I don't know why this is not a cult B classic. It is well acted, has great special effects, decent dialogue and the 90 minute running time seems to go by like a thirty minute TV show because there is so much insanity and gore. They even managed to fit a couple of nice dollops of nudity in there, if you're into that sort of thing. This is the kind of lost classic I'm looking for every night but I only find one about once a week.
Without spoiling too much, the basic plot is that Mike (John Brace) comes home and finds his wife Sharon (Mary Fanaro) in bed with his best friend Jerry (Bruce Gold). He flips out, naturally, leaves, and ends up in a mental hospital after butchering himself while playing a game of truth or dare with a sexy hitchhiker he picked up and took to a campground. 13 months later, budget cuts at the hospital pronounce him cured and the fun begins. Among the non stop killing action we get 2 immolations, a drive-by chainsawing and a decapitation by grenade. It's really a better than average serial killer movie.
Some of Mike's victims are innocent, but very few. Most of them bring it on themselves. So as a public service announcement, I typed up a short list of the dos and don'ts of dealing with a homicidal maniac.
1. If your husband had a nervous breakdown two years ago due to trauma caused from childhood abuse, try to be a little bit sneaky about where you have your little rendezvous with his best friend.
2. When you are the former wife of a mental patient, it might be a good idea to lock your doors.
3. After you check a patient for weapons upon admittance back into the mental hospital, check him again just to be sure.
4. When a guy has gone so far as to slice off his own face in grief and insanity while left alone in a holding cell, it might upset him a tad and provoke a reaction if you throw a framed picture of his cheating wife into his cell.
5. Don't take a walk with your baby in a carriage near a mental hospital.
6. If you see a guy riding around in broad daylight wearing a copper mask, you might think twice about taunting him, throwing a beer at his car and then trying to run him off the road.
7. If a guy gets out of his car after running over all your trashcans and straps on a machete, a chainsaw, a gun, an M-16 and nunchucks before grabbing a spiky mace, just stop screaming about the garbage cans and demanding an apology. Run, bitch!
8. And this is most important: after your ex-husband has escaped from the mental hospital once and failed to kill you, MOVE!
So if you like gore, crazy killers or even just simple revenge pictures, especially if you are a fan of 80s B-movies, watch this movie. You will not be sorry. And movie execs, if you're looking for something to remake, imagine how great this would have been with a budget!
