The Mutilator

The Mutilator - 1985 - USA - Horror/Slasher

"By Sword
By pick
By axe
Bye Bye!"

The Mutilator is forgotten 80's slasher flick.  There isn't much that makes this film stand out amongst the heaps of other slasher flicks from this period.  It has a typical slasher movie storyline: It revolves around a bunch of cocky, rich college kids who decide to go on a road trip to a beach house and spend a few days.  (there's even a "token virgin" within the bunch".  Right off the bat a crazed madman begins stalking them from within the beach house and the number of unsuspecting kids begins to dwindle.

The Mutilator doesn't try to shroud the killer with much mystery.  Its pretty obvious who he is from the start, and unlike alot of movies from this subgenre, his face is shown in full as soon as he is introduced to the screen.  This baddie doesn't bother with masks or gimmicky costumes.

This flick has had some hype surrounding it involving the levels of gore.  To be honest, there was gore, but there wasn't tons of it.  As much as, if not a little more, than any other slasher flick from this period.  There are some good kills however.  Various household items are used to dispose of the vacationing students, as well as some stranger weapons like a medieval battleaxe (not like the one pictured on the cover).  Many of the death scenes in this flick are fun because the deaths are overly long and drawn out, and often hilariously overacted by the victims, particularily in one kill scene involving a weedwacker.

Which brings us to the subject of acting.  Around %50 of the acting in The Mutilator is passable.  The other half is farcical.  To compliment the bad acting the dialogue stinks pretty bad, but I found the bad script and often embarassing attempts at humor amusing, and it kept me entertained through the lulls in the action.

This movie isn't anything special, I can see how it got lost in the sea of other B slasher like it, but it didnt bore me either, and I found myself enjoying it overall, which is enough for me to say you might want to give it a watch when you get around to it.  I'd also state that it's deserving of a proper DVD release.

As far as I know there's no official DVD release available at this point, all the ones sold online are overpriced bootlegs.  I managed to find the whole thing on Youtube though, here's a link - The Mutilator Full

Plot - 4/10
Acting - 5/10
Blood n' Guts - 5/10
Action - 6/10
OVERALL - 6/10

 Trying to haggle.  "I went to law school you know.  You're discriminating against young people!"

Another amusing attempt at humor

Beheaded

The Mutilator lingers.