Customer Reviews

Mountaintop Motel Massacre [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

good things]

The atmosphere in this movie is creepy, hazy and wet. The motel looks more like a run-down Camp Crystal Lake, which I am sure is purely intentional with the camp slasher craze of the early 80's. The soundtrack is cheap but adds to the creepy elemnt.

The plot is surely not unique, but but is is well done. Get a bunch of stranded people in one secluded place where the law can't help them and then kill them. The formula that worked with Friday The 13th 5 times.

[the bad]

The acting in this is absolutely HORRENDOUS! The make-up effects aren't much better. The story is good, but we know who the killer is from the first 5minutes of the movie on, which in my opinion took ALOT of suspense out of the movie.

[final thoughts]

I think this movie would have been so much better with a fatter budget, better acting and more of a "whodunit" mystery, but we had neither of that and the movie falls flat even though there is a valiant effort.

The D.V.D. doesn't give us any extras, and we all know that sucks.

The tagline for the movie was "Don't disturb Evelyn, she already is." How true that turned out to be. Evelyn is our main character, such a poor little thing she is. Not only is she a widow who runs a motel and has a daughter who practices the black arts, she also happens to be crazy and has been a resident at a mental hospital. In a fit of fury she kills her daughter Lorri. The authorities pass it off as a accident and Evelyn is free to go and manage her motel. But when Evelyn gets some tenants on a stormy night, she starts to crack.

This movies is a morbid gem and filled with unease. If you're going to watch the movie, do so at night, by yourself with the lights off. If the whispering voices and bone-chilling music doesn't get to you I don't know what will.

I have mixed feelings after watching this movie. I like it but not as much as other 80's drive-in exploitation. I can't help but feel that it feels like an incomplete movie with a non-ending that implies that the daughter who is killed at the beginning is haunting the motel. The movie feels very inconclusive and from the beggining you never get a good idea of what the hell the daughter is about anyway. Except for maybe that she is obviously practicing witchcraft of some sort. The old woman who does all the killing is just not bizarre enough for my tastes. She should have been a real freak. Her idea of tortuing her guests by putting rats in their rooms is kinda weak. This film is fun but it's not that fun.

Where are the mountains at? This film is called MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL MASSACRE but yet there are no mountains, the "motel" appears to be nothing but some shacks in the woods and I had no idea a body count of seven equaled a massacre. But then again MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL MASSACRE is a little more eye-catching than WOODED SHACK INCIDENT.

Not the worst slasher movie of all time I give that honor to the agonizing AX'EM, but not the best either more like firmly in the middle or maybe a little higher if you find a frail old woman you could kill with one punch to be scary.

For slasher completist or the very bored only, no nudity, little blood, no scares and mediocre filmmaking.

Newly released from an insane asylum, Evelyn returns home to run her remote mountain-top hotel. In a fit of psychotic rage, she kills her daughter, then she starts killing her hotel guests, one by one.

Although the film is low-budget, it does have its charms. The hotel guests are unique and colorful, particularly the "preacher" character. He has some witty dialogue with other characters in the film.

Evelyn could compete with Freddy Kruger as one of the most outright zany characters you'll find on film.

The horror itself is done in a campy sort of style. Definitely has a "drive-in" feel to it. Fun to watch.

This film is not the best slasher for Terror Train and Friday The 13th are by far better; however its not the worst b/c it has great atmoshpere and some creepy scenes! Actually the recent horror film with luke wilkinson "Vacancy" , took the idea of a motel with secret tunnels under neath each motel room with trap doors on all the bathroom floors, under the rug,for all the guests to be butchered at night! Thats one of the reasons this film is so original and also the gore is pretty good for a low budget film. I had many laughs because there is some great humor in this, like the preacher with rats in his room, horrid acting by some characters, and the two cousins who think they can sing but they really cant! This slasher gem is worth a look but only if you dont take it seriously!

Don't expect what you see on the DVD cover - in fact, the crazed woman in the doorway does not even appear in the film. It appears that this DVD is being marketed to those expecting a "cheesy" horror film (one filled with laughs, mostly unintentional) but in fact, this movie is a typical low budget 80s slasher, and not a bad one at all. Just a warning to those expecting a funny horror movie - this is not one of those at all.

Just to give you an idea of the rather skewed reviews of many movie critics: In the most recent Video Watchdog Movie Guide, Headless Eyes, another cheesy, bloody, even more obscure potboiler, was given at least a single bone, while this silly but undeniably entertaining masterpiece was given a prompt WOOF!
This isn't Spielberg. This is an offering from the realm of baby budgets and unseasoned, often artless actors (or relatives of the producers, perhaps). But a few things set this lovely little cheese-out apart from other fatuous horror flicks. First, the killer: In this case, instead of some tall, beefy, masked sociopath with a knife, we have a middleaged/elderly woman with a hand scythe. Second, the setting makes one genuinely uneasy: A tenebrous wood and a slatternly series of shacks, masquerading as a motel. The "protagonist" (Hey, even murderers need some respect at the end of a hard day) is especially freaky, stout and lurid with her sickle, mowing down unwitting customers; these customers are singularly ridiculous, from the preacher who, knowing that murder is afoot, confronts Evely advancing on him with her trusty scythe with the question: "Evelyn, how'd you get in here?" This movie is like a pond: There is a delicate, precarious symbiosis between the utterly absurd and truly unsettling. Consider this a stylish gore camp classic, and you will hit upon the abstract of almost every review you've read so far (including mine). I still love it after several viewings.

True horror fans of the 80's will love this film. Evelyn might not be the most frightening of all, but she works wonderfuly in the movie. I agreed with most of the reviewers on the spookiness of the film, I only wish Crenshaw would have survived and Allan died! One must view this fine art late at night after a few on the town when percipitation is at its highest and fully whook balled. Or on vacation in the mountains. I am pleased to have found this "lost" wonder of horror. I only wish, as one reviewer said, someone would release more of these treasures.

Although it is not the best technically made movie, the setting and the plot is so lurid it makes it really scary, especially on a rainy night. The characters provide creepiness and at times corny humor that is reminiscent of a 70's B-movie. Five stars for the effect that it creates which is mysterious,eerie,and a touch of campy humor.