A young woman named
Valerie was badly burned after going into
a tanning salon as the machine backfired.
Two years later Valerie's twin sister
named Rhonda Johnson (Marcia Karr) runs a
local workout gym and is apparently
having a bitter attitude.
Suddenly one the regulars there ends up
being murdered by a sharp object of a
sharp giant needle while taking a shower
and Rhonda is being questioned by a
detective named Lt. Morgan (David James
Campbell) about the murder case.
Suddenly Morgan spots other murders which
were caused by a sharp needle around the
local area besides at the gym and tries
to find out who is killing all of these
people which started out since a new
employee named Chuck Dawson (Ted Prior)
started working there.
Well I picked this
little video up at a flea market in which
it's a hard one to come by and I didn't
spot any movie guides reviewing it since
it's obscure and can see why. There's a
beginning not revealing the character but
her feet and being excited finding out
that her fitness is going to be in
business and then going into a tanning
salon. You can guess what's going to
happen as there's painful situation with
the tanning booth being caught on fire
but this looked quite cheesy and took a
longer time to watch before the beginning
of this film really happened.
Next up of course there's people doing
aerobics in which seemed exciting to
watch and I thought to myself that this
may be a cheesy fun horror movie to watch
after all since it looked nicely put
together with this but that was one of
the only good things about this film
saving it from bombing. Also it focused
on women's behinds and hips while doing
their workouts which I was aware that
this was gonna be one of those types.
Then there's the first victim who is in a
changing room and was taking a long
shower (Of course this has been a
tradition since Psycho) and the killer is
holding a large sharp pin in the air for
such a long time that this is so
unconvincing to be taken seriously. We
have seen similar stuff in Sorority
House Massacre 2: Nighty Nightmare
but that was alot more fun to watch than
this.
Then there's two body builder men having
a brawl as one of them is jealous cause
of the main owner Rhonda since we have
seen stuff before in these types of films
but it's sloppily done and the writing
for this was hokey too. Almost as bad as
watching a Troma Team
type flick but without the dark comedy.
There's also a quiet scene with one of
the employees in her home in which seems
to draw in that the killer is about to
get her. This wasn't the least bit
suspenseful or scary either.
To add some flavor to the story there's
teenagers causing vandalism during after
hours at the fitness centre which also
seems to be a drawing card that they're
next on the list for the killer and the
makers tried to make the killings seem
quite dark on these kids being hacked
away but that misses by a longshot.
Throw in a dream sequence with an
employee seducing one of the bodybuilders
and then a clone of him killing her as
well as him next. This is not as good as
it sounds even if certain slasher films
have these moments. Very trashy and
amateurish to watch and more bad writing
too.
There's some twisted moments on Rhonda
revealing what has happened to her which
seemed to work well and draw in the
history of the horror slayings and making
her suspect of the murders but that's
saying very little while looking at the
whole story in general.
There's a moment with someone who is hung
which looked a bit darjk and convincing
on how this was which is the only good
moment for the bodycount in this film.
Yet you can tell that this actress who
did this was blinking her eyes a bit.
There's a moment when a detective points
a gun at someone who's a possible suspect
and this suspect still throws a punch
showing that this detective is too much
of a bimbo to have a serious job at what
he's doing looking like he failed at Police
Academy or worst of all Vice
Academy.
When the story tries to explain itself on
who the killer could be I couldn't figure
out who it was since none of it made any
sense at all but I kinda figured it out
with all the bad writing that was
involved with all of this in which this
moment was supposed to look suspenseful
to watch. Again this really fails big
time.
I did like the very ending that involved
Rhonda which seemed quite funny to see.
But I was glad that the story was finally
over.
A totally bad slasher dud with lots of
beautiful actors being hacked away by a
killer at a fitness centre. This story
really goes nowhere even if they try to
make this slasher flick mysterious iof
having certain characters as suspects.
This film wasn't very well publicised and
I can almost see why but it's not yet a
turkey but it's very close to being one.
The acting is
terrible performed by many virtual
unknowns. There was hardly any energy
with the cast involved as it's extremely
stale for a typical Z grader like this
one.
Marcia Karr (Rhonda Johnson) was
better off with her supporting role in
the cult action flick Savage
Streets. She portrays a
different role as someone who has a
bitter attitude and acting incredibly
bitchy in which she seems to be a little
too over the top when she does this. I
found her to be quite mellodramatic while
she does this and is trying way too hard.
This was a terrible miscasting on her
behalf and could win a raspberry award
for worst actress.
David James Campbell (Det. Lt.
Morgan) seems to have the right looks to
portray this type of role with his
masculine looks but this does all the
talking in which he was making a fool out
of himself by his performance as he was
supposed to play an aggressive type and
needed acting lessons desperately. He was
very goofy as he was supposed to be
serious. Another raspberry performance
folks.
Fritz Matthews (Jimmi Hallik)
played the bodybuilder with the macho
like attitude and asshole type of
behavior in which he looked right to play
this part but how he performed this was
another story. He just wasn't convincing
by doing this and seemed like he was
borrowing off other types of these kinds
in other shows and not being himself at
all portraying a role. Too bad folks as I
almost thought he'd be a good one here.
Ted Prior (Chuck Dawson)
seemed to try his best here as the clean
cut type and a possible suspsect and he
seems to almost pull off a character with
what he does. However, he doesn't go too
far with it. Still he's better than the
rest here showing an okay intelligent
attitude here and coming off acorss
nicely with how her performed.
Teresa Van der Woude (Jaimy) seemed to
have the healthy girl next door type of
look to her and tries her best to add
some spunk into her role and can seem to
do the trick for the most part in her
performance. She is a bit cheesy in
certain spots when she gets anxious or
scared but other times can pass with
portraying a character. She;s no award
winning material nonetheless.
A woman strips
down to nothing but the bottom of her
swimsuit in a tanning salon breasts fully
exposed.
A corspe of a black woman's breasts are
revealed.
During a dream sequence Teresa Van
der Woude takes off her top showing
off her breasts during a makeout scene.
Also Marcia Karr's character
exposes her scarred breasts.
There are some
bloody stabbings and slit throats
A head that was bashed by a dumbbell
A corpse is bloodily hung but nothing too
over the top gory.
David A Prior
really needs to whip this film into shape
but he doesnt. Of course he never made a
success in filmmaking as his work is just
as wooden as someone like Rick Sloane
but I give Sloane better credit
than him.
Yet he shows some interesting camera
shots on many of the featured extra's
doing aerobics as well as a shot on Marcia
Karr instructing them along with
showing a good stuck up expression when
someone is watching her as the fighting
choreography looks phony and so does alot
of the scenery involved with the film.
There's a cheesy shot on bit part actress
Laurel Mock taking a shower as
well as a bad reaction on her getting
killed in which Prior did a
terrible job coaching her to fall down
and die.
There's an argumentive dialogue between Marcia
Karr and Fritz Matthews in
which didn't seem natural at all and too
acted out. Prior was lacking
quite a bit when he coached the two of
them doing this together. Then Karr
does a cockteasing act towards him which
also looked phony.
Prior seemed very lazy directing
David James Campbell pounding on
a door yelling out commanding to have the
door opened along with shots on
supporting actress Lynn
Meighan acting
nervous about stuff as this seemed
unconvincing.
There's a fighting scene between Matthews
and Ted Prior but it looked a
little too corny on how it was
choreographed as well as Matthews trying
to get intimidating towards Ted
which needed some improvement.
There's
a shot on Karr approaching Teresa
van Der Woude with a turn around
movement on her acting shocked taken by
surprise which looked fairly energetic.
There's a
good shot on Ted staring
seriously at both bit part actors John
Robb and Joel Hoffman as
weightlifters in which there's many
cheesy close up shots on them along with
them having a corny dialogue together.
There's a cheesy reaction onvan Der
Woude getting on top of supporting
actor Richard Bravo acting
lustful which looked very wooden as well
as another shot on Bravo
approaching behind her and slitting her
throat in which this looked very stale
along with interesting close up shots on
both of this same actor of what went on
however their expressions seemed a bit
stale.
Hoffman makes another appearance
by straining while weightlifting in which
he seems to be pulling on nothing but an
act and not letting it be natural as well
as a phony looking strike in the head and
him almost losing conciousness as his
reactions were fairly rough.
Ted attacks Bravo
punching him in which this looked quite
amateurish and low on energy too along
with poor reactions on the two of them
when this happens.
There's a moment with supporting actress Teresa
Trudale looking shocked after
spotting someone who was killed as she
shows no energy at all while doing this
nor with her panicking attitude.
There's another brawling moment between Ted
and Matthews in which this
seemed a little more energised near an
outdoor swimming pool as Matthews
seemed to do well throwing his punches
looking fairly brutal.
There's a
moment with supporting actress Diane
Copeland screaming after spotting
someone hung which sounded extremely
weak.
Campbell
was lacking big time when he was getting
aggressive towards Karr while
getting demanding with her which was
laughably directed and not in a good way.
There's some
nice energetic paced shots between Campbell
chasing after Matthews near a
work related area by climbing over a
barbwire gate and other activities which
looked fairly good for the first time on Prior's
work with all of this.
Prior
shows an odd good camera shot on Karr
pointing a gun and firing but yet with Matthews
acting injured choking out his words
seemed very phony as well as Karr having
a gritty answer which wasn't too
convincing either.
There's good
camera shots looking back and fourth
between Karr and Campbell
having an argument about a suspected
murder case in which this looked cheesy
on how their reactions were between the
two of them as the rest of Prior's
work here. There's a scene with Karr
whacking him in the head with a shovel as
this looked very amateurish.
The music is cheesily
composed by Todd Hayen which is
nothing at all spectacular but
synthesizer music and keyboard playing. We hear some high
plunking sounds during the still moments
trying to make this moment sound a bit
suspenseful but it fails. Plus there's
some odd screeching sound effects too
that sounds quite trashy too.
We have a soundtrack by
cheesy 80's music groups with some fairly
good female singing like:
"Woman on Fire" by Jill Colucci
"Only You Tonight" by Donna De
Lory
"Some Things Never Change"
& "Dust it Off" by The Lost
Playboy Club
"Love Is a Four Letter Word" by
Didi Nelson
"Knockout" by Robert Michaels
& Lisa Duran
"Animal Workout" by Robert
Michaels
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