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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
No hockey masks here!, September 10, 2003
Besides the snappy cover artwork, this Brentwood box set features 4 movies about "psychos" on 2 double sided disks (full frame presentation for all): THE SADIST, THE KILLING KIND, ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO and MANIAC. THE SADIST (1963, B&W, Unrated) stars Arch Hall, Jr. (EEGAH!, 1962 and WILD GUITAR, also 1962) as a vicious Charles Starkweather type thrill killer with an equally demented girlfriend. They capture, torment and murder for the sheer pleasure of making their victims suffer. This is a fantastic, sadistic and sleazy film with fine performances all round! The print is fine, but obviously not digitally remastered. THE KILLING KIND (1973, Color, Rated R) stars Ann Sothern, John Savage and Cindy Williams (Shirley from TV's LAVERNE & SHIRLEY); directed by Curtis Harrington (WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO?, 1971). A young man is forced to participate in a gang rape and comes back from jail even more disturbed; eventually, he becomes a psycho killer. This is a strangely compelling film with some surprisingly nasty moments (including the pre-credits "under the boardwalk" gang rape and a particularly brutal murder later in the picture). The print is washed out but otherwise serviceable. ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO (1961, B&W, Unrated) stars Ronnie Burns, the adopted son of George Burns, and recycles the music from Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959). The print wasn't very good and the movie seemed thoroughly uninteresting at first glance; it felt more like a "JD" (Juvenile Delinquent) picture than horror. The plot concerns a guy who decides to seek deadly revenge for his brother, who he believes was wrongly executed... yawn. MANIAC (1934, B&W, Unrated) is directed by legendary roadshow exploitation king, Dwain Esper (MARIHUANA, THE WEED WITH THE ROOTS IN HELL, 1935, and HOW TO UNDRESS IN FRONT OF YOUR HUSBAND, 1937). This is one of the worst movies ever made, but it is enjoyably bad. Brain-damaged, unforgettable bad!!! In fact, the entire cast is so outrageously hammy and over the top, spouting ridiculous dialogue left and right, that mere words alone cannot do it justice! For such an old film, there are some surprising exploitation elements, including a topless girl, a scantily-clad lingerie party, a catfight with hypodermics, real animal fights, rape by a drooling psycho who thinks he's an ourangoutan, and even a maniac popping the eyeball out of a cat, then gleefully eating it! Plus, MANIAC has the maddest mad scientist ever committed to celluloid, Dr. Mierschultz, who delivers one unbelievable line after another: "Tonight, my dear Maxwell, I'm ready to try my experiment on a human!" The plot steals liberally from Poe's THE BLACK CAT and makes reference to MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. The print is pretty good, considering the film's age, though there are several annoying rough spots and jump cuts, including a new title card (presumably the old one was lost), although the rest of the main titles appear to be intact. All in all, this box set isn't a bad value. THE SADIST, THE KILLING KIND, and MANIAC are all entertaining, so even if ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO fails to please, you're still getting three solid films for one low price... certainly cheaper than buying them all separately. THE KILLING KIND deserved a better print, but what can you do? It's not available anywhere else. If you're expecting FRIDAY THE 13TH style slasher flicks with lots of gore, you'll be badly disappointed. However, if you're looking for some very weird old films with a strange and nasty charm all their own, then PSYCHOS delivers.
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