Fête sanglante

I'm guessing the flick has about the largest female dead body count on Hollywood record. If the girls aren't running around half-nude, they're pumping out blood like human pin cushions, thanks to a looney guy who apparently flunked highschool mechanics. I'm not surprised 50's schlock maestro Roger Corman produced this near-parody of the slasher flick craze. After all, he mastered the teenage drive-in trade with epics such as Little Shop of Horrors (1959) and Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) back when I was a teen- maybe not Oscar fare, but still lot's of fun.

I wish I could say the same about this bloody mess. Except for the promising beginning, there's no real story, just a succession of dark menacing and anti-climaxes that're overdone and soon lose impact. At least the pacing is brisk, while the girls' shower scene may be the film's centerpiece, at least for us guys. Then too, it may be a cast of unknowns, but the girls do well even if short on acting experience. Can't say the same about the madman who's about as scary as an unshaven milkman. Anyway how about that power-drill that's not exactly a surgical instrument. My take on the madman's problem is that his own power-drill doesn't work, so he uses a symbolic mechanical one to get even with his female frustrations. However that may be, the over-done flick's not good enough to be either a parody or an effective fright fest.