This movie plays very realistically like "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" and "Angst". Very gritty, seedy and quite gory too.

The lead actor Baird Stafford has only 2 acting roles listed in his bio, but this dude is FULLY COMMITTED! His portrayal of a serial killer who is so desperately fighting against his evil nature is eerily good. He has a frighteningly horrible past and his time in a mental ward is well-earned, but now that he's escaped supervision... things haven't been going as well.

Apparently this movie is one of the infamous films on the VIDEO NASTY list, even earning an "X-Rated" rating at one point. But - honestly - the gore is not that bad, and there's some brief 80's sexytimes, but it's all very tame by our measures these days. It's funny to see what caused such "alarm" back in the day.

I think it earned its reputation from the VERY REALISTIC way that the murders are portrayed. It may have been too much violent realism for audiences back then. Plus the inciting event that is partially shown very early on is quite gory and delightfully horrible. The full scene is shown later in the film, and is very bloody. ...heh...

That may have just done it right there.

Regardless... don't go in expecting "TERRIFIER".

But that ending.. man, oh, man.
It was awesome.

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Hoop #48 of CINEMONSTER's The Twelfth of Hooptober: Diary of a Madman

My Wild List and all my silly Reviews can be found here: Slappy McGee's Hoop-Tober 12.0 List.

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