Night Killer (1990) User Reviews

It's Fragrasso and Mattei: that's all you need to know.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 13 July 2019]

Directors Claudio Fragrasso and Bruno Mattei, the men responsible for such Italian trash classics as Troll 2 and Rats: Night of Terror, have done it again! And by that, I mean that Night Killer is another godawful piece of low-rent horror garbage so bad that it has to be seen to be believed.

In the film's pre-credits sequence, a killer in a demonic rubber mask (that looks nothing like Freddy Krueger, despite what it says on IMDb) and armed with a rubber glove with long talons, kills a dancer and her director, punching holes through their abdomens.

Following the credits, we meet mother Melanie Beck (Tara Buckman) who, moments after sending her daughter to stay with friends, slips down her sweater and fondles her bare breasts in the mirror. Unfortunately for Melanie, the masked killer who has been raping and killing local women, also has her in his sights; breaking into her home, he subjects her to an eight hour ordeal, which she narrowly survives when the killer is interrupted. The only problem is, Melanie's trauma has resulted in a complete loss of memory, meaning that she cannot identify her attacker.

Discharged from hospital, Melanie is subsequently pestered by a mysterious man while on her way to commit suicide at the beach. The stranger saves her life, but proceeds to keep her captive at a motel, submitting her to another terrifying experience. Is this man the same psycho who attacked her in her home? You'll have to wait till the end of the movie to find out, suffice to say that Fragrasso and Mattei have one hell of a silly revelation up their sleeves for the finalé.

Sadly, as nutty as it all is, Night Killer is also rather tedious, despite plenty of nudity and some hokey gore. The direction is ham-fisted (no surprises there), the dialogue is terrible (no surprises here either), the acting is awful (ditto), and the plot often perplexing (Why does the killer have an art studio full of really bad drawings? How does he manage to punch through someone's body? Why is the policeman's phone held together with Sellotape? What's with the Christmas gift for Clarissa?). I don't know how they do it, but Fragrasso and Mattei manage to botch things up at almost every turn, yet still avoid making their film 'so bad, it's good'. It's just plain bad.

Funny in a way you probably think

[Fanatic_movie_goer · 3/10 · 12 March 2020]

The movie is awfully good. It doesn't have any good characters, the directing is horrendous, the cutting is mushy, the score is bad and the whole movie is great.

I laughed my ass off when I watched the movie. Don't expect any good movie. You just gonna have to watch Night Killer without your brain, brainlessly.

P.S. why is it called Non aprite quella porta 3? Did they think that they are gonna skip the previous two movies and make the third one. I just want to know that.

Damn, what could have been!

[udar55 · 5/10 · 26 July 2009]

Melanie Beck (Linda Hamilton look-a-like Tara Buckman) is the only surviving victim of a killer-rapist who wears a Freddy Kruger-esquire mask and claw. Despite having seen the killer's face, Beck has blocked it from her memory. Becoming suicidal, she tries to kill herself on the beach but is saved by Axel (Peter Hooten), another rapist sleazeball who keeps her locked in his hotel room. All this builds to a mind blowing conclusion that actually has a pretty clever and dark twist. I had higher hopes when I saw this billed as an "ELM STREET ripoff directed by Claudio Fragasso." Sadly, this is no TROLL 2 or ZOMBIE 4. The film is pretty ordinary for the genre and features the requisite gore and nudity. To its credit, it might be the only non-porn film in history to feature the "Little Red Riding Hood" inspired line, "Oh, grandma, what a big schlong you have!" The real surprise here for me is that this was filmed about 45 minutes from me in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, VA in 1989. Sadly, I wasn't living here at the time, but it is comforting to know that Fragasso and I have walked the same streets.

Freddy Meets Giallo Meets Soap Opera

[juderussell-84094 · 5/10 · 11 July 2020]

Night Killer was released as a sequel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre in Italy for some bizarre reason and it makes no sense, because with its burnt faced killer with razor fingers, it'd make much more sense as a sequel to Nightmare on Elm Street. That's besides the point, because as many similarities as Night Killer has with other films, it's really its own beast.

It involves a woman who is attacked and raped by a serial killer and she loses her memory completely and ends up getting abducted by a random guy who may or may not be the killer who's still murdering women around the city.

Night Killer is poorly made from top to bottom with awful performances, unconvincing gore effects, and a script that seems to have been made up on the spot, but it's oddly compelling in its own bad movie way.

I wasn't aware you could make something THIS BAD.

[camarossdriver · 1/10 · 26 July 2023]

WOW! This HAS to be one of the WORST (definitely TOP 5) of the most wretched movies I have ever had the displeasure to watch. The "acting" is SOOOOO HORRIBLE that it's darn near a comedy. The dude punching through torsos with a limp rubber glove with bouncy fingers is HILARIOUS! The filmmakers TRIED to make an "A Nightmare on Elm Street" knockoff...but they failed...OHHHHH BOY did they fail. I wouldn't even say that this "movie" is so bad it's good...it's just...plain...bad. If you are given the option to watch this "movie",or watch your grass grow for an hour and a half...I'd pick the grass option. I hope this helped you out.

Toodles.

Awful and a rip off

[treakle_1978 · 1/10 · 13 June 2020]

Masked killer who looks like a mentally challenged Freddy Krueger rapes and kills women. Next comes all the twists in the end. Terrible movie don't waste your time.

Beyond obscure and inane and awesome

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 29 October 2018]

Say what you will about Claudio Fragrasso. From the films he co-wrote with his Rossella Drudi for Bruno Mattei, like Robowar, Zombi 3, Rats: Night of Terror and Shocking Dark to the films he's either co-directed or directed, such as Scalps, Troll 2 and Beyond Darkness, he's created films that you can see as inept and strange films created by someone who has no understanding of how human beings think, act or speak. Or you can see it my way - they are works of pure genius, the fruits of a demented mind that doesn't need to be grounded by such concerns as budget, traditional storytelling or common sense.

Fragasso saw this as a tense psychological thriller with little to no gore and the original cut of the film resembled his vision. However, the producers wanted more violence, so they brought in Bruno Mattei to add the gore. Those very same producers also retitled the film Non Aprite Quella Porta 3 (Don't Open the Door 3) so that it would appear to be another film in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series (yep, this is getting into La Casa/Demons territory).

Within the first eight minutes of this movie, we've seen nudity, aerobics dancing on stage while a director has a near meltdown of amateur acting proportions, the killer disembowered two women and the director falling off a balcony to her death, all set to some of the most chipper synth turns you've ever heard. Buckle up - this movie gets even weirder from here.

This movie is utterly confounding. This is why traditional movies end up boring me, because they make too much sense. If you're looking for narrative jumps that leap into orbit, if you're seeking out the unhinged, if you have ever wanted to watch a movie that goes from Elm Street to giallo to pre-Seven box related ending five years before that film was released and if you watched Troll 2 and said, "But what if the same people made a movie that makes even less sense?", please consider this a strong recommendation.

I'm rating this on a "So Bad It Is Good" scale...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 16 February 2020]

... because as cinema with a coherent plot and convincing acting it fails completely. Let me also say that Chris Stuckmann's video review of this is what caused me to watch it ,and I can't unhear what he said, so I may repeat points that he made.

This thing had to initially be a porno film that the backers/makers decided would make more money as a horror film in the tradition of Cannon Films. There were scenes added by the backers to give the film more gore, although overall, in the gore department, it is nothing severe.

This film is about a homicidal maniac who dons a Freddy Krueger like mask and just one claw on one hand - in the tradition of Michael Jackson??? - and goes about killing random women by...punching a hole through them? Help me out here medical students, but wouldn't things like muscle and internal organs and a spinal cord make that rough going for a flimsy plastic claw? Plus the "Night Killer" is definitely a day killer. Not once did I see him strike at night. But then those kind of scenes cost money.

So the film opens on some kind of dance routine rehearsal for a show that is being overseen by a woman who initially has perfect diction but then in just one scene transitions to having some kind of speech impediment that makes her incomprehensible. So the Night Killer does some killing in and around the rehearsal involving characters we know nothing about and then the film just leaves that behind to never return there again.

The film then moves on to Melanie Beck, a mid 30s author (??? her frantic bra-less typing is never explained) who ends up being Night Killer's next victim. Except she lives. But the trauma causes her to forget everything about what happened including what the attacker looked like and the details of her own life including her name and the fact that she has a daughter. If you want to know what happens, then watch and find out.

This thing is just a treasure trove of bad inexplicable filmmaking, from the decision to score a man walking a child to school with 80s hardcore porn music, to scoring the suspense scenes with soft core porn music, to Melanie Beck deciding to get into a conversation and argument with an obscene phone caller, to the Night Killer, when he is shown from the back in street clothes, having the wrong build and hair color to be the person who turns out to be the actual culprit. Oh, and then there is Melanie's daughter who is the world's tallest pre-pubescent child who is constantly being referred to as "just a baby".

If you are looking for quality horror, don't watch this. But if you are just in the mood to say "What the...???" then you are in the right place.

Obscure Italian horror

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 28 February 2015]

This obscure Italian horror (my copy has Portuguese subtitles embedded!) has an appalling start with a group of late eighties dancers jerking about to just as appalling music, whilst the slasher style violence and nudity commences. It recovers, however, despite the low budget and average acting and whilst it becomes rather confusing, we never loose interest and in the end the film wins out. Much is mundane and predictable but the central performance is very good and there are impressive scenes including a sexy take on Red Riding Hood and a most enthusiastic, tying to the bed, sequence. As I say from the beginning you will wonder if this is worth sticking with but gladly it is and there are some decent twists along with the occasional hysterics.

"So bad it's good" applies to this one

[hnt_dnl · 6/10 · 28 July 2020]

Expecting something totally different, NIGHT KILLER (1990) turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I was thinking this would be the standard "80s" slasher, even though it came out in 1990, but let's face it, the early 90s still had very much an 80s vibe. But this movie surprised me in several ways. The acting is incredibly over the top with obnoxious music in every other scene. I guess this is an Italian flick which is why some of the dialogue sounds dubbed, but I definitely recognize the lead actress Tara Buckman from other things in the 80s, most notably Cannonball Run and a Chips episode, but this is the first time I actually knew her name. The acting from EVERY actor is grade school level cheesy. I mean it's BAD, but that adds to the movie's appeal because everyone is so deadly serious giving such lousy performances. No future Oscar winners in this one! lol A very interesting aspect of this movie is that the main character Melanie is really screwed up even prior to the traumatic events that happen to her. She's a complete mess of a character and oddly fascinating. There's some amazingly funny dialogue at times. Night Killer has a crazy multi-genre style. It's soap opera, sexual deviancy, horror, thriller and crime drama all rolled into one. The movie also has some crazy twists that even though I figured them out at some point, it was still an entertaining watch.

From the GENIUS who brought us "Troll 2"

[Coventry · 8/10 · 11 January 2019]

The day Claudio Fragasso (or Clyde Anderson, as he prefers to call himself) dies and arrives at the gates to confront Saint Peter for the trial whether he belongs in heaven or hell, I strongly advise him to plead "temporary insanity" for the year 1990! I don't know what Fragasso smoked back then, but it must have been great stuff! How else would you explain the fact that he spawned both "Troll 2" and this "Night Killer" in in and the same magical year? These two films are extremely different in terms of content and atmosphere, but both are incredibly awful yet wondrously absurd and insanely entertaining. "Troll 2" is legendary trash-heritage and world-famous, whereas "Night Killer" is obscure and unknown. Undeservedly so, I must emphasize, as this utterly bonkers horror oddity should urgently be discovered by all fans of slasher movies, rape & revenge thrillers, gialli and bizarre cult films in general!

You know that indescribably joyous feeling you experience when watching something truly bad and amateurish, but simultaneously so much fun? Well, "Night Killer" guarantees this feeling from start to finish! According to notes in the trivia-section and some random interviews I read on the internet, Fragasso initially intended for this film to be a psychological thriller without gore, but behind his back the producers instructed Bruno Mattei to shoot an additional load of nasty and sleaze-laden sequences. Personally, I think this is a bunch of nonsense. Fragasso is simply incapable to pen down a serious psychological thriller and, besides, he and Mattei have been best friends and business partners since the late 70s already, so I find it difficult to believe Mattei would "betray" his buddy Fragasso like this. "Night Killer" is indeed unstructured, clumsily edited and totally senseless, but that's just the regular way these two geniuses work together. Pure entertainment is what matters, and "Night Killer" delivers.

The film opens marvelously, with 2 random beauties in standard 80s aerobic outfits savagely getting slaughtered during their dance rehearsal by a maniac in a monstrous mask and a glove with sharp claws. You'll read in other reviews that the killer's mask resembles Freddy Krueger's face, but the people who wrote that should urgently re-watch the entire "Nightmare on Elm Street" series. The mask looks like an ugly demon's face, mutilated by a flamethrower and then resurrected again. The claws on the glove are clearly made of rubber, and yet the maniac manages to bore holes through women's stomachs with them! The script then suddenly seems to realize the 1980s are over, so the action moves away from the dance academy. Our sick killer subsequently targets beautiful single mother Melanie Beck, and stalks her with obscene phone calls before perpetrating into her house. Maybe, just maybe, Melanie is a logical choice because she fondles her naked breasts while talking to herself in the mirror. He attacks and viciously rapes Melanie, but she survives the attack and enters in a state of shock and complete amnesia. Melanie escapes from the hospital and attempts to commit suicide, but the poor thing runs into a crazed madman again and he holds her captive in a sleazy motel room. The film then insists that we believe Melanie's new kidnapper, Axel, is the same person as the ugly mask murderer, and meanwhile he also cheerfully continues to slay other women, like a prostitute with whom he enacts a perverted Little Red Riding Hood role-play! If you think "Night Killer" can't possibly get any more jaw-droppingly absurd or delirious, just wait until you witness the completely deranged denouement!

But now for the hardest part of this review. How to possibly rate this fantastic piece of rubbish? In terms of sheer entertainment, I'm honestly tempted to reward "Night Killer" with a perfect 10/10, simply because I was rejoiced from start to finish and even watched some key sequences several times because I couldn't believe my eyes the first time. Other arguments for a high rating are the fast pacing, the copious amounts of reasonably decent make-up effects and the truckload of bloodshed and perversion. A massive score is also quite misleading, of course, because "Night Killer" inarguably remains pure trash with terrible acting and lousy scripting. Still, I had a tremendous great time and I give it 8/10. Finally, one last example of unscrupulous and typically Italian horror marketing. The "official" title of the film is "Non aprite quella porta 3", which literally translates as "Don't Open That Door 3". It's the local title under which the horror classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" got released in 1974, and thus they wanted everybody to think this was a sequel. Never mind the fact there isn't a chainsaw in sight, and the producers also didn't take into consideration that the actual "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part III" also came out later that same year, in 1990.

Freddy Krueger-inspired homicidal maniac.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 6 March 2015]

Claudio Fragasso's "Night Killer" features masked Freddy Krueger-inspired serial killer who murders women with a glove with finger blades.Melanie Beck is the only surviving victim of this homicidal maniac,but she suffers from amnesia and is suicidal.She tries to kill herself on the beach but is saved by mysterious man named Alex who may be Night Killer."Night Killer" is obviously inspired by Italian gialli and American slasher movies like "Halloween" or "Nightmare on Elm Street" series.There is gore and nudity plus some jaw-droppingly absurd plot twists that almost made my head spin.I enjoyed "Night Killer" even more than infamous Claudio Fragasso's "Troll 2".6 deadly gloves out of 10.

MASKED MURDERER

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 6/10 · 15 July 2019]

As the horror genre gave way from creatures to masked murderers stalking their prey theaters were inundated with various interpretations of this style of killer. By 1990 camp counselors were not being attacked as often, dreams were being invaded less often and the giallo was for the most part considered old hat. But a few films were still being made that would play in grindhouses and fill the shelves of the video stores that remained. Among them was NIGHT KILLER.

At a rehearsal for a group of dancers a masked stranger murders one of the girls involved, shoving a pointy fingered gloved hand through her abdomen. When her instructor goes to check on her she too is attacked. These are just the first victims of this odd killer.

Another potential victim is Melanie Beck (Tara Buckman), working at home after she sends her daughter to school. Beck survives the attack on the physical end but not the psychological. A single mother whose husband hasn't been seen since their divorce, her daughter goes with friends to be taken care of while she recuperates.

Instead she gets more depressed and wanders alone to the beach where she attempts to kill herself with pills. She's saved by a man whose been stalking her named Axel (Peter Hooten) who takes her to his hotel room. While watching you're not quite sure whether she's stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire or if he could be her last hope. Could this stalker be the killer?

More murders take place and the list of suspects is present for almost everyone but Beck. Thrown into massive shock by the attack she can't recall anything that took place. With no suspect, no description and no clues the police don't have much to go on. But Axel pushes Beck in an attempt to force her to remember. Will she do so? Will she be able to identify the killer or will he return to finish the job?

While the movie is entertaining in the right places and stupid in others if you don't see what's coming before the end then you've not seen many movies like this. Still, it does provide some decent acting, some terrible acting and is well crafted when it comes to the making of the film. The mask and glove may remind you of someone else (cough cough FREDDY cough cough), they don't do that character justice but still come off okay.

My biggest thought while watching the film was what ever became of Peter Hooten? This was the first person to portray Dr. Strange in a TV movie, made ORCA with Richard Harris and Bo Derek and was in the original INGLORIOUS BASTARDS. He seems to have disappeared though.

Severin has brought the film back and as with many of their releases has strived to make it look as presentable as possible, doing their usual excellent job with a version scanned in 4k from the original negative. Few extras are on hand but most likely due to the lack of items made when the film was released. What we do have is The Virginia Claw Massacre an interview with director Claudio Fargasso, an interview with screenwriter Rossella Drudi and the trailer for the film.

Horror fans will want to add this to their growing collections already fueled by previous films Severin has released. Movie fans will want to give it a watch since it does a decent job of offering a solid horror film.

Time to play, Mrs. Beck

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 6 June 2021]

A deranged and depraved masked serial killer rapes and murders women in the city of Virginia Beach. Paranoid Melanie Beck (a hilariously histrionic performance by Tara Buckman) manages to avoid getting off by the wacko, but of course the killer isn't going to let her stay alive for long.

Directors Claudio Fragasso and Bruno Mattei deliver a satisfyingly sleazy and screwball mix of tacky gore, tasty bare female flesh (Buckman bares her beautifully bountiful breasts several times), and baffling plot twists that don't make a lick of sense, but are still quite an enjoyably atrocious sight to behold just the same. With his goofy rubber mask and silly giant plastic claw, the killer comes across like a poverty row version of Freddy Krueger. (The killer's lewd taunts to Mrs. Beck are simply priceless, too). Buckman's eye-rolling overacting provides a wondrous wealth of unintentional guffaws. Ditto Peter Hooten's equally hammy portrayal of smarmy stalker creep Axel. The uproariously lame surprise twisting ending serves as the perfectly pathetic gut-busting punchline to this awesomely asinine cinematic shaggy dog joke. A total schlocky hoot.

From the maker of Troll 2

[selfdestructo · 8/10 · 30 April 2023]

I think that's all the information you need. Must be seen to be believed.

Alright, the monumentally bad acting from everyone involved in this project is only the icing on the cake. The much-ballyhooed "added gore" is essentially one effect. This killer definitely has a favorite method. All the added footage by another director is poorly shot, so it sticks out like a sore thumb. Director "Clyde Anderson" (Claudio Fragasso) is big on the uncomfortably close close-ups in this, and the scenes go on forever! The soundtrack is off the rails. Wacky twist. If you're a fan of bad cinema, Night Killer is a goldmine.

Extras: Make sure to check out the interviews on the Severin edition, particularly the one with the director. He is a real freaking windbag, but also fairly insightful! He is incessantly name-dropping great directors when describing his own work, and actually refers to himself as an "underappreciated auteur." Make what you will of that. Interesting to learn that the movie husband and wife did not like each other. It really comes through in some scenes, where I'm assuming it's not supposed to.

Say pretty please.....kiss me

[QueenoftheGoons · 8/10 · 23 June 2022]

For it being Italian, though filmed in America, it was not very graphic. I mean it wasn't bad. It had a story, it had a reasonably good story, cast, etc only a few parts were boring. That Hooten woo what a nice jaw-line. I was surprised by the ending though i had suspected for awhile Hooten was not a killer. The best scene was when he had the chick in bed. But again its downfall was it didn't show enough.