Murder Weapon

I can't believe that Quigley would want to produce this awful gore-slasher film! Badly acted, badly plotted and bad special effects! I'm surprised that former "Carol Burnett Show" co-star Lyle Waggoner would participate in this film as a counsellor. And there's also Cheesy B-movie star Karen Russell who plays Quigley's sister. And there's an actor that I'm sure played the Santa Clause killer in "Silent Night, Deadly Night 2", with a different name. Well this movie didn't hit theatre's no doubt, and it was made when the slasher craze was going out of style, until Wes Craven brought it all back in 1996 with "Scream", now that's a movie that Quigley should've produced! She was better in movies like "Return of the Living Dead", "Night of the Demons", and "Sorrority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama!"

So bad it's great. It was made at the very end of the 80s but still feels like the quintessential cheesy 80s slasher- it feels very 1986. This movie has an abundance of tits, sex, gore, bad acting, and awful dialogue. So it's perfect if you're looking for something to laugh at.

Dawn (B movie goddess Linnea Quigley) and her friend Amy ("Tenement" hottie Karen Russell) are the mentally unstable daughters of mobsters. They spend some time in a mental institution before being let back into the real world, and decide to invite a bunch of ex- boyfriends to a party to celebrate. Wouldn't you know it: a mad killer arrives to make mincemeat of the partygoers.

This ultra cheap trashy slasher from writer Ross A. Perron and the prolific David DeCoteau is hard to stick with for a while. It drags like you wouldn't believe, with a lot of set-up to sit through. Much time is devoted to institution flashbacks, with the sexy gals being interviewed by doctors played by Lenny Rose and token big name Lyle Waggoner. Fortunately, DeCoteau is smart enough to include a bit of sex and T & A to break up the tedium. It's also a mild bit of fun to watch a cast that also includes Eric Freeman of "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2" infamy. But it isn't until late in the game that this gets a lot more amusing. The makeup effects are crude but deliciously over the top. The movie also ends with a pretty decent fire gag. And Linnea and Russell prove quite easy to watch.

A passable time killer for 83 minutes.

Six out of 10.

Two friends with mobsters for fathers get out of an asylum and plan a party for all their male admirers, but a psychotic black-gloved killer crashes the party and begins killing them one by bloody one.

Part slasher and part exploitation cheapie, Murder Weapon somehow has both way too much going on and not enough going on. It feels as if most of the script was written by throwing darts at a list of character types, themes, and genres and the overall mix can be a bit mystifying.

It's very hard to hear a lot of the dialogue and film equipment frequently make cameos, but Linnea Quigley is nothing if not dependable, lending a lot of tongue in cheek charm to her role. Some of the makeup effects during the death scenes are very impressive and some are painfully hokey, but that's all part of the fun. Have a few beers, sit back, and enjoy the movie.

the most interesting thing about this awful piece of trash is that there are three people in the credits with the last name "Squatpump". taking into consideration that "Betty Flinstone" and "Wilma Rubble" are also listed, i looked on the trusty imdb to see if these "Squatpumps" were real, and it does indeed seem that yolanda (the matriarch of the clan?) has a few more credits under her belt, including "The Usual Suspects", and may therefore actually exist. but back to the film: the wordless, pointless 10-minute intro actually made me wonder if the filmmakers couldn't afford sound equipment. the next scene, an agonizingly long dialogue scene between linnea quigley and her shrink, proved that yes, they did have sound equipment, but that they had apparently lost their sets, as the scene apparently takes place in a black hole.

so i actually continued watching this crap. and about an hour later i was treated to a downright hilarious sledgehammer-(mannequin)-head-beating and an even better shotgun-to-the-(mannequin)-head death. ultimately one of the frizzy-haired psycho girls killed everybody, apparently. i don't know. i actually was more entertained picturing david decoteau, who directed under the odd alias "Ellen Cabot", showing up to the set every day in a smart grey skirt suit and sensible shoes (as, in my mind, someone named Ellen Cabot would).