MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE {1977}

 "HEY, THIS IS MY FIRST NUT!"

  I'm gonna say this up front:  I had no business liking this movie as much as I did.  The one and only directorial opus by Evan Lee, this film was originally released in 1976 entitled HOLLYWOOD MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE.  I'm sure most everybody reading this already knows the circumstances which caused Christopher Lee to appear in this film.  Lee filmed some sequences for another project which find the venerable actor talking about occult stuff in his 'study'.  The project, however, never happened.  Presumably Evan Lee purchased the footage of Christopher Lee, spliced it into the beginning and end of his film, and re-released it in 1977.  If Christopher Lee ever knew about it, his opinion about this film must've been something to hear.    However, this terrible film actually has sort of a perverse charm which slowly won me over.  Not enough to praise the film or recommend it to any but the most ravenous horror movie fiends but enough for me to enjoy the of-kilter perspective on show here.

Now let's get this all out of the way.  This is not a slasher film.  To the best of my knowledge, no meat cleaver ever appears in the film.  And yes, while there is a killing of a family (and their dog), I'm not sure this counts as an actual massacre.  I suppose if you add on the subsequent gory deaths in the film, you might just squeak by calling it a massacre.  And far from being any sort of slasher movie, this is really kinda a monster movie.  Or at least a demon movie.  This is the kind of movie that has end credits listing "1st Drunk Okie", "2nd Drunk Okie" and "Nuthouse Doctor" so that should tell you what kind of a little something about the chutzpah behind the making of this film.  Oh and speaking of the end credits -- Ed Wood is listed as appearing in the movie.  Now, I of course was certain that this was not 'THE' Ed Wood but some random guy with the name 'Ed Wood'.  That's not so surprising.  However, there is a split second in the film where we see a news crew and one of the guys actually does kinda look like it's 'THE' Ed Wood.  The scuttlebutt/legend surrounding this movie seems to be of the opinion that the man himself IS briefly in this movie.  Not for me to say.  What IS for me to say is what this movie is about.  

The revised theatrical version of MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE starts with the tacked-on Christopher Lee segment in which he talks up some occult stuff while a painting of Pan leers down at him.  Then we cut the Professor Cantrell giving his class a slideshow about occult practices and particularly a demon of revenge named Morak.  We see a really nice painting of Morak tormenting his victims with all sorts of gory deaths.  This painting goes right up there with such classic horror movie paintings as the ones appearing in '3 CASES OF MURDER', "THE CREEPING FLESH", "HOUSE OF USHER" and "NIGHT GALLERY".  One of his skeptical students named Mason Harrue heckles Cantrell and the Professor tells Harrue to 'grow up' after class.  Harrue and three of his classmates decide to visit the house of Prof. Cantrell later that night.  What seems to be a prank soon turns to murder as Harrue bashes in the Professor's skull (after killing the dog with a knife, natch.  No . . . not a meat cleaver).  The foursome proceeds to kill the Prof's wife, son and daughter as well.  I guess just because.  However, unfortunately for our bloodthirsty foursome, the Professor isn't dead but he IS paralyzed and basically comatose unable to talk.  The Prof is just able, in his la la land state, to mentally conjure up Morak to "AND THEN THERE WERE NONE" the four students who killed his family. 

This then happens as, one by one, the 4 students get deaded in some horrific way by the vengeful demon Morak (whom we don't see until the end of the film but OH BOY!!!).  And no, that's not really a spoiler since this is given away pretty much on that poster up there.  But really, this movie is spoiler proof.  Also mixed up in events are hallucinogenic fever dreams experienced by the 4 murderous students which are interesting psychedelic set pieces in their own right.  This movie actually feels much more like an early 1970's demonic horror movie than a 1976-made one and that, of course, is ANOTHER point in its favour.  The film is actually much better than you'd think and I was pleasantly surprised how I wasn't bored at all during the movie and was also kinda impressed by the off-the-wall 'style' of the film.  It's not tentative by any means but goes right for the gonzo stylistic choices with demonic gusto!  One of those extremely minor 70's horror movies which manages to be entertaining in spite of itself!