PLOT: A homicidal maniac terrorizes a college campus with a chainsaw.

This is, by no means, a great horror movie, but it’s a pretty decent slasher in an era when there was plenty of crap that came out that tried to emulate better, more famous films. This one is a slasher in its most basic form. There’s lots of blood, lots of boobs and a plot that is inconsequential. Regardless, it’s actually a pretty good time.

The film is directed by Spanish exploitation director Juan Piquer Simón and starts in the 1940s, which sort of minimizes the amount of people that the killer could possibly be, as it takes place on a campus filled with people that would not have been alive before the 1960s. We get a quick scene of a young boy murdering his mother after she freaks out about him playing with a puzzle of a nude woman.

We then flash forward to the “present” to a college campus, where there’s been a string of murders occurring, particularly by chainsaw. Not being able to catch the killer, even though he is freely walking around a busy college campus with an enormous chainsaw, the police hatch a convoluted plan by enlisting the help of a female tennis pro to pose as the new tennis instructor (even though it’s quite obvious actress Lynda Day George has never picked up a tennis racquet before) and the guy that’s fucked the most girls on campus because… well, that seems to be his only credential. Regardless of this genius plan, the chainsaw wielding maniac still manages to brutally murder a bunch more people on campus in some glorious splatter scenes.

This film is pure exploitation and I really appreciate it for that fact. The murders are bloody as all hell, as the killer leaves all his victims in, you guessed it, pieces and the women don’t spend too long with clothes, even when it doesn’t make sense for the scene. It also features one of the worst scenes of tennis ever committed to film and Lynda Day George has one of the most glorious over-the-top freak-outs I’ve seen in a while. This is a crowd pleaser in the sleaziest of ways and I absolutely loved it for that. The plot unravels at the end for some cheap gore, and they completely throw the killer’s MO out the window in the final scene, but it was glorious bloody fun.

 

Absolute crazy gore on this one. Bodies chopped up left and right and we see just about as much as you’d really want to see. It’s wonderful.

Gore Rating: 5 out of 5

 

 

Nothing scary about this one. This is a splatter film, but a decent one at that.

Scare Rating: 0 out of 5

 

 

Tons of nudity. We get a girl stripping off her bikini top to go swimming, though, her bikini top is specifically designed to swim. We get a girl taking a shower, and another one topless post-coital. We even get some full-frontal male nudity. There’s something for everyone.

Sex/Nudity Rating: 5 out of 5

 

 

OVERALL

This film delivers in droves, just like a good exploitation flick should. Maybe in a more conservative time such as this, this film would feel out of place, but this is the perfect movie for a movie that tries to hit that sweet spot set forth by Friday the 13^th. It’s gory, simple, and delivers on the promise of lots of flesh. It’s even a little goofy at times, which makes this a good one to watch with people while maybe a little intoxicated.

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10