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Starving artist George (Dennis Lipscomb) decides to end his life by jumping off his apartment building on Halloween night. As he lays dying, his body receives the spirit of a man who shares his birthday and is killed at the exact same time (confused?). He lives and the spirit takes over when George goes to sleep and seeks retribution on folks who burned him alive (Freddy who?). Of course, his psychiatrist Dr. Curtis (Leslie Wing) thinks he's crazy and Lt. Ashley (Hoyt Axton) thinks he is the killer. This is a pretty solid horror flick that I liked even more watching it now than back in the 80s. You can hear the filmmakers whisper, "It is like ELM STREET, see?" (the burned villain even looks like Freddy), but writer-director Guy Magar does enough to make it stand apart. The only misfire is a visit to one Doctor Rasta, a Rastafarian voodoo doctor. Oh, and lots of 80s neon. Was it really that prevalent? Lipscomb, looking like a nerdy Christopher Walken, is an interesting choice for a leading man and I like that casting. On the technical side, there is lots of great camera work and some interesting use of lighting. The gore appears to be cut, but is still plentiful. Magar cut his teeth on TV work and this was his first feature. He went on to do THE STEPFATHER III, which I also thought had great cinematography, and one of the CHILDREN OF THE CORN sequels.

Manic depressive artist George Miller snaps one Halloween night, decides he wants to end it all and jumps from the top of the inner-city fleabag motel he calls home. Across town, small-time gangster Vito Minelli finds out the hard way, what happens when you don't pay off your gambling debts, as his vengeful cronies blow out his kneecaps, then douse him in gasoline and set him on fire.

Somewhere between life and death, George's and Vito's lives intersect, and both will be changed forever. This is not a good thing for George, and even worse for Vito's assailants, as they will each discover to their horror and dismay...

As low-budget supernatural thrillers go, RETRIBUTION manages to strike a nice balance between the yen of those horror fans who like character-driven stories, and the gorehounds who like to see "folks git blowed up real good." TV and movie vet Dennis Lipscomb, who very rarely gets to carry a picture, delivers a scary and sympathetic performance as the troubled George. He has the chameleonic ability to disappear into his character, which is both a blessing and a curse to the best character actors. They make it look so easy, most people don't even consider what they do to be "work," and that's the trouble.

Another out-of-print, hard-as-hell-to-find but worthy entry into the B-movie hall of fame.

In the film industry, its a huge rarity to have a cult classic come from a first time director, especially one who has worked strictly on TV episodes. Egyptian born, Guy Magar who started out working on such iconic television shows such as Hunter, Werewolf, The Powers of Matthew Star, and Buck Rogers had written this film which is a amalgamation of his love of revenge films, possession films, and the human condition.

Retribution was Guy's 1987 feature debut which starred Dennis Lipscomb (In the Heat of the Night, The First Power) who plays George Miller. Hoyt Axton (Gremlins) as Lt. Ashley, Suzanne Snyder (Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Return of the Living Dead Part 2) who is Angel the whore with a heart of gold, & Leslie Wing (Strangeland, High School Musical Series) who plays as Jennifer Curtis the shrink who befriends George.

The film opens up with depressed artist, played by Lipscomb who attempts suicide in front of a crowd of friends as he falls to his short lived death. At the same time, across town a underling gangster is meeting his demise at the hands of four mob bosses. The two men's lives clash as one is successfully brought back to life and rehabilitated and trying to get his life back on track and the other is nothing but murder on his mind, and with the help of his physical unsuspecting host - there will be vengeance and lots of blood.

Once George is brought back, his nightlife is plagued by nightmares involved a green eyed daemon who looks eerily familiar to the scared man. He begins seeing Dr. Curtis who tries to help, as the bodies pile up around town. This leads him into the crosshairs of Lt. Ashley who is determined to get his killer, all the while George's dysfunctional family try to play off his fears as its all in his head.

This movie is hands down one of the coolest and original films from the 80's era, from clothes, the music which includes a great score from John Carpenter Alumini - Alan Howardth. The colours used, the visual effects, and especially the brutal deaths and kill scenes really make this a film that has to be seen to be believed. Its sad that the director Guy Magar did two more direct to video films, I personally feel he was one talented voice in the horror genre who never really got his voice heard.

I was sent a LE bluray from Severin signed by both Magar and Howardth and was able to enjoy not just the film but the added bonus features as well. Which included some in depth and BTS stories from the set and about the film itself, Suzanne Snyder, Mr. Howardth, and several others all of which were short but informative and well worth the watch.

Another cool bonus was BINGO: Student Short By Guy Magar. This 3 disc LE release also included the Score written by Alan Howardth himself as well as the rare UNCUT Dutch version of the film!!

If you are a fan of 80's possession/revenge films then this is definitely one not to miss!!!

Santa Maria Mother of God HELP ME!

Dennis Lipscombe is a depressed artist who throws himself off the roof of the hotel he lives in on Halloween. He survives, but starts having visions of a small time gangster who died the same night. Soon he is having nightmares about stalking and killing strangers, and the murders he dreams of are really happening. His psychiatrist and his hooker girlfriend try to help him figure out what is going on, while cop Hoyt Axton investigates the murder spree. This is a pretty solid mid-80's horror flick with colorful photography, creative, gory deaths, and a really solid cast of recognizable character actors.

Depressed painter George Miller (Dennis Lipscomb) chucks himself off a hotel roof, his suicidal act most likely prompted by either his terrible haircut (I'd want to die too if I sported that style) or his complete lack of artistic talent. As medics bring him back from the brink of death, George is possessed by the vengeful spirit of gambler Vito Minelli (Mike Muscat), who was shot and burnt alive by the men to whom he was in debt.

Retribution could have been a fairly reasonable supernatural potboiler, but George Miller is such a dour, whiney loser that it makes for seriously hard going. I found myself increasingly irritated by the man's persistent hang-dog expression, so-much-so that I began to wish that the emergency team who revived him had been held up in traffic.

The film does deliver one or two reasonably well-executed scenes of violence - the brutal demise of Vito, the manager of an abattoir being cut up the middle by a circular saw, a guy having his hand removed with an acetylene torch - and there is an impressive sense of style throughout, director Guy Magar making particularly good use of colour and lighting. However, the unbearable protagonist and an overlong runtime of 107 minutes means that the film as a whole is far from great.

One really good episode of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE that I remember is "Dead Man's Shoes," where an average Joe finds a pair of shoes and decides to put them on. The shoes, however, belonged to a recently deceased mobster, who decides to possess the man and seek revenge on those who sent him to his grave. RETRIBUTION is just like that, only a lot bloodier.

George is a depressed painter who's had it with life. On Halloween night, he jumps off the roof of his apartment building and dies. However, he is brought back by some paramedics, but something isn't quite right with him. Whenever he falls asleep, he has dreams of killing people in gruesome ways, and when he awakens, these people are actually dead. You see, he is now possessed by a mobster who not only shared his birthday, but he was gunned down at the same time George realized he can't fly, so now, the mobster is killing those who killed him. Can George stop him before the killing begins again?

RETRIBUTION is a decent enough watch, but it could have been a whole lot better. Considering this was released in the trash-tastic year of 1987, they managed to have a really intriguing plot, great actors, and good gore effects. Unfortunately, they underplay everything except the actors.

Yes, there is a lot of talking and a lot of character building, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good, because we actually begin to like and connect with the characters. Bad, because it keeps us away from the good stuff.

The kills in RETRIBUTION are all gory, all inventive, and there aren't many of them. There are only four people who gunned down Vito (the mobster), and he doesn't even get his revenge on all of them. There is some great build-up and suspense with the deaths and the "possessed George" is frightening enough to work.

There are a lot of scenes where George's possession takes hold, like when they go to a spiritualist, or when he paints several portraits of the charred Vito (which looks eerily similar to Freddy).

Don't get me wrong; RETRIBUTION is from being a bad movie, it's just not all that great. I liked all the characters, I liked the gore, and the scares were good, it's just that each of these is either underplayed or overplayed. It's "technically" a lot better than most late-eighties direct-to-video garbage; it's just not as entertaining as it should be.

Still, it's worth watching.

Surprisingly good!

A plain, somewhat overweight, nerdy-looking man stands on the edge of the roof of the Don Hotel (no "tiny bubbles" jokes in the movie, though). From the masks on the people below, we can tell it's Halloween. He jumps, and the monsters below look sad. We see the tunnel of light, but a burnt or mutated face appears as emergency responders try to revive him.

In the hospital, he's rehabilitated, though he now walks with a cane and limp. The people in the Don Hotel, a somewhat strange bunch, are sympathetic, as is a neighborhood hooker he's friendly with. However, he has horrible vivid nightmares involving murder. Additionally, while he paints blood appears out of nowhere, and does at other times too and isn't just a hallucination it seems.

In the nightmares, he visits people and brutally kills them with some sort of telepathic abilities while his eyes glow. In the morning, the deaths are in the paper. Though there aren't a lot of murders, the scenes are pretty strong. One begins with some particularly graphic (possibly real) shots of a slaughterhouse. The way a man dies there is quite memorable.

While a Catholic priest works at the hospital, and the main character visits a church, the one attempt at exorcism is done by a "Dr. Rasta"! Perhaps more surprisingly, he's a friend of the hooker.

I think i'd like to live in this world - all low rent film noir, new wave neon, coloured gels where your best friends are bikers and hookers and its full of Rastafarian mystics and cliched cops in shiny suits and dogs in sunglasses.

Solid B-movie with OK performances and slam-bang special effects. This is one of those neglected little thrillers that set out not to offer anything new to the genre, but at least to give fans of those movies their money's worth. And this one generally seems to know its business (although it does get a little too loud near the end). (**)

After an incident that should have been fatal, starving artist, George Miller (Dennis Lipscomb) begins exhibiting odd behavior and certain mental abilities. George sets out to use these powers to enact grisly RETRIBUTION on a few "old friends", even though he's never met them before. What's going on? Is George possessed? Cracking up? Both?

As 1980's horror cheeeze goes, this is a double mozzarella masterpiece!

IT CONTAINS: #1- Supernatural, telekinetic terror! #2- George's romance with Angel (Suzanne Snyder), the proverbial "prostitute with a heart of gold"! #3- Hoyt Axton as Lt. Ashley!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: George's glowing green eyeballs!

Drop everything and watch this right now!...

i watched this film years ago, and was pleasantly surprised how effectively scary it was because i'd never heard of it. i can remember the lead character with scary eyes at the end, and a sexy suzanne snyder as prostitute i think. i would love to watch this movie again, just to see if it has the same effect now as it did then. i doubt it though as most of these eighty's films usually age badly, it would be good to know if i can own this film on DVD. this film if i remember rightly does not deserve to to b washed up and never seen again like a lot of the mindless tosh being produced at the time. there was a few little gems that slipped through the net that are half decent additions to the genre. I'm sure this is one of them.

I first saw this movie years ago when it was released on Virgin Video and I seem to remember that it was a pretty scary movie. Years later, in 2006, I finely get to see it again and unfortunately it wasn't as good as I remember it. The premise is a man called George (Lipscomb) decides to commit suicide on Halloween night. He jumps off of an apartment building and barely survives. After spending 3 months in a hospital, George has a new lease on life and kind of starts off with a fresh new start. The problem is when George falls asleep his body is taken over by a spirit with demonic powers and the spirit is out to kill the people who murdered him in life. This is actually a well directed movie with some great acting and good cast. The problem I had with the movie was for one, it is a very dated film. For instance, the music for the movie was so typical of the era it takes away from the seriousness of the story. And the ending seemed way to rushed. This movie runs almost two hours with some great build up to the climax but in the end the movie falls on its face. It is to bad because this really had some great potential and the makers of the film probably could have easily made this a 2 and a half hour movie and still keep your attention. I do, in the long run, recommend this movie because it is still an enjoyable experience. 6/10 stars

On the same night George Miller wanted to commit suicide by jumping off a building, another man, Vito Minelli, was tortured to death by a group of people. George survived, but Vito's vengeful spirit entered his body.

After receiving psychiatric treatment from Dr Jennifer Curtis, George is finally going home. However, he now starts having nightmares, and his body is used by Vito's spirit to avenge those responsible for his death. The victims die in horrible ways.

George firmly believes he is somehow responsible for the murders, and confides in Jennifer, but she doesn't believe him. The police is also having a difficult time understanding how the victims died. There's an interesting turn of events later in the movie.

The film also concentrates on human drama, and focuses on George and the people around him. His best friend is a hooker named Angel, who longs to be George's girlfriend. I actually enjoyed the relationship (and I use the word loosely) between them.

I liked the movie and thought Dennis Lipscomb did a great job as George. I just don't think I'm going to remember the movie by its title.

Retribution may look a little bit dated compared to up-to-date films, with it's cheesy 80's feel, but that was just the sign of the times.Dawn of the Dead by Romero, is just the same in the out-dated department-but anyone who's seen it will agree it's still one of the best Zombie films to date! Retribution still has an un-beatable original story-line. It is a little known, rare classic. If you enjoy the horror genre, and have not yet seen this classic- try and get a copy. It is an absolute must see for ALL horror enthusiasts.Well recommended. Everyone i have shown it to was well impressed.It's a treat-especially with todays appalling excuses for Horror films. I really do highly rate and recommend this film, and so does everyone i know.

Going into Retribution, all I expected was a reasonably entertaining 80's gore fest about some guy with glowing eyes. Those expectations were definitely met, but it gave me a lot more than I'd bargained for.

Retribution will wet anyone's 80's horror whistle, but it also offers an in depth, moving portrait of social isolation and mental illness with an Oscar worthy performance from Dennis Lipscomb. Lipscomb plays a struggling artist who is sent to an asylum after a botched suicide attempt. Little does he know that he died at the exact same time that another man across town was shot and set on fire for owing debts to a bunch of shady characters. Soon, he begins having dreams about this man and that he's going around town, killing all the people responsible for the death.

On the surface, Retribution might seem like another in the long list of Nightmare on Elm Street knock offs. After all, it has the inventive death scenes, the dream sequences, and the burnt man looking for revenge, but it's about so much more than that. This is much more character driven than most horror films of the 80's and you might end up being really moved when all is said and done. It's definitely worth your time.

Retribution - 1987 (This Film Rates a A- ) In a large city, Halloween night, two men who do not know each other almost die at the same time. The first (George, who was born on April Fool's Day) tries to commit suicide by jumping off a building's roof top. He is miraculously revived by paramedics and ends up in the hospital. The second (Vito, also born on April Fool's Day) is shot and tortured by the mob for presumably not paying up. Both patients end up at the same hospital. George starts having nightmares of Vito's death and the hospital staff believe he is mentally ill but decide to let him go home anyways. These nightmares are more than just nightmares and soon George spirals out of control believing he is being possessed by Vito. Vito is seeking revenge on those who tortured him. This is where it starts getting weird. The ending is a little intricate but works perfectly. The effects are decent but not extensive, however, last long enough to really appreciate. Apparently, most versions of this film have had much of the gore cut out. Adequate acting and script, but the torment that George goes through is pretty demonizing. Often times overlong and full of great possibilities that just miss the mark. It has some nice build (51 min mark) and above average artistic moments throughout (the art gallery @ 1 hour 15 min mark, the club scene at the 1 hour 19 min mark). There is some good drama and soap opera like sequences (1 hour 7 min). The set and setting all work for me plus it has a really great 1980's soundtrack done by Alan Howarth.