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picked \u201cThe Sadist\u201d and \u201cThe Thrill Killers\u201d together for a few reasons. One is because they both feature dangerous psychos on the loose. And another, more important reason is that they\u2019re two of my all-time favorite B-movies and they represent to me the pinnacle of what can be done with a B-movie budget. Also, let\u2019s not forget that these feature two classic B-movie icons: Arch Hall, Jr. and Cash Flagg, better known to us all as the great low-budget auteur Ray Dennis Steckler.<\/p>\n
Think that sounds like a lot of hype? Well, take a good look at both these films and you can see flashes of true ingenuity at work. You can see the early work of one of the great cinematographers in movie history, Vilmos Zsigmond, who photographed \u201cThe Sadist\u201d and helped out on \u201cThe Thrill Killers.\u201d Both of these movies also use limited settings and make the most out of them. Plus, they are highly entertaining films regardless of their low-brow heritage.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with \u201cThe Sadist\u201d first. It\u2019s from 1963 and tells the simple story of three teachers on their way to a baseball game when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Then, they are confronted with psychotic killer Charlie Tibbs (Hall, Jr.) and his mute main squeeze Judy (Marilyn Manning), who hold them at gunpoint and force them to fix the car or face certain death.<\/p>\n
Arch Hall, Jr. is best known for acting in movies like \u201cWild Guitar\u201d (1962), \u201cThe Choppers\u201d (1961) and \u201cEegah!\u201d (1963 and also starring Manning). He got to act because of his father who owned Fairway International Pictures, the studio for which the younger Hall made his pictures. His films are often ridiculed by snot-nosed critics who dismiss them as atrocities and cite his acting as less than stellar. (However, they are loved by B-movie aficionados for much of the same reasons.) But with \u201cThe Sadist,\u201d he hit one right out of the ballpark.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because his Charlie Tibbs is, to this writer\u2019s way of thinking, one of the scariest psychos ever captured on film. Bug-eyed and completely menacing, this kid will kill at the slightest moment because he loves killing. He also loves taunting and teasing his captives and delights terrifying them with sadistic glee. He is also always one step ahead of his victims, who try desperately to fool him and escape with their lives. Hall\u2019s performance is so believable here that he can send icy chills down your back.<\/p>\n
Hall is matched in menacing by Marilyn Manning\u2019s performance as Judy. Loyal to her man because he\u2019s all she has, she playfully teases him with sexual advances and laughs as her beau plays around with the three horrified teachers. But she cannot be reasoned with either and she also knows how to use a gun. This was one of only a few films Manning was in and based on this performance, she could have and should have gone on to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n
Director James Landis tells the story in real time and keeps you in a tight grip of suspense throughout the film\u2019s 92-minute running time. In one scene, Hall, Jr. threatens one of the teachers with death. He tells him that after he\u2019s done drinking his soda, it will be his time to die. In short, an innocent soda pop bottle is used as a terror weapon. Landis also uses weird angles and fast cutting to emphasize the terror going on in the abandoned junkyard where the story takes place. Credit must also be given to Zsigmond\u2019s very stark black and white cinematography which captures the essence of a setting where there is no hope.<\/p>\n
Mention must also be given to the three actors who play the teachers, Don Russell, Richard Alden and Helen Hovey (in her only film appearance). Only out to have a good time, they play the victims as convincingly as possible. But it\u2019s Arch Hall, Jr. and Marilyn Manning who make the biggest impressions here. This is a couple you do not want to pick up on the road. Their roles are said to be inspired by the real life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Carol Ann Fugate which made headlines a few years prior to the making of the film. They definitely make one scary couple.<\/p>\n
Now, we move on to \u201cThe Thrill Killers\u201d (1964) which gives you not one, not two, but four psycho killers on the loose. It\u2019s directed by Ray Dennis Steckler, the man who directed \u201cWild Guitar\u201d and also gave the world \u201cThe Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed Up Zombies\u201d (1963, an unfortunate MST3K target), \u201cRat Pfink a Boo Boo\u201d (1965) and \u201cBlood Shack\u201d (1971), among many others. He was known for having an eccentric style of directing and it\u2019s on full display here in 74 minutes.<\/p>\n
The movie opens with an out of work actor roaming the streets of Hollywood. He has a beautiful wife (Liz Renay) who wants him to get out of the acting business. The opening narration says he\u2019s \u201ccaught in the world of non-reality.\u201d Then, we dissolve to a businessman saying goodbye to his family and driving down a lonely road. He stops to pick up a hitch-hiker. Big mistake. The hiker in question is Mad Dog Click (Steckler as Cash Flag) who promptly takes out a gun and shoots the businessman in cold blood. Click leaves the man\u2019s corpse on the side of the road and steals his car.
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