Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher, The (1980)

... aka: Hollywood Strangler, The

... aka: Model Killer, The

Directed by:

"Wolfgang Schmidt" (Ray Dennis Steckler)

Steckler was just coming off a long run of no budget hardcore pornos (plus a few failed and never-completed "legit" films) when he made this little comeback picture. I really need to check out more of this guy's stuff! The first thing that leaps out at us in the very first scene, and something that was also indicative of most of Steckler's previous X-rated work, is that this was obviously shot without live sound. What little bits of dialogue we do hear are a voice-over from the killer ("Soon she'll be out of her misery... I'll give her what she wants! I'll give her what she needs!") and a few poorly looped-in lines from the model / victim ("Doesn't my body turn you on?"). While the voice-overs work out OK because they're the killer's thoughts, the fact the woman's lips aren't even open when she's throwing out lines does create something of an issue. (For the record, Steckler claimed this was intended to be a silent film from the very beginning, but he couldn't find a distributor that would agree to release it unless music, sound effects and dialogue were added.)

Another carry-over from his hardcore work is how scuzzy the entire film feels. Most of the locations highlighted (adult bookstores, sex shops, massage parlors, cheap motels, strip clubs, cocktail lounges, filthy alleyways...) are incredibly seedy. It was shot, none-too-well, on grainy 16mm (Steckler opted for his "Sven Christian" alias here) for next to no money. And just the premise alone; starting with focusing on a fifty-something perv tapping hookers, strippers and young ladies from newspaper sex ads just so he can have them strip before killing them in drawn-out sequences that seem more tailored to the strangle fetish kink crowd than horror fans, will make you feel like taking a long shower afterward. And probably not a cold one either.

The first half of our titular duo is Johnathon Klick (Pierre Agostino), a sullen glamour photographer who's been going around strangling women to death in Hollywood. He goes on and on about some woman from his past named Marsha, whom he thought was "pure" but turned out to be a serial cheater, and now he actively seeks out female sex workers to punish for being "sluts." His second victim (played by one Snowy Sinclair - great name!) fits his preferred victim profile to a T when she answers the door in a sheer purple top / panty combo that leaves little to the imagination. After she flashes him repeatedly, offers up a "nice little shot of my buttocks" (hilariously pronounced "buttex") and shakes her rump in his face, he loses it ("She's... TEASING ME!") and strangles her on the couch ("Die bitch!").

Every once in awhile it works out in an actresses favor when they romantically hook up with a director, but not every director is gonna be Joel Coen or Tim Burton and for every Frances McDormand and Helena Bonham Carter there's a thousand Carolyn Brandt's who end up married to someone like Ray Dennis Steckler. Though the couple divorced back in 1973 after about ten years of marriage, their working relationship trudged on for a whole other decade. Alas, there was to be no Fargo or Sweeney Todd in Carolyn's future, just stuff like Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire and Teenage Massage Parlor. On the down side, narrating, doing voice-overs and even taking on non-sexual starring roles in her ex-hubby's zero budget porn flicks killed any chance of her having a career away from Steckler. On the plus side, by this stage in the game, she was probably just glad to be appearing in a film viewers didn't have to stick quarters into machines to see.

Carolyn, who also produced the film under her frequently used "Carol Flynn" alias, plays the second half of the murderous duo: The Skid Row Slasher. Her character, who is actually never given a name, runs what is perhaps the smallest, sparsest, most depressing and most pitiful-looking bookstore ever seen in any film. No wonder she has a lot of steam to blow off! As they always say in real estate, "location, location, location" and, because Carol's "location" is skid row, she attracts some pretty unsavory clientele. Most of her regulars are drooling, drunken bums who wander in causing problems and scaring off customers. After annoying her, one such customer leaves, lies down in the grass to sleep and gets stabbed through the throat with a switchblade.

Meanwhile, Johnathon lucks out and gets a twofer when he shows to photograph a girl, strangles her while her KISS-loving roommate is taking a shower and then smothers the roommate with a pillow. The voice-over chimes in, "Wonder if she saw that movie Pillow Talk?" Another model is strangled and drowned in a hot tub because "the world has to be cleansed of its garbage!" When he's not out killing, Jonathan shows his softer side at his suburban home where he cares for a bunch of dogs and has his own little aviary. Aww! And, when she's not killing, the lady bookstore owner likes to shop and go jogging at the beach. See, they're just like you and me! Johnathon starts stalking Brandt's character because he senses there's something different about her. Little does he know that "different" is not the kind he's really after as she has a collection of bondage items and Satanic trinkets she's purchased from the local occult store. After lots of awkward encounters where the two just stare at each other until he walks away, the two clash... in the final minute of the film!

This is truly terrible in nearly every regard but it's also sometimes hilarious, oddly mesmerizing at times and, as a time capsule, a rather fascinating glimpse at some of the sleazier parts of Los Angeles (some scenes were also filmed in Las Vegas). You can really see the staying power of films like Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones and Behind the Green Door (all 1972 / 1973 releases), as these films were still dominating adult theaters over five years later. We also get scenes shot around Chinatown and a look inside Plato's Retreat West, an ill-fated attempt to franchise the famous New York City swinger's club. Though it closed its doors after just six months, we get a peak at some of the activities inside while it was open, which include disco dancing, roller skating, lots of balloons and a huge-breasted dominatrix (played by Big Tits Malloy [!!]) going around whipping people. Of course ALL of that is just padding out this near-plotless and numbingly repetitive film to feature length status.

There are gratuitous voyeuristic tracking shots of people (most of whom probably didn't even know they were being filmed) walking down sidewalks as Johnathon walks around snapping photos and cruises the streets in his woody wagon scouting potential targets. The quality of the women on display runs from the gamut from the very attractive (the unknown hot tub lady is especially gorgeous) to seeming like they were just recruited off a street corner, but nearly all of them take their tops off. Steckler also takes time to plug many of his other movies and posters for The Incredibly Strange Creatures and many of his adult titles are seen on walls various places.

Though the release date is usually given as 1979 (which appears to have been the production year for at least some of this), the copyright date in the opening credits is 1980 so that's the year I'll be going with here. I'm not sure when it was first released. The 1985 VHS from Regal was called The Model Killer, which was also the title used for the Japanese video release. This was also released on video under its original title by Vegas Video, Ambassador Video and Video Treasures. The DVD came in 2004 from Media Blasters, which includes interviews with Steckler and Brandt, commentary from Steckler and a "comedy commentary" and introduction from Joe Bob Briggs.

Later on this year, Severin Films will be releasing "The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler;" Blu-ray box set containing 10 discs, 20 films (including this one) and with 30 hours (!) of bonus material covering Steckler's entire career. It's currently available for pre-order.

LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER (1986), also directed by Steckler (using the same alias) and with Agostino reprising his role, was the sequel. It was originally supposed to be called The Hollywood Strangler in Las Vegas.

★1/2

Matou a Família e Foi ao Cinema (1969)

... aka: Killed His Family and Went to the Cinema

... aka: Killed the Family and Went to the Movies

Directed by:

Júlio Bressane

A nameless, apparently jobless, thirty-something slacker (Antero de Oliveira) still lives at home with his elderly, miserable parents; Amelia and Horacio (Rodolfo Arena), who likewise just seem to sit around all day not doing much of anything. Well, except argue. There's always time for that, and it's mostly instigated by the joyless father. He complains about dinner, his drink being too warm, his wife wanting to watch a bit of the evening news and pretty much anything else that will give him a reason to be a dick. The monotony of the home, and in living this kind of existence, is captured via really long, lingering, unbroken, static shots (often filmed from doorways) of the son doing various everyday things; lounging around reading newspapers, restlessly tossing and turning in his bed, making goofy faces while repeatedly putting in eye drops and playing around with a straight razor, though I suppose the correct word would be "practicing" with a straight razor. He wants to make sure he gets things right the first time when he finally murders his parents. Afterward, he plans on catching a movie. I'm sure you'd already guessed that from the title, which has attention-grabbing, murder-as-a-perfunctory-act "edgy" vibes written all over it.

After offing his folks and rubbing the bloody razor off on a chair, he runs off to the cinema to catch a screening of Pérdidas de amor ("Lost in Love"). We then are treated to a bunch of fragmented scenes, which try to blur the lines between the movie unspooling in the theater with what's going on in 'real life.' Because several of the lead actors appear to be playing multiple roles here, plus establishing shots to give us an idea of what realm scenes are even taking place in, prepare to be a little confused.

Regina (Renata Sorrah) is planning on accompanying her friend Márcia (Márcia Rodrigues) to the country. Márcia has been having serious issues in her four year marriage to Artur. She feels smothered by him and disconnected to him, has grown bored even being around him, doesn't understand why all of his friends are old enough to be their grandparents and has to zone out whenever he waxes poetic about his favorite subject: guns. Regina, who's resigned herself to societal pressures of early marriage and motherhood, offers a poignant (albeit more than a little depressing!) explanation: "We always think we know our husbands well, but that's not true. When you start living together and seeing each other every day, he slowly becomes a different person. Then this wall is created and you never feel comfortable again. Then a kind of representation begins, in front of friends, in public and alone. You realize it, think it'll go away... but no. Things get worse. And you're gonna have to play that game all your life."

Regina's husband ends up running out on her and she starts spending more and more time with her friend. The two, who were former classmates at a strict Catholic boarding school, form a deep emotional bond and soon find themselves in a sexual relationship. Now inseparable, they start spending most of their time together and the neighbors are gossiping about their relationship. That doesn't sit too well with Regina's mother (Vanda Lacerda), who lays into her daughter and slaps her in the face. However, that doesn't deter Regina and she simply murders her mum after she walks in on them having sex. She and Márcia then go about their business. The two make a suicide pact to jump off a bridge onto train tracks if things get to that point.

However, the ladies' union isn't without its own unique stress points. Regina, the more mature of the two (at least at first), wants a serious relationship while Márcia is still wanting to meet people, travel, have fun and get out of her rut. The two are still able to hold it together due to the simple fact they're both desperate to escape the box that the church, their families and society have pressured them into when they were too young, too naïve and too inexperienced to really know any better. They mock the expected duties and personalities of your typical housewives, engage in random song-and-dance numbers, revert to more child-like behavior (like giggling non-stop and bouncing around on the couch; simply as a means of revolt against things they've always been told not to do), seem to be descending further and further into insanity and, finally, help themselves to Artur's arsenal collection.

The film is at its best when exploring the women's relationship but it's also an "art film" commenting on social and political issues of the day, so expect your usual detours.

The man who killed his parents and went to the movies in the opening scene pops up several more times. He shows up in a blood-spattered room holding a bloody knife and, as the camera spins around the room, we see a dead, bloody woman and children standing around gawking. In another scene, he's being subjected to torture during a police interrogation, where he's stripped down to his underwear, beaten, sliced, poked, burnt with lit cigarettes and sodomized with a steel rod until he dies. He then plays a drunken lout whose wife (also played by Sorrah) has had enough of him. After she threatens to leave him for a man who can financially support the family, he shoots her to death and then turns the gun on his crying infant and shoots it several times as well. The actresses playing Regina and Márcia in Pérdidas de amor also play two mothers / housewives with the same names discussing the film-within-the-film in a park.

Bressane emerged as one of the top names from Brazil's "Cinema Marginal" (underground cinema) and this is considered one of the important titles in that movement as it helped inch Brazilian cinema a little further away from the more formulaic (and highly censored) studio films during a more restrictive era. This certainly features many elements that would have raised a few eyebrows back then, namely the same sex relationship, the murder of a baby and, in stark opposition to the mainstream tendency to whitewash them to be trustworthy, infallible beacons of wisdom and morality, the depiction of parents and various authority figures in a wholly unflattering light. Bressane wisely keeps his film relatively accessible and doesn't completely bury his subtext or wallow too much in arty pretentions, aside from the aforementioned overuse of unnecessary long takes. In a 2015 poll of Brazilian film scholars and critics, this placed #38 on their list of all-time best Brazilian films.

Unfortunately, there's not been any remastered DVD or Blu-ray for this title as of yet. There was a color remake in 1991 from director Neville de Almeida under the same title. Bressane served as a writer and associate producer on that version.

★★★