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An Exercise In Nonsense

The first must-see film of the year.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Troubled and unstable Oedipal wreck sex offender Terry Lambert (an excellent and convincing performance by John Savage in an early lead role) gets released from prison after serving a two year sentence for gang rape he was forced to participate in and returns to the gloomy boarding house run by his doting and desperately lonely overbearing mother Thelma (superbly played with moving restraint and subtlety by Ann Southern). Terry develops an unhealthy fixation on comely, but naive aspiring model new boarder Lori Davis (a fine portrayal by Cindy Williams) and plots revenge on the folks responsible for sending him to jail. Director Curtis Harrington, working from a grimly compelling script by George Edwards and Tony Crechales, delivers an arrestingly stark, sad, and deeply creepy portrait of everyday madness, despair, denial, and the darker side of smothering motherhood that inevitably begets insanity and tragedy while doing his trademark expert job of creating and sustaining a bleak and seamy atmosphere that proves to be quite potent, intriguing, and ultimately heartbreaking as the depressing narrative unfolds towards a shattering bummer conclusion. Moreover, the uncomfortably incestuous and suffocating relationship between Terry and Thelma, a severely deviant and twisted sexuality, a few shocking moments of sudden brutal violence, and a dryly amusing sense of black humor further add to this picture's supremely unsettling edge. Savage and especially Southern do sterling work in their parts, with sturdy support from Luana Anders as snoopy and repressed librarian neighbor Louise, Ruth Roman as successful lawyer Rhea Benson, Sue Bernard as trampy rape victim Tina Moore, Marjorie Eaten as the doddery Mrs. Orland, and Peter Brocco as Louise's domineering crippled father. Mario Tosi's stylish cinematography makes neat occasional use of artful dissolves, slow motion, and freeze frames. Andrew Belling's haunting melancholy score does the moody trick. Highly recommended viewing for fans of Harrington's often offbeat and impressive work.

Love it, love it, love it. This genuinely compelling tale is an unsung classic of horror & exploitation cinema, and one of Harrington's finest films. It has recently (Fall 2007) been released on DVD for the first time, barring one poor quality cheapie version referenced in another review here. Very exciting to see a decent quality print of it for the first time. The tone of The Killing Kind seems really unusual to a modern viewer because it is slow, quiet, and meditative - not what we have come to expect from a horror film. The story centers on a desperately lonely single mother (Thelma) with inappropriate feelings for her son (Terry), who for his part is tormented by his own thwarted desires and the aggression of the women around him. Southern and Savage give powerful performances and the dynamic between them is intense. Harrington said that Southern tried to upstage the other actors, but was herself intimidated by Savage. Their tension adds to the believability of their twisted relationship. Luana Anders is fantastic as the clinically depressed, sexually frustrated spinster next door. Ruth Roman, with her caftan and 3-packs day voice, is also perfect casting. Special props to Marjorie Eaton as Mrs. Orland.

I'm kind of neutral on this one. Savage and Sothern have some pretty freaky chemistry going on throughout this movie. I spent the entire movie wanting to laugh, but had that Norman Bates feeling running up and down my spine. You honestly didn't know who to feel sorry for the entire movie -- including the audience. The downside - I expected more chemistry between the killer and the victims. As psychologically intense as the mother-son relationship was, the killer-victim stints left me dry. Technical merit I am going to leave out - I watched a low budget copy of a DVD with horrible sound and picture quality (It CAN'T be the original film quality I won't believe it!) For a psychological case study I give it a B, for a movie to kill an hour or 2 with C-.

If I had to choose a movie that exemplified how *not* to make one, this one would head the list. And yet, I found it oddly compelling. Or, at least, I did not feel I had been robbed of my time and movie-watching efforts at the end of it. Credit Miss Ann Southern and Mr. John Savage for that, I think.