Killing Spree

The opening titles of Killing Spree made me laugh, nothing exciting happens apart from the cheese-fest 80s synthesizer music. I thought to myself - "what am I getting myself into?!"

Tom (Asbestos Felt) is a recently wedded man - a hairy wedded man at that! He gets overly jealous when his wife Leeza (Courtney Lercara) speaks to other men, and he even throws out his best friend Ben (Raymond Carbone) from his house after catching him having a laugh with her. Come on Tom, lighten up, what's your problem?! Ah, it's because his ex-wife left him for another man…he then hints to Leeza that he'd crack-up if it happened again. But its OK, Leeza would never do that, right?

More synth plays in the background showing more telltale signs of a 80s B-Movie.

We see further into Tom's jealously when he has a strange sexual dream about Leeza and Ben. She develops a giant mouth and proceeds to give him head…well…on his actual head - you have to see it to believe it!!

Tom is obviously a walking time bomb! The next day he finds and reads Leeza's diary, oh oh, we learn she has been having her way with Ben while Tom is at work. He goes crazy and ends up at the beach kicking the bajebas out of anyone he sees.

Later, Ben arrives at Tom's place with his girlfriend. She goes to the bathroom and the film's attempt at comedy begins. This is the moment where Tom confronts Ben about the affair. He says "just like my dreams, I got your girlfriend to give me some head too" and throws the decapitated head of Ben's girlfriend at him. The chaos begins, and so does that annoying synthesizer!

Leeza continues her shenanigans with an electrician, she writes this down in her diary, and course Tom reads it. So the next day he phones the electrician and organises a meeting while Leeza is out, more blood shed occurs and Tom gets his revenge.

The movie continues in this fashion: Leeza bonks someone, she logs it in her diary, Tom reads the diary, and Tom kills the guy.

There's a nice twist in the last 20 minutes and things gets a little bizarre with zombies appearing. But I'll leave it for you to find out! One thing I will mention is that there's more gore!

Amateur acting, crazy camera angles, annoying synthesizers, and unrealistic gore. This is what Killing Spree provides. It's not a great movie, and to be honest, this reviewer had never heard of Tim Ritter even if he has been acclaimed by some well established publications! The gore is aplenty but tends to be off-screen most of the time; also it's not that realistic, especially compared to other B-Movies of the time! For example, the head of Ben's girlfriend looked like rubber to me. Putting all of that aside, I wouldn't say Killing Spree is terrible. Get it cheap and watch it one night in a movie marathon, that way I'm sure you'd like it.

The DVD presents the film in 1.33:1, and the print looks OK for a 16mm 1980s low budgeter. The sound is clear but does get loud at points. The synth score is fun at first but does get a little annoying, however, the end credits rolls out a fun rock 'n' roll track to make up for it. One thing that I should definitely mention is the noise the disk generates as it plays. I tested it in both of my DVD-ROM drives of my PC and my DVD player, and it sounded like the disk was going to takeoff!! Perhaps I had a faulty disk? It didn't disrupt playback of the main film, only the supplement material (see below).

The DVD does come with quite a few extras including a trailer, a very insightful commentary with the director Tim Ritter. He talks and talks giving us tons of background knowledge and history - I found this more interesting than the film! There's also a commentary with the main actor Asbestos Felt, actor Joel D. Wynkoop, and R.M. Hoopes (the sound guy?). This commentary is a little more casual that the first; the three joke between themselves and talk about all the actors. Included also in the extras is the financial video used to raise funding for Killing Spree, a test shoot, and several trailers for other Camp Motion Pictures cheap-o releases such as: Ghoul School, Zombie Bloodbath Trilogy, and Cannibal Campout. There is also a Making Of, unfortunately I couldn't get it to play on my player.

Killing Spree is a 1980s secret, for those who like cheap looking gore, mullets, and violence - this film is for you.

Review by: Broonage