The Mutilator (1984)
Directed by Buddy Cooper & John S. Douglass
By Sword, By Pick, By Axe, Bye Bye. How could you not love that tagline? As discussed in my worst slashers list, 1984 wasn’t a great year for slasher movies. There were tons of sequels, cheap crappy slashers and ripoffs coming out like crazy. Within the crap, there were a few decent entries, the Mutilator being one of those. Special effects are the main draw to this film and his has a small cult following because of that. Originally slapped with the dreaded X Rating by our friends at the MPAA, the Mutilator was reworked to get a more favorable R before being released. It took me forever to hunt this movie down about 5 or 6 years ago. I found it on a random streaming website that probably isn’t legal. This time around I was able to watch it on Amazon Prime with much better quality.
The Mutilator was originally called Fall Break (complete with Billy Joel wannabe song! Also what is a fall break? like thanksgiving break?), the title even says that in the opening of the movie, which is kind of funny. It revolves around a group of college friends that visit a lakeside condo belonging to the father of the one of the friends. Once there, strange things start happening and a killer starts offing each member of the group one by one. The opening scene is shown with a young boy attempting to clean his father’s guns for his birthday. Smart! The boy starts playing with the gun and accidentally fires one, thus shooting and killing his mother. He runs over and says “momma, momma!” with no emotion whatsoever and said exactly the same, which makes me think it was really said once and just looped. The dad comes home and beats the boy, and the present day starts.
On to the most important part of an 80s slasher movie, the kills. The Mutilator maybe one of the best instances of a movie, with a mediocre story and under developed characters that totally saves itself with above average special effects and kills. This is very mean spirited and brutal in parts. There is a scene where a girl gets a fishing gaff shoved up her crotch, then her head is cut off. Lots of decapitations all around in this movie, including a scene with a cop that gets a machete in the face, then the decapitation. Tons of blood, tons of gore, and tons of fun really.
Like I mentioned, the characters are nothing to write home about and they are very on dimensional. There is a dude in a green sweater named Ralph, he’s the jokester of the bunch. Ralph is pretty annoying, he thinks he’s hilarious and suave. In reality he’s kind of dopey looking and has gross teeth. The main character Ed Jr., I can’t quite figure out. In some scenes he’s kind of creepy and horned up, in other scenes he’s a fun-loving guy. Ed Jr’s girlfriend isn’t attractive at all, hell none of the girls are in this movie, which is sad. Ed Jr’s girlfriend is named Pam, and she’s your stereotypical good girl character. Always making Ed feel like shit for wanting to have sex. Man, she reminds me of an ex-girlfriend I had. God forbid the guy want to fool around with a girl he’s dating, right? What an asshole! Anyway since she’s afraid of penis, obviously she survives, not really a spoiler there. Also the identity of the killer isn’t a spoiler at all either since they show the father in the beginning of the movie. All of the actors, can’t act and the dialogue is forced for sure, but no one cares we are here for the blood.
The Mutilator is an average slasher that is more memorable for its special effects and kills than its story. If you’re a fan of the genre, you might have heard of this, if you aren’t you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. If you’re looking for something to watch this Halloween season, you should probably look elsewhere but if you’re a slasher completist such as myself, give it a watch. You will find that it is better than a lot of the shit crapped out in the 80s. The Mutilator gets a C from me. Will I watch it again? Probably not, two times was enough for me.
