Sadist/ Killing Kind

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Two films that have never gotten the attention they deserved

Sadist/ Killing Kind

Manufacturer: Diamond Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00078548S

Product Description

The Sadist (1963) and The Killing Kind (1973). Two films on one DVD.

Customer Reviews:

Two films that have never gotten the attention they deserved.......2005-09-26

Normally a movie with a title such as The Sadist will get my horror glands salivating, but the prospect of watching Arch Hall, Jr., trying to act for an hour and a half inspired a morbid fear all its own in my soul; I think those who've seen Eegah! can understand my dilemma. Fear not, friends, for Arch Hall, Jr., does not - I repeat, does not - play the guitar or sing in this movie. He does try to act, unfortunately, but this is as close to a good performance as he would ever have. Hall plays Charles Tibbs, a blood-thirsty psycho enjoying the thrills of an interstate killing spree alongside his childlike girlfriend Judy (played by Marilyn Manning, yet another Eegah! alumnus). The character of Tibbs is loosely based on real-life killer Charles Starkweather. On this particular day, a trio of schoolteachers off to enjoy a day of baseball at Dodger Stadium end up rolling snake-eyes in the crap shoot of fate. Their car breaks down on the way, and they end up at the salvage yard of death, a place under new, albeit temporary management - by one Charles Tibbs. So begins an afternoon of terror, horror, and silly-looking grimacing on the part of Arch Hall, Jr., obviously upset about the complete lack of Arch and his Archers musical numbers in the film.

Our three teachers are just normal people (although the female of the group is about the sweetest and most lovely little school marm I've ever seen); they continually prove their lack of heroism by the things they do and do not do. Nothing happens that would be considered sadistic in today's world, but I can see how this movie could have been somewhat shocking to the audiences of its day (1963). Arch Hall, Jr., was known for playing nice guys who also happened to sing (badly) in the movies, so The Sadist marked a 180 degree turn in his film-making career. Hall puts a lot into his effort, perhaps too much. All of the grimacing and Ernest T. Bass-like diction seems a little silly after a while, but he does manage to look and act like a psycho killer. He also does some things that might catch viewers off guard. The Sadist does not explicitly follow the standard "psycho killer" cinematic formula, and this fact more than any other makes The Sadist a movie worth seeing. Excellent cinematography also plays a role in this film's success; this really is a stark and troubling film that has never gotten the attention it deserves. It is not the best of the genre, but it is a more than respectable entry in the canon.

The Killing Kind is a powerful and disturbing portrait of a killer, another entry in the genre that has never received anything close to the attention it deserves. It's a film that you will not soon forget. Curtis Harrington's direction is almost mesmerizing in its intensity and poignancy, and standout performances by John Savage and Ann Sothern are more than award-worthy in my opinion. This isn't your typical "look inside the mind of a serial killer" movie; you won't find any visceral gore or killing for the sake of killing. The Killing Kind is instead a psychological masterpiece that may send shivers up the spine of some viewers. There is plenty of psychosis to spare in this neighborhood, but the focus of this black hole of doom and gloom is the special relationship between a mother and her only son.

Be ready to watch this movie as soon as you put it in because the opening shots will reach right out and grab you. The first thing you will see is a young lady being thrown beneath a pier, stripped of her clothes, and raped by a gang of hooligans. One young man just stands there, only to be forcibly thrown on top of the girl by his buddies. We see him scream, but we are not really shown what the scream really indicates (although it becomes much clearer later on). This scene sets the stage for the entire movie. Two years have passed since the "incident," and young Terry has suddenly been released from prison, coming home to the boarding house his mother runs. Thelma, his fawning mother, is overjoyed to have her little boy back; she knows her Terry would never have touched that girl - Terry is a good boy. It quickly becomes apparent that the relationship between Terry and his mother just isn't normal; there's no sign of a sexual relationship between them, but one can't help but wonder what lies beneath. When a new lodger moves into the boarding house, she warns her to stay away from Terry, wrongly accusing her of misconduct even after witnessing a troubling encounter between the two in the pool. A young Cindy Williams give a memorable performance as young Lori; it's not the type of role you associate with "Shirley," and that only makes it all the more powerful. Naturally, things only get worse as the days go by, especially when the people "responsible" for Terry's incarceration begin to die mysteriously. A spinsterish neighbor casts a further pall of dementia on the plot, and one could argue that she is even more mentally unbalanced than Terry and Thelma. I can't say the suspense really builds as the movie progresses because the suspense is there in spades from the very start; one simultaneously awaits and dreads the culmination of all this psychological horror, and director Curtis Harrington does not disappoint, delivering a powerful and truly fitting end to a film I found to be utterly amazing. The Killing Kind deserves attention; it is a tour de force look at the very roots of a murderer's creation.

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