“By sword, by pick, by axe,
bye bye!” In the wake of Sean S. Cunningham's 1980 slasher flick Friday
the 13th (perhaps the ultimate in killer franchises)
there came a glut of gore-soaked low budget maniac movies in which a slew of
tender teens came face-to-face with meat cleavers, chainsaws, fishermen's hooks
and all varieties of sharp objects. When Victor Miller wrote Friday the 13th,
he studied prior films in the genre – most notably John Carpenter's seminal Halloween
(1978) – finding the beats and working with them closely and, in the
case of Buddy Cooper's The Mutilator (aka Fall Break), a similar
path was taken, but with some playful tweaks thrown into the mix...
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“Are you kidding? It's like
a graveyard around here!” One of the key moments in any film is the
'inciting incident', the moment that kicks the entire story off, and with the
slasher movie that incident is often known as the 'prior evil', some kind of
hideous act that suggests someone at the county morgue should order up a couple
dozen body bags pronto. In the case of Halloween it was the child's eye
view of young Michael slaughtering his sister, while in Friday the 13th
it was the back story of Jason Voorhees' untimely death-by-drowning when the
randy counsellors weren't paying attention. In The Mutilator the 'prior
evil' is no less chilling – especially in today's climate – as a young boy, Ed
Jr, accidentally kills his mother while cleaning one of his father's hunting
rifles. When his father returns home he suffers some kind of mental break and
retreats into alcoholism, becoming estranged from his son – whom he believes
has deliberately murdered his wife (on his birthday, no less)!
“Virgins, huh? Well, at
least we're all safe – or are we?” Fast forward a few years and Ed Jr (Matt
Mitler) is now a college kid. It's fall break and he and his buddies
haven't a thing to do, until his estranged father calls and demands he closes
up the family beach house for the winter – Ed Jr isn't keen, but a free beach
house for a few days of booze-fuelled debauchery is too good an opportunity to
pass up for his eager chums. So off they go, these young, foolish, preppy
middle class American college kids, to – bang-on for the slasher formula – an
isolated location with no adult (or police) supervision. So what if the
door is wide open, so what if the house is littered with empty booze bottles,
and so what if Ed Sr's battle axe is missing from the wall?
“Come on, sweet meats,
let's go enjoy our night off.” Unluckily for them, and this isn't a
spoiler to say (the film leans heavily into it from the get-go), but Ed
Sr (Jack Chatham) is lurking below in the garage, hidden away in a store
room with lots of sharp hooks needing to be occupied (echoing Mario Bava's Five Dolls For An August Moon) – and so, the inevitable stalk 'n' slash
formula plays out. However, writer/producer/director Cooper does have some fun
along the way, although his particular brand of humour doesn't always stick as
some of the gags feel misplaced – such as the 'fast-mo skedaddle' moment –
while some of the dialogue doesn't quite bear fruit. However, despite some
ropey moments here and there, the film does manage to roll out a few good
moments of suspense. At one point the gang all play 'Blind Man's Bluff', which
turns into a clever ruse to isolate the cast in the dark (shame it's so
bright for us!), and – in this 'unrated' version of the film – there's
lashings of gore to go around.
“Would you rather grope in
the light?” Machetes plunge into faces, heads get lopped off, an
outboard motor makes mincemeat of tender flesh and they all tickle the horror
hound bone, but the climax goes for broke from an effectively wince-inducing
'car lighter meets hand' moment, to a blood gushing bi-section. While the film
doesn't sling about much in the way of T&A (unlike some of its brethren),
the splatter effects – created by Mark Shostrom (Evil Dead 2) and
Anthony Showe – shine in this uncut version of the film. The cast, too, offers
some memorable characters, most notably prankster law student Ralph (Bill
Hitchcock) and Ed Jr's girlfriend Pam (Ruth Martinez). Indeed, Pam proves
to be one of the film's main highlights as she is not only switched-on, but her
closely guarded virginity is decided according to her own schedule rather than
some sexist notion of frigidity. With a strong sense of herself, Pam refuses to
be left alone once she cottons on to something wrong going down and is even
trained in self defence – reflecting real-life horrors of the 1970s and 1980s
when women in areas stalked by serial killers began to take self-defence
classes. Pam thinks fast and gets the job done, quite literally leaving her
boyfriend Ed Jr (who'd prefer a good night's sleep) in the passenger
seat.
“I got a bad feeling about
this.” The film is not without faults, though. The aforementioned
humour falters as often as it soars – the credits reel (replete with jaunty 'Fall
Break' theme tune) feels jarring, and the guided tour of Ed Sr's hunting
trophies goes on too long (meaning the first half hour somewhat drags),
but the foreshadowing is delicious. Any sense of mystery over who the killer
is, however, is dispensed with almost immediately – we know exactly who is
doing the killing, and why – but the typical 'killer POV' is present and
correct with some very effective and moody synth drones and stabs. All said and
done, though, for a first time film this is a solid flick – and a very good
looking one at that, courtesy of Peter Schnall's impressive cinematography.
While not one of the more iconic slashers, The Mutilator nonetheless has
numerous strong points going for it (including the passion of everyone
involved in the film's production) and is definitely worth checking out for
fans of the genre. For another slasher set at a beach resort, you might want to
check out The Slayer.
“Let's get this road trip
on the road!” Arrow Video's 2016 Blu-Ray boasts a lot of goodies for
fans both new and old, with a typically top notch HD restoration (condition
of the 35mm film elements permitting). The extras package is hefty: two
commentaries, a feature length making-of documentary, a look at the special
effects with Mark Shostrum, an interview with composer Michael Minard, a reel
of behind the scenes footage, screen tests, alternate opening titles, trailers,
TV spots, storyboards, image gallery, two versions of the theme song, a very
informative booklet and, finally, the original screenplay as a BD/DVD ROM extra.
N.B. Screenshots taken from
the DVD copy.
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