KILLING SPREE

First up, there's a more comprehensive review of the film itself elsewhere on this site, from when I reviewed the shambolic Eden Entertainment disc a couple of years back.

However, for the curious (or downright lazy!), here's a brief overview of Tim Ritter's (CREEP; TRUTH OR DARE?) low budget 80s splatter flick:

Tom (Asbestos Felt, CREEP) is suffering from increasingly jealous thoughts concerning his wife Leeza (Courtney Lercara, THINGS; SLAUGHTERHOUSE). He suspects that while he is out working as a plane mechanic she is sleeping with ... well, just about everybody.

Things start off quite comically as Tom becomes prone to dreams, such as catching Leeza giving his friend head. Leeza sprouts a pair of huge rubber lips and wraps them around his friend's bald bonce - and proceeds to work up and down on the head until gallons of "jizz" start spurting all over the place!

Before long, however, it appears that Tom's suspicions may have some bearing ... and he takes to killing anyone that may have been having their wicked way with his missus.

Relatively gory, with some cheap but imaginative murder scenes, KILLING SPREE is not all that bad. I was disappointed the first time I watched and reviewed it, as it was one of those films that had eluded me for years and I'd spent so long building it up into something more than it is.

But, second time around, my expectations were lower and I enjoyed the low-budget horror shenanigans a lot more. The acting's better than I remembered (though the script still sucks!), and Ritter's direction - though for the most part uninspired - offers the occasional flourish of style. The ending is corny and predictable, but I expected it to be this time so could be a little more forgiving.

Perhaps the reason I sat through KILLING SPREE more comfortably this time around is that Scream House's uncut disc offers a transfer I can actually watch.

The full-frame (original aspect ratio) picture is much brighter, cleaner and sharper than before. The 2.0 English audio is a much clearer, louder job too. It was almost like watching the film for the first time. Almost ...!

The disc has static menus which include a scene selection menu page allowing access to the main feature via 12 chapters.

Unfortunately there's nothing in the way of extras. Well, there are trailers for CATWALK CANNIBALS (a.k.a. BINGE AND PURGE), REALM OF BLOOD and SHATTER DEAD, plus a two-and-a-half-minute gory promo reel for other Scream House titles, set to a rousing Rockabilly punk tune.

While it's the film itself that counts, and many will be pleased simply to find this underground 80s US splatter flick finally out uncut in the UK, it's worth noting that the R1 release from Sub Rosa boasts a commentary track and Making Of featurette.

Cheap, tacky, predictable - but good fun, and looking better here than ever before. KILLING SPREE, for all its flaws, holds up well when compared to the slew of latter-day US indie guff currently saturating the genre DVD market. Considering it's 20 years old ... that's no mean feat.

But ... I still hate Felt's awful rap-rock song over the closing credits!

Review by Stu Willis