not fit with the genre Body Count was trying to fit into. I give Body Count a little credit for coming up with the idea of the serial killer who leaves the number on each body indicating where they fall on his body count list. Unfortunately, the movie didn't take that concept and put it forward in any way that was entertaining. The killer was revealed in the first 30 minutes so all the mystery was removed prematurely.

I don't think Body Count is a horror/crime film that has to be seen by any fans of the genre. It was super Canadian (which I liked), and the bodycount killer idea was creative, but it dragged on way too much and took the viewer absolutely nowhere.

3/10