The Sex Killer

This film is a real snooze, pretty much the empty filler between the more meaty movies on Something Weird's 3-movie DVD set on serial killers. I have seen a few Barry Mahon movies (probably the 'best' of which was "The Beast That Killed Women" and that's not saying much), and the man had no decent casts, no thrilling stories. He had flat-out NO discernible talent. Although his films were well shot, most of them require toothpicks to prop up the IL' eyelids in order to stay awake until the end. Terminally boring, although the film's one redeemable feature is the grimy NYC locations. Buyers of the DVD should just skip this one altogether.

SEX KILLER, THE (1967)

*** (out of four)

After a successful date with a mannequin head, the shy and lonely Tony decides to move towards the real thing. After being rejected by several women, he starts stalking the streets of Manhattan strangling women and then humping them. This early shocker is actually very well made and the acting isn't too bad. There isn't too much dialogue, which is good thing, but there are plenty of naked women and a nice music score. Something Weird Video has been a haven full of weird, sex films like this one but this here is one of the best out there. Running under an hour, the film gets right to the point and keeps the viewer entertained throughout.

Some vintage smut peddling from prolific T&A king Barry Mahon. One of many, assembly line productions Mahon made around Times Square in the 1960s. The Sex Killer arguably paved the way for much NYC sleaze to come, be it Headless Eyes, Forced Entry, Sex Wish or Maniac, with this tale of Tony (Bob Meyer) a maladjusted loner who works in a mannequin factory and soon graduates from peeking at girls through binoculars to becoming smitten with a mannequin's head to strangulation and (offscreen) necrophilia. "He balls her after she'd dead...at least she's still warm" quips one of Tony's callous workmates. Mahon's notourous indifference towards filmmaking is all present and correct, so what if dem broads can't act...if the camera jitters wildly during the scene set on a NYC subway train or whether machinery drowns out dialogue at the mannequin factory ...as long as there was film in the camera Mahon didn't seem to care less. If you wanted to get all chin strokery about The Sex Killer, it could be argued that setting the film at a mannequin factory- with Tony's chauvinistic workmates lumbering around the factory floor all day with female torsos -was some kind of commentary on the commercialisation of women's bodies...then again maybe it was just cheap for Mahon to film in there. Mahon was at least savvy enough to realise that the real star of his film was Dirty o'l New York itself, and The Sex Killer doubles as a travelogue of the mean streets that Mahon knew well...on rare occasions he even manages to film them in focus too.

From the sick sixties comes this little film, concerning Tony, a frustrated loner who works in a mannequin factory and uses binoculars to spy on topless sunbathing women. To stave off his loneliness, Tony steals a mannequin head from a beauty salon and takes it to a bar. From there it's on to killing women and having sex(off screen)with their corpses. In between the various murders we're treated to various women lounging around topless and changing clothes, along with lingering, fetishistic shots of rows of naked mannequins in the factory. Of interest to students of grindhouse cinema and people who like their nudies gritty and grim.

The Sex Killer is a movie so daring and so shocking it dares to make it look like all the women in New York sunbathe topless in heels on top of the buildings. A peeping tom loner who listens to Mr. Happy searches the skyline for love and ekes out a living in a mannequin factory. Ah yes, this boys got issues. From slovenly caressing couches to romantic rendezvous' with bodiless plastic heads. The boy needs some loving and will stop at nothing to get it. The film is mercifully short and the occasional strangulation and bits of flesh keeps the film on track as our boy continually looks for love in all the wrong places. A laughable presentation that is mostly a harmless time passing oddity, you can't fault them they tried.