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MURDER
WEAPON
PLOT
Dawn and Amy are best friends and Mafia princesses who are committed to
the same mental institution. When they are released they decide to throw a
bash, inviting all of their ex-boyfriends for an evening of beer, games and
sex. Things go swimmingly until an unseen psycho starts bumping them off in
gory fashion. Could it be the sexually voracious Dawn?
The sweet-but-troubled Amy? Amy's "unhinged" rock-star boyfriend? Or is it
a mob hit? You'll just have to watch and find out!
REVIEW
Let me start off by saying that I have a soft spot for this film, but not
soft enough to recognize a stinker when I see one. It was the late
eighties, Linnea Quigley was hot, and she was so hot that she warranted her
own producer credit. Too bad that she's wasted in a role that should have
been good in a movie that is so completely warped that it has to tell the
story in flashbacks, flashbacks inside dream sequences, dreams inside
flashbacks, and long, dull conversations inside flashbacks in dreams....if
that makes any sense.
Make no mistake, "Murder Weapon" tries to follow a slasher formula but at
the same time it tries to be so much more than it's worth. After about
twenty minutes of dream sequences, it finally delves into the party, which
consists of a bunch of guys sitting around getting drunk while Dawn and Amy
lure them away for sex. The actors playing the boyfriends give some of the
worst performances I've ever seen...after they find some of the bodies, one
of them says "There's no way out of here, we're surrounded by bush!", you're
cackling at the innuendo and the fact that the house is surrounded by hedges
IN A SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOOD!
Directed by "Ellen Cabot" (are you hiding in there somewhere David
DeCoteau"?) this is hardly classic slash trash. Most won't even find this
worth the time, but if you are a fan of the slew of Z-grade movies that came
out during this era, you might find it enjoyable.
It does show some promise, and dares to be different by having men be the
object of the killer's rampage (something that foreshadows DeCoteau's
current brand of slasher film). Overall though, this film doesn't really
know what it wants to be: slasher, psycho-drama, action, or spoof.
GORE
The Cheap kind. You'll see what I mean if you decide to pick up this
film. There is a pretty good scene in which a guy has his heart ripped out.
Other than that, it's pretty much amateur hour...too many people survive the
carnage and there's no satisfying ending.
SOUNDTRACK
Weird, "Godfather"-inspired rock tune played over the opening credits...
some cutesy eighties music that sounds vaguely familiar...the rest of the music
is cut-rate synth garbage that doesn't build any suspense or atmosphere at all.
BOTTOM LINE
If you can piece the plot together through the barrage of flashbacks,
maybe this will make some sense. But I refuse to believe that there isn't
an audience out there for this film, so I grant it at least one star.
Review
By: The Scaremaker
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