Zero in and Scream (1971)

Deranged and sexually frustrated sniper Mike (a creepy and intense portrayal by the hunky Michael Stearns) picks off various libidinous swingers while they are in the middle of doing the deed in the Hollywood Hills area.Tightly written and directed by ace grindhouse cinema special Lee Frost (who also did the proficient cinematography), this exceptionally down'n'dirty marvel really pours on the scorching sleaze: The graphic semi-pornographic sex scenes, equally explicit and abundant nudity (even Stearns goes full monty!), unsparingly mean and sordid tone, choice footage of hot strippers bumping and grinding at the seedy dive bar The Classic Cat (special praise here for deliciously lissome blonde stunner Donna Young, who bares her yummy body with pleasing frequency and an admirable lack of inhibition), succinct 63-minute running time, startling moments of ugly violence, and a spot-on ironic ending all ensure that this raw'n'raunchy winner packs quite a savage and scuzzy punch.

This is just horrible, really horrible trash. Yes, we've got beautiful naked women dancing and having sex. But while this may work in the mechanism of a porn movie – may have even been a hit as a porn movie – this tries to mask itself as a "film" with actual things to say, with real emotion and struggle. It isn't. It's an excuse to get some girls naked and have a fun time. I'm sure all of these women (and men) in this particular movie could have faired decently in the porn movie business of the 1970s . . . but not in the actual movie business.The acting was hackneyed, so bad, I mean real terrible. The writing was even worse. I can't lay all blame on these actors – they had nothing to work with. The very broad structure or plot of the movie could possibly be done and done well with good writers and competent actors. The very broad structure or plot is that of a psychotic man who spends his time shooting people from afar, as a sniper. These shootings were motivated from men not respecting their women enough. If there was more writing - better writing, much better writing - and less gratuitous sexual imagery we might have something to work with.This movie should have been shot, made and marketed a hardcore porn movie all along; it would have made more money. It practically is a hardcore porn film already, and it remains the only non-porn movie I've seen that shows a male erect penis.

(Some Spoilers) Basically a soft-core, sometimes crossing into hard-core, porno movie that uses some 80% of it's screen time in having a number of orgies in and out of the water of strippers and nude dancer Susan's swimming pool.The plot has to do with this very tanned and extremely good-looking, except when he looses control of his mental faculties, young man named Mike. Mike has this hang up about young and beautiful women whom he feels are being spoiled by having young men, like himself, have sex with them. This Mike feels takes away their innocence and beauty turning the women into dirty and unappealing hookers whom he hates, the women and men who have sex with them, with a passion.In between orgies we have Mike go out in the hills outside of L.A and gun down couples making out aiming only for the male not female as his victims. Mike also spends his time at this L.A strip joint where he strikes up a relationship with the places top stripper Susan. Invated to Susan's home for an orgy Mike is about as interested in the action going on all around him, with some half dozen couples jumping in and out of the swimming pool and on top of each other, as he would be interested in waiting to catch the 7:29 Long Island railroad train at the Jamaica Queens Station.Bored with all the sexual goings on at the orgy Mike takes off to a vantage point overlooking the place and zeros in on the young man making out with Susan in the pool. Taking aim, which takes Mike about ten minutes, Mike ends up blowing the man's brains out with Susan going into hysterics. In between the sniper killings, there's two in the movie, we also have a dream sequence with Mike and Susan really going at it underwater where there's nothing left to the viewers imagination of what their doing. This, Mike getting it on with Susan, is a bit strange if were lead to believe that Mike is against any kind of sexual relationships between a man and a woman which in the sequence Mike is a very willful and happy participant in.It's later that we see Mike again with his trusty snipers rifle zero in on Susan who's having a wild and hot time with her new sexual partner that he suddenly gets cold feet when he sees that Susan partner in the sack is in fact a woman. It seemed permissible in Mike's sick mind that woman on woman sex was quite all right with him but when it came to straight sex between a man and a woman it was the man who had to pay with his life.Later on when Mike opens up to Susan about his wired fantasies that he in fact breaks all the rules that he so stridently and almost religiously followed. Getting all hot under the collar, and in his pants, Mike loses control of his actions when he sees Susan stark naked laying right in front of him. Attacking and raping Susan Mike in an attempt to explain away his unnatural, to him, act blames Susan, the rape victim, for what he, the rapist, did to her!The movies very contrived ending has Mike loses it as well as the local police getting a bead on him as he tries to put away Susan for good with a bullet between the eyes. This is the first time that Mike as much as wanted to murder a woman in the film. It turns out that Mike ends up getting it off screen from Susan's new boyfriend, probably an undercover cop, who was paying as much attention to Mike, with his own snipers rifle, as Mike was paying attention to Susan."Zero in and Scream" is in some ways just your average run of the mill psycho killer on the loose movie but with, which makes the film more then worth watching, some of the hottest sex scenes outside of a triple X rated skin-flick. In fact the film has a decent plot that hold your attention, between the orgy and sex sequences, which practically no X rated flick has.

This is one of those strange early 70's sex films, which, like any sex movie, is obviously meant to titillate the audience, but nevertheless really portrays the Sexual Revolution of the time in very sordid and ugly light. It's hard to tell whether it's hypocritical, ambivalent, or just plain incompetent (probably the latter). A sexually-frustrated loner takes to shooting copulating couples with a high-powered rife (shades of the infamous Zodiac Killer). Of course, before he shoots them he has to watch them in his scope for five or ten minutes (so the raincoat-clad guys watching this in the grindhouses could do their thing). I don't know why this guy is sexually frustrated--he lives in this strange parallel universe where a beautiful stripper invites him home to a pool party in the Hollywood hills where an orgy is taking place, but all he does is stand around in his suit watching. From his horribly written dialogue you get the idea that he is kind of a moralist, but that doesn't explain why he hangs around sleazy strip clubs. Character development is not one of this movie's strong points.The lead girl is played by "Dawna Rae" (a stripper/porn star pseudonym if I ever heard one). She has a really beautiful body, which is pretty much always on display one way or another, even if she can't act worth spit (believe me, no one else can either). One of her many lovers is shot to death while they're having sex in the pool, but this doesn't stop her from lounging by the same pool in a bikini or having more sex with the curtains open. There's also a mean-spirited and unpleasant rape scene near the end, which makes no sense given the alley-cat morals of this character--all the guy would have had to do was ask. How bad is it? The director of "The Thing with Two Heads" actually uses a pseudonym here. If you want to see a movie about the Zodiac killer, watch "Dirty Harry". If you want sleazy softcore sex set in 70's strip club, watch "Mantis in Lace". But whatever you do, avoid this seedy, depressing, and incompetent garbage.