Killer's Delight (1978)

Buy it now at Xploited Cinema!!

With a cover like this, how could my interest not be sparked? Killer’s Delight aka The Sports Killer aka The Dark Ride, starts out with a guy taking a naked dead chick out of his Ford truck and throwing her over the edge of a cliff. Her body is later found by an old man and his grandson. Detective De Carlo is assigned the case, and figures out that since all the deaths happen within miles of the local swimming pool, that all the victims must be scoped out there, and then are picked up as they walk home, and killed.

Anne, an employee at the pool, is next on the list. When her car won’t start, he offers her ride, but doesn’t stop at a phone as planned. Instead, he drives to a remote site, knocks her unconscious, and tries to have his way with her. She wakes up, claws his eyes, and makes tracks, but he catches and kills her. Yet another girl is picked up in the killer’s van, and is bound and gagged (photo opp for the DVD cover). He picks up two more chicks, a blonde and brunette (no favoritism I guess), and after he drools over the brunette's fake boobs, he breaks one of her fingers, and then breaks her arm (off camera). The killer’s chosen method of death is neck breaking.

The murders continue and De Carlo tries to set him up, but it backfires, and the chick gets killed too. Come to find out, he kills the girls so they don’t become like his mother, the verbally abusive bitch who killed his father (all women are the devil you know).

I read that this was inspired by the Ted Bundy murders, but I saw small similarities to Last House on the Left (1972), except they were way less dramatic or entertaining. Shriek Show has been hit and miss on what they pick up for distribution. Sure, dramatic covers will get your attention, but the movies usually don’t deliver. Not that it’s really their fault, but when you compare their catalog to other independents like Blue Underground, their quality of titles are pretty sparce. And, as I’ve mentioned before, Shriek Show has been really successful in reissuing 3-packs of their old titles at a bargain price, and I’ve picked up several, even after selling off some of the individuals prior to, but I can only hope that they will continue to be selective in their title list and stay true to their release schedule, which has plagued them severely over the last few years.

If you want a movie you can watch while doing other things, Killer’s Delight will definitely be good for that, but if you want sleazy entertainment as the cover would suggest, watch Last House on the Left or House on the Edge of the Park.

ACTING --2-- HUMOR --0-- BLOOD/GORE --1-- NUDITY --1-- SNOOZEABILITY --4-- CREATIVITY --1--

OVERALL RATING --2--