Murderlust

A disgruntled bachelor in Greater Los Angeles (Eli Rich) hops from job to job while being a faithful churchgoer. He vents his negative energy by preying on females.

Shot on weekends in twelve days, "MurderLust" (1985) wasn't released to video until 1987. Like the slightly superior "Hitch Hike to Hell" (1977), it's a prosaic psychological study of a serial killer. That flick used The Co-ed Killer as a template, Edmund Kemper. His victims from 1972-1973 were six female students who happened to be hitchhiking in the vicinity of Santa Cruz County, an hour's drive south of San Francisco. The scriptwriter of this movie researched Ten Bundy and the Hillside Stranglers. Bundy's reign of terror took place from 1974-78 whereas the crimes of The Hillside Stranglers involved a dozen victims between 1977-78.

Besides being reminiscent of the obscure "Hitch Hike to Hell," the straightforward tone is similar to "Targets" and maybe "The Toolbox Murders." Yet this isn't a slasher like the latter since the five victims are all strangled, not to mention there's very little gore. Being a psychological study, the focus is on the killer's routine day-to-day life, which will strike many viewers as dull. The no-name actor smacks of a poor man's Jon Voight.

Ashley St. Jon is notable as the too-young blonde prostitute, but her role is too small. She happened to be a dancer in the Los Angeles area and is the only female to appear top nude in the movie, briefly. As the story proceeds, Rochelle Taylor is the one who rises to the fore as the proverbial 'final girl,' Cheryl.

While it's easy to look down on these types of films, there are some well-done parts, such as the climax that symbolizes wandering through the desert of this world like a lost zombie, wounded and dying. Additionally, I like the interesting reflection on the masculine spirit, which is very much a positive thing in our world, generally speaking, but if it becomes contaminated by bitterness or what have you, it veers toward self-destruction, abuse, misogyny, and murder.

For anyone who might criticize the film as anti-Christian, it's not. It's just showing the reality of mentally troubled (and hypocritical) people hiding their dark side behind a respectable garnishment. For instance, I know faithful churchgoers who brazenly murder people with their tongues every day; sad, but true.

It runs 1 hour, 38 minutes, and was shot in Pomona (the church) and Upland (the pub), which are a 30-35 minutes drive due east of downtown Los Angeles; other scenes were done in the city proper and the Mojave Desert, the latter located 3-4 hours northwest of the city.

GRADE: B-

This dull and practically bloodless "thriller" tries hard to draw a smart and ambitious portrait of an atypical serial killer, but fails - and painfully - on every level. The main reason why "Murderlust" is unable to convince (or convince me, at least) is because the contrast between the two personas of the murderer/protagonist is too enormous and far too implausible. The guy, Steve Belmont, supposedly is a conservative Sunday school teacher and a respected member of a small catholic community during the weekend. But from Monday to Friday he lives - in that same small catholic community - in a flat that looks like a sleazy motel room, gets fired from simple security guard jobs and cruises around in a B.A. Baracus van to pick up prostitutes and wayward teen girls, so that he can strangle and dump them in the Mojave desert. Seriously, who believes that?

Other reviewers referred to "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" already. Why is that movie so effective and considered to be a cult/horror classic? Simple, because Michael Rooker - as Henry - is genuinely petrifying. Steve is never menacing, not even when he puts a gun against an innocent girl's head and forces her to cure his impotence. If this isn't bad enough already, "Murderlust" is also boring, monotonous, slow, and most of the amateur cast members can't even properly articulate.

I liked to watch the film that is portraying the behavior of the main character Belmont from a point onward when he already had become a serial killer and depicting his struggle between his lust for murder, working life and a love that had confessed her feelings for him ways too late to halt his unstoppable demise and the murders of women he commits. A well done acting , a very good cast, good pace, fairly good camera but gradually too low otherwise good music tells more about the odd mind of a killer and skips all odd police proceedings and crime investigation which is actually refreshing in 2020 overload of crime series. Also with the Australian Clermont killer being convicted for similar acts that movie has some actuality otherwise.

Murderlust (1985) is a very low budget film about a Sunday school teacher who seems like a popular guy with his fellow teachers, but in his spare time he likes to pick up young women (mainly hookers) and kill them (mostly by strangling).

Like i say the film was very low budget but also pretty boring, all of the killings were off-screen and there was hardly any blood at all, and no gore whatsoever, the acting was also pretty lame to be honest, and the storyline was pretty flat and routine.

All in all a very rare horror film to find, but thats because it's just not very good at all, stick with Henry: Portrait of a serial killer, it's far superior in every way to this poor effort!!! 3/10

Those looking for graphic, bloody killings and exploitative elements will be sorely disappointed when watching this ultra-rare 80's obscurity. "Murderlust" has a very similar feel and simplistic style as "Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer," but the horrific murders in this case, tastefully happen off screen. The small budget works in favor of the movie, realistically showing the level of near poverty that the main character lives in. A low level security guard who also teaches Sunday school at his local church, Steve Belmont leads the ultimate double life. Among his church congregation, Steve is highly respected, and perceived as an upstanding, religious man. But his boss knows what a rude, heavy drinking dirt bag he really is. So does his neighbor, who lives next door to his disgusting dump of a rented room. Of course none of them know that Steve likes to pick up random women and strangle them to death. And things begin to unravel when his two worlds begin to overlap in this very tense, fascinating tale. "Murderlust" wouldn't be so effective if it wasn't for the impressive, highly believable acting job that Eli Rich turns in. He is amazingly believable as both the violent scumbag AND as the stand up pillar of the community that some think he is. His performance is chillingly authentic and understated. In fact the whole cast here is very good and appear quite natural in their roles. The fine acting and intelligent writing should earn this movie a much higher score than it has here. Obviously it wasn't seen by the right audience; in fact "Murderlust" is so rare that it most likely was seen by almost nobody. So if you are lucky enough to find a copy, and if you have an interest in the subject, I highly recommend it.