I'm.Coming.To Get You~: The Mutilator (1985)

 

The Mutilator (1985) (AKA "Fall Break")

Ratings: ***
Starring: Matt Mitler, Frances Raines, Bill Hitchcock, Pamela Weddle Cooper

Some time ago, a young Ed accidentally shoots his own mum while cleaning one of his dad's rifles, a supposed kind gesture as that day was the man's birthday. Needless to say, when his father, Big Ed, arrives to find his wife dead, he loses it and vows to murder off his own son. Eventually.

Jump ahead to the present, Ed Jr., now a teenager, decides to tag along his friends to help out his dad close up their summer house, seeing this as an opportunity to party hard. Unbeknownst to them, however, the patriarch was sleeping in a secret compartment underneath the home upon their arrival, and he is still pissed off by his son accidentally committing matricide. So when Ed Jr. and company start partying around and having a good time, the killer in Big Ed has finally awakened and begins to pick them all off. By Sword. By Pick. By Axe.

Minuscule Budget. Questionable production value. Zero-grade casts. Surely, these are enough to make this late-80s title a putrid example of the slasher genre's worst of the worst, making The Mutilator (1985) a tired piece of work that barely packs any scares, suspense and credibility on its actors' ability to pretend dying (Or convince us with their acting for that matter), correct? Well, yes. 

But that's the fun of it.

For the right people, one of the many saving factors that gives this film worth is the gore; The Mutilator (1985) is made to be loved by gorehounds as it notoriously tirade each victim with the splashiest kills like hooks forced into groins, brutal beheadings, intense implement, limbs here, limbs there and, my personal pick, a hand held boat propeller ala chainsaw, a murder that almost knocked this film into horror-comedy territory. (Intentional or not is beyond my knowledge.) There's also an air of cheesiness reeking from this movie, another considerable winning factor among those who doesn't mind their horror entertainment having a single working brain cell or two, so long as it provides good chuckles sitting through it.

Seeing all of this, it's not hard not to see why The Mutilator (1985) has a respectable cult following, as bad cheese and good gore are strongly delivered by this little mess. If you're up for anything that splashes the red stuff and that's all you care about in a horror film, then this is yours to enjoy! If you're an open-armed fella who welcomes the funny cheese out of bad movies, then this is yours to enjoy, too! Everybody else, be wary of strong cheddar...

Bodycount:
1 female shot on the back with a rifle
1 boy strangled (dream)
1 boy shot with a shotgun (dream)
1 boy had his neck slashed with a battle axe (dream)
1 female drowned in pool, later had her head shoved to a spike
1 male eviscerated with a hand-held boat propeller
1 male gets a machete to the face, beheaded with a battle axe
1 male gets a pitchfork to the neck
1 female gets a fishing gaff hooked into her groin, beheaded with a battle axe
1 male split in half against a wall by a reversing car
Total: 10