Killer!

I saw this on cable over 10 years ago and wondered why I never heard of it. It was exactly my kind of horror flick, creepy and atmospheric. It had that same Evil Dead/Texas Chainsaw Massacre feel. One of those movies in which the low budget and the film stock that is used actually helps the atmosphere. The acting wasn't bad and there was a good amount of gore from what I remember. I have'nt been able to ever find this movie and when I would ask people they would have no idea what I was talking about. I almost started to question myself if I had even seen it,LOL. But now checking the IMDb I see I had. I would pick this up if it ever came out on DVD.

This movie is great! Typical 'psycho on the loose that kills all that cross his path' flick, but I love all types like this and it manages some character development without being boring. Cheesy gore and a surprise ending too make this a must for fans of weekend night horror. Added elements like when the killer kidnaps the girl, and then fills her in on his plans to cannibalize her, while emptying a bag of forks and meat tenderizer make it all the more convincing and creepy. The only downside of this flick is that it didn't really have much of a soundtrack, which I think makes a movie, and they could of and should of made a sequel! I haven't been able to find an original copy of this yet :( but I'm still looking.

This movie is "rough," in both senses of the word. I never heard of it before watching it on cable several years ago, and I haven't seen or read anything about it since. It must have been a student film and the director's influence is clearly Sam Raimi. It bears resemblance to the original Evil Dead in its rural setting and graphic violence. What is missing Raimi's skillful camerawork. Instead, the film presents an unstoppable killer, probably the devil himself (hey, wasn't that the killer in Halloween?) So in retrospect it is not unusual that the film is not widely available. A curio at best, but not a film you watch for entertainment.

My review was written in April 1990 after watching the movie on Electro Video cassette.

In the same genre as the current cult hit "Henry" comes "Killer", an amateurish gore outing.

Duke Ernsberger takes the title role without subtlety, a guy whose traumatic childhood and subsequent use as a guinea pig for medical experiments, has turned him into a maniac. Pic depicts his rampage picking up hitchhikers and killing them.

Youngsters figure out who this serial killer is and go after him, rightfully realizing that in this genre the authorities are helpless.

Ernsberger kidnaps heroine Jeri Keith Liles, tortures her and threatens to eat her. This leads to a very silly tongue-in-cheek finish.

Acting is weak. Visual quality is cheesy; no camera credit is given.

Living in a small town, a teen and his friends working in a gas station are alarmed to find that one of their customers is an escaped mental patient on a psychotic rampage through the community and try to confront him, setting off a desperate race to stop him and put an end to his rampage before they fall victim.

This was an overall decent low-budget slasher. Among its better features is the straightforward setup that allows the killer to get away with everything in the way he does. Showing his rampage on the outskirts of town in the woods, on lonely roads, and pretty much being away from civilization so that they take place away from those who can report it and leaving no one alive to witness it manages to be a nice touch here. That allows for a nice selection of ambushes and surprise attacks using whatever is at his disposal for the first part of this one which not only has some fun sequences but allows for a solid means of introducing the group to the killer that sets the finale of this one in motion. That early setup featuring a prominently psycho/thriller approach is then given a darker, more gruesome twist that leaves this quite fun. The nature of both the fighting and stalking on display and the cheesy, low-budget effects here mesh quite nicely making for a rather frantic and graphic genre outing at the best part of it. It's only more regrettable that the use of a gun for most of the deaths that has to be because of the low budget on display to not allow more variety or clever effects much like the randomized nature of the film going around seemingly through completely random encounters with unnamed strangers to simply provide a body count so it seems really out-of-focus at times. These do manage to stick out with this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.