Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

IncaWelCar In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Scarecrow-88 Ray Dennis Steckler directs and stars as bug-eyed maniac with a buzz-cut("I hate people!People are cheap!")whose brother is one of three lunatics having escaped an asylum for the criminally insane. Gary Kent(..this is the third film I've seen of this guy and all three have him cast as a psycho, such as "Girls in Chains" and "The Forest")is the claustrophobic nut with a knife, with a short fuse. Herb Robins is squirrelly Herbie, never relinquishing his axe(..which is used on an innocent couple with plans to fix up a house where the deranged nuts are hiding, startling them), always desiring to bury it into somebody.Keith O'Brien is Keith, Steckler's brother. Steckler is Mort "Mad Dog" Click, and no one is safe in his presence(..he shoots a Latino traveling salesman for his car, and stabs a dancehall hostess in her rattrap apartment with a pair of scissors, on the verge of attacking a kid in her yard if mama hadn't intervened). The movie opens as an indictment of Hollywood, using the troubles plaguing actor Joe Saxon(Joseph Bardo), whose career isn't developing well. His wife, Liz(Liz Renay), wants out of Tinseltown, a former actress who understood all too well the difficulties of securing projects in Hollywood. The film soon moves out of the city and into the mountainous desert of Topanga Canyon as the trio of loonies surprise Joe, Liz, Liz's sister Carol(..played by Steckler's wife-of-the-time, Carolyn Brandt)and a movie director scouting locations, pinning them temporarily in a diner(..which Carol runs and the director wishes to use as a setting where a murder occurs, to add a hint of irony to the proceedings). Soon Keith calls brother to come pick him up as the trio soon run into trouble with Joe whose heroism ruins their escape plans(..as does Carol who adds a special ingredient to Keith's coffee).The film is far more coherent and exciting than Steckler's more notorious cult hit, "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?" Here you have three major chase sequences. The first has newlywed couple Linda(Laura Benedict)and Ron(Ron Burr) besieged by the insane trio, with ill results, neither able to escape, innocence destroyed. The second has Gary pursuing Liz with Joe not far behind, soon resulting in a climb up a mountain, concluding in a rather suspenseful struggle with one plummeting to his death. The third is a doozy..Mad Dog survives several policemen, engaging in gunfire as he sneaks from behind them, soon shooting a cowboy(..stealing his hat!), hopping on his horse and riding down a nearby dirt-road with a motorcycle cop in hot pursuit! What's neat is Steckler's acknowledgment that the scenes with him as Mad Dog were actually not written in the script, used to pad out the movie! And, they were probably my favorite scenes! This, I think, would make an ideal double feature with The Sadist, Steckler one of those filmmakers who was ushering in a different kind of cinema as the studio system's foundation was shaken with an underground independent movement on the rise. While obviously tame compared to more abrasive, ultra-violent fare in the 70's, The Thrill Killers is a film which one might look at as a pioneer in how shock-cinema would later evolve.

Scott_Mercer Welcome to the world of Ray Dennis Steckler. Low budget shlock about three psychopaths and one of them's serial killer brother on the rampage in black-and-white 1960's Los Angeles.This is most definitely Steckler's least incompetent film. Black and white cinematography is fantastic. Steckler applies creative film-making principles to a crazy low budget to make great entertainment, but also competent movie making. I really enjoyed the production music that he chose to use.Steckler was also hanging around with Arch Hall Jr./Sr. (he appeared in and directed Wild Guitar) during these years. Hall Sr. even appears here in an unbilled cameo as himself: a drunken lout.So I can't help but compare this film to the similar Arch Hall film "The Sadist." Similar plot device of maniacs keeping normal people at bay in a deserted shack out in the sticks, though that scenario takes up only a few scenes in this film, and takes up 95% of "The Sadist." This film is not quite as good as "The Sadist" but fans of that work should enjoy this trip as well.Anyway, fans of Steckler's peculiar universe of film making should dig on this, though as others have stated this is most certainly his darkest film. Several genuinely scary scenes (in the DVD commentary track, Steckler brags about shooting these scenes in the daytime and still being able to scare the audience) and several exciting chase scenes for about the last 20 minutes of the movie, much better done than is usual for films of this budget level.An enjoyable psychopathic killer film with a bit of late-period film noir atmosphere that comes off well. Just a bit of "Blast of Silence" maybe. Filmed in 1964, released in 1965. Available on DVD.

Jonny_Numb Ray Dennis Steckler was one of the more spirited low-budget schlock auters working during the 1960s, and "The Thrill Killers" bears his trademark style: dissonant camera work during the action scenes, authentic locations, and generally ridiculous plot developments (wouldn't you be a bit alarmed if some twitchy guy brought a bloody ax into your restaurant?). By today's standards, the decapitations and stabbings are in the campy vein of Herschell Gordon Lewis (and the 'hynosis' gimmick is pure William Castle), and the hipster slang is dated and laughable. Steckler, who plays the lead psycho, has some genuinely creepy moments, and Carolyn Brandt (Steckler's girlfriend) is fun to watch as an early victim. Even though "The Thrill Killers" is slow-moving and erratically paced, it's worth a look for those who enjoy low-budget cinema.5/10

Steve-206 I only hired this film because there was a picture of someone chasing a girl with an axe on the cover. I like tacky, low budget films as they are often so poor they are funny but this was tedious and hard work to stay awake through.