Killing Spree (1987)

Emotionally insecure Tom Russo (Asbestos Felt) reads the secret diary of his sexy wife Leeza (Courtney Lercara) and is dismayed to discover that the love of his life has apparently been sleeping with every bloke she meets; this shocking revelation sends poor Tom off his rocker, and he proceeds to wreak bloody revenge on the men who he believes have been rogering his old lady.In my experience, really, really bad films can often be as much fun as really good ones, and no film featuring a decapitation by machete-enhanced ceiling fan should ever be considered completely worthless; but even though Killing Spree very occasionally manages to entertain with its inventiveness and cheap and cheerful gore, I found that the terrible direction, awful production values, ugly cinematography, muffled sound, dreadful lighting, mind numbingly tedious and daft narrative (which includes a really dumb plot twist that is telegraphed from the beginning, plus a pointless zombie finale), nasty synthesizer score, inane dialogue, and thoroughly amateurish acting all served to make this effort from writer/director Tom Ritter a virtually joyless experience.

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 whore 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.

A man who works for a local airline gets a pay cut, but refuses to let his wife get a job. After working long hours, he stumbles upon her diary where he finds tales of her sexual exploits with the man's best friend and various others. Rather than confront his wife, the man snaps and seeks his revenge on each of the men. But they don't stay dead easily.You're seeing my high score and I know you're wondering why I rated it so high. The film, admittedly, is critically awful, but great by camp standards. We have a psychotic looking husband (played by Asbestos Felt, which is a great name). We have creative use of household appliances. The sound quality is rather poor in some areas, the video quality is very, very poor. But I think this film achieved what it set out to achieve -- a good, fun little flick with some blood.And I have to say it had a great plot. Sure, it's pretty simple and towards the end it really doesn't make much sense. But the basic idea and the twist are very good (hints are dropped for the twist, but even with the back of the box giving me yet another hint I didn't see it coming and really enjoyed the creative turn). You might have to suspend your disbelief for a while when you start wondering why the police aren't looking for all these dead men, but this is horror -- we don't need to worry about the details.There's good gore, but not what the cover says. Charles Balun says it is "a 9 on the Gore Score (with) several pleasingly repellent splatter sequences." This is an exaggeration. I'd give it more like a 6, or a 7 if I was being generous. It's really not very gory through most of the film, with even a severed head scene being more silly than anything. The only really great scene is one with a chainsaw. I had high hopes for the lawn mower scene (see "Dead Alive") but it really didn't amount to much. So, it does have some pleasant gore, but I've seen much better.Not being familiar with the other films from Tim Ritter, I can't make a full analysis of this film compared to his other works. But I will say this one is quite enjoyable, and the DVD is a steal when you see what is available for extras -- two commentaries (which I have yet to listen to) and a full-length documentary on Ritter's filming techniques. It's not Steven Spielberg, but if you're looking to make some low-budget horror (and after seeing enough films, you probably are) this is a great tutorial on how to really get the best looks from the least cash.This film is is not for those who want Hollywood actors, great music or special effects or quality sound and picture. It's poor in all these areas, and the documentary is even of lower quality if you can believe that. But if that poor quality makes you think this is right up your alley, it probably is. While I didn't get quite the film I expected (I thought it would be more like "Hobo With a Shotgun") I certainly came away with a feeling of warmth in my gullet.

I recently got this flick on DVD and from all I've read about in other reviews was really anxious to see it. When I was done I was very surprised. They don't make movies like this anymore! I guess the greatest thing about this is that it doesn't try to be that serious "which is evident during the head scene and the zombie finale" and it doesn't get so goofy that you don't even understand it. Heres the plot newlyweds tom russo "Asbestos felt" and Lisa "Courtney lercara" move to a new neighborhood and for a while everything goes alright. Except for toms nosy neighbor. But then he thinks his wife is having affairs with his friend and visitors. So he starts to kill them one by one. And the last fifteen minutes feels like your on a bad acid trip. This movie features several creative deaths like the screwdriver and clawhammer deaths. "gotta love the ceiling fan death" and fellow gorehounds will not be disappointed. mild bad acting but a great soundtrack even though it features the lamest porno music I've ever heard makes this an independent classic you must see.