Killing Spree

Killing Spree

Killing Spree

Killing Spree

Is this supposed to be serious? I hope not. This is one of the most pathetically hilarious movies I've ever seen. Given that I picked it up for a buck on the "Bad movies" shelf, it sure lives up to its spot in the shop. What can I say, the gore effects are spattered (pun-intended) all over the place, some looking quite real, some looking like a teddy bear that's had an accident with a bottle of tomato sauce. The music is some of the most horrible I've heard, the acting is one of the most amusing elements... must I continue? Don't bother unless you've seen every other pathetic horror movie in the shop and this is all that's left.

This movie is one of my all-time favourites. Why? Well, I could talk about the amazing score, the expressive lighting, the minimalist set design, or the great gore effects, but really, it all comes down to one man. That man is Asbestos Felt. His performance in this film is the most rage-fueled I have ever seen in a movie - it approximates a literal translation of the very word "anger". His screen presence is so magnetic, you can't stop watching it - and whenever he's not on screen, the movie drags. He's that good. Apart from Mr. Felt, there is still a lot to recommend for the Spree. The gore effects, though they do vary in quality, are great in places. The cinematography approaches expressionism at times - witness the scene in which Mr. Felt goes down to the beach and randomly beats people up, so extreme is his rage. Also, the plot twist about 20 minutes from the end will totally fry your brain. "Boo!" indeed. There's also the scene that explains the complete life history of "Stewmaster", who never appears again in the movie. It's a truly life-changing experience, watching this. I am passionate about this movie.

Caution---some spoilers and other bad movie details (if you're reading this, you've probably already seen it and are equally appalled). I remember, back in the mid-80's, reading about this film in FANGORIA and the long-defunct publication SLAUGHTERHOUSE. If I recall correctly, "Killing Spree" was being touted as an 8-millimeter film, not 16-millimeter. Anywho, the "hype" behind this super-cheapie made it look fairly inept but successfully gory. Oh, but how my memory comes back to haunt me... I just saw "Killing Spree" for the first time a few days ago, and my gosh, I seriously disliked the film. I had hoped for something that was at least fun...I had always figured "Killing Spree" would be cheesy stuff, but man, are the gore effects bad! This is no offense to the effects artists who may still be employed in the industry...the film's budget takes the biggest blame for the effects' limitations. As has been said in past comments (to not be overly repetitious), the sound, dialogue, acting and lighting are all cruddy. I could write better stuff than this while in a coma. My major complaint is that the gore sucks! How anyone can enjoy this film on that level is beyond me because (as I say, darn my memory) the pictures advertising the film made the effects look so much better than they are. The main problem is the execution of said effects; a screwdriver would not pierce a skull like that, c'mon! And, a sledge through the face!? Sorry, not buying it, not unless that puppy was sharpened first. Asbestos Felt...gimme a break! I see where he performed the "rap" featured in the end title song...wow, a double threat, actor and rapper! Tim Ritter, what's up? Is this the best you could come up with? I don't mean to make this a personal issue, but there are so many better ways this story could have been done on the same budget and with the same over-actors. You could have had Asbestos imagine all of the murders he commits, and have him wake up next to his wife at the end, together and happily ever after...you could have given a little more motivation for some of the murders, such as the ultra-silly (not good) scene on the beach, where our favorite home insulation-actor drowns another actor (as unconvincing as such a thing gets) and storms off, all obviously shot without sound (less expensive) because everyone in the scene is strangely silent...you could have had Asbestos shrug after he realizes he had killed all those people for naught, wink at the camera and say "Hey, it's our little secret" (I know these suggestions are terrible, but) Anything would have been better than punishing us with the worst zombie-ressurection sequence I've seen since Liza Minnelli made her comeback (okay, cheap joke, but you get the idea.) Man, oh man, I cannot understand why this film had so much hype behind it while it was being made. Perhaps it had something to do with the final dedication at the end of the film to Herschell Gordon Lewis...yes, I agree, he is the Godfather of Gore and all, but he still made more entertaining gore films than this and the effects in Lewis's films (dare I say?) were more realistic. "Killing Spree" was very disappointing. I expected it to be entertainingly, self-consciously bad. Instead, it was totally-incompetent, with subpar gore, and acting and dialogue that cause the brain to question its own purpose. This is not entertaining, just numbing. Jupiter, Florida...you must be proud...

Tim Ritter's Killing Spree is a product of the mid 80s-to-early 90s splatter boom where anyone who owned a 16MM or a sh!tty video camera was trying to get in on the action by making a no-budget homemade horror flick. These films were usually of the "so-bad-it's-good" variety, the only redeeming values were their unconvincing yet hilariously OTT gore FX. This era churned out such crappy classicks as Splatter Farm, Video Violence 1 & 2, Woodchipper Massacre, Ghoul School, etc. (all of which, as well as this film, have recently been re-released on DVD by Camp Motion Pictures as part of their Retro 80's Horror Collection). Tom Russo (Asbestos Felt) is a little insecure and really overprotective of his new wife Leeza (Courtney Lercara) because his ex-wife was a * who used to sleep around. When his best friend Ben comes over for dinner, Tom catches him and Leeza getting a little too friendly and that night he has a surrealistic paranoid nightmare in which he sees his wife deepthroating his friend Ben's "head". Later on the next day Tom finds his wife's diary which she stupidly left out on the coffee table, he reads it and discovers his wife has been keeping a detailed journal of all the random men she's been seeing behind his back, including delivery men, electricians, plumbers and yes, even his best friend. Tom promptly looses it and goes on a psychotic KILLING SPREE (!!), hunting down all the men named in his wife's diary and despatching them in various ultra-gory and highly inventive kill scenes. Since these splatter set-pieces are pretty much the whole reason Killing Spree exists (and probably what the bulk of the films miniscule budget was blown on), I'll give a quick rundown on some of the best ones here: one chick is decapitated then her head is thrown at her boyfriend and kills him, a ceiling fan with machetes for blades lops off the top of some dudes head, one poor guy is cut up with a chainsaw then has his intestines unravelled and attached to an electrical appliance, another unlucky fellow gets a screwdriver in the head ("you screw my wife? I'll screw your head!"), one dude is planted in the ground then mutilated with lawnmower, and in the films most impressive gore sequence, an annoying nosy neighbour has her head caved in and hollowed-out with a claw hammer. Killing Spree is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it kinda film, its amateur (over) acting, limited set design, $2 SFX, tacky synth soundtrack and flimsy plot will probably turn a lot of people off but I highly enjoyed it. It has a certain "ambience" or "charm" about it - similar to HG Lewis or Doris Wishman's films - that immediately drew me in. Sure it gets off to a slow start, but about half an hour in, when Tom finds Leeza's diary and Asbestos Felt's acting goes right off the deep end as he chews up the scenery looking like some kinda blood-crazed hobo / hippie, I knew this was gonna be a winner. I highly recommend Killing Spree to all you gorehounds and bad movie aficionados out there. There's plenty of ultra-violence (sadly lacking in nudity though), hilariously bad acting & dialog, and an insane twist-ending that needs to be seen to be believed. A perfect example of zero-budget 80's splatter made by fans of the genre, for fans of the genre.

I understood before watching this film that it would be a low budget gore film. But even by those low standards this film doesn't cut it. The problem isn't so much that the filmmakers had a low budget or had bad acting, writing, directing, sound, music and editing. I expected all of that to be bad, and it is. The biggest problem with this film is that it didn't even do a good job on the guts and gore. Most of the 'action' takes place off screen and all we get to see are the after effects, which look very fake -- even by the standards of low budget gore films. There really is no excuse for the gore being so poorly done. Peter Jackson made the equally low budget 'Bad Taste' at about the same time and he somehow was able to make much more convincing guts and gore than was shown in this film. A failure on just about every level, I can't recommend this film to anybody. Steer clear of it.

I watched this movie a couple times so it can't be too bad. It has it's moments and the dialog is very funny. The main character Tom is a hoot, the stuff he says just cracks me up. The gore is alright, the best being the old lady next door. The characters are a riot, the TV repair man who's a karate expert?!?. The delivery man, acted like a real macho man, the lawn surfer dude and his van, haha. There's no nudity and I think the main actor Tom says the F word once, after he drops a screwdriver on some dudes head. Oh yeah that reminded me of a funny line "You screwed my wife, so I screwdrived your head". Ha. The worst was the ending, it did't make any sense at all. Also the very last shot of the movie, with Tom jumping up through the steps... what's up with that? Overall though a funny and entertaining movie that I enjoyed. If you don't mind no budget, terrible acting and effects, you will too.

In "Killing Spree" an airplane mechanic becomes so convinced that his wife is as unfaithful to him that he launches an inventive and elaborate campaign to dispatch her numerous lovers,in the most violent,gory and repulsive ways imaginable.The bloody effects rank from pretty good to awful,but if you are a rabid gore fan you will love "Killing Spree".The gore is plentiful including the scene,where our hero rips open a man's belly with chainsaw and then electrocutes him through his exposed intestines.A couple of the kills are hilariously ludicrous and the scene in which the wife 'gives head' to her husband's best friend is unlike any horror film moment you've ever seen.The acting is unfirmly awful and the editing is bad,but if you enjoy watching low-budget gore flicks grab some beer and give "Killing Spree" a try.