Directed by Alan J. Levi. Written by James Fargo, Frank Avianca, Lenny Montana, George Hart and Joseph M. Shink. Starring Frankie Avalon, Donna Wilkes, Richard Jaeckel, Dane Clark, Antoinette Bower, William Kirby Cullen and Lenny Montana.
Plot: a flute-playing killer happens to stalk a handicapped girl that he gave a blood transfusion to years before (no, I can not make that shit up)
Also known as Dream Slayer, this movie is a “video nasty” that’s not all that nasty even though it was banned in parts of the world for a time. Frankie Avalon, in a mean departure from his beach singing days, plays the flute-playing killer. Donna Wilkes is the handicapped girl that he’s chasing. There’s also this whole side story about her father being an alcoholic and how they have a rather tumultuous relationship, but nothing really comes of that so we don’t know why it was even included.
Now, the story really starts when Frankie Avalon is a little kid and he sees his family killed by a priest (you never learn why). After seeing this, he just picks up his little flute and starts to play. As an adult he keeps it up, replaying Brahm’s Lullaby over and over again because it was the only song his father had time to teach him before he died. And after he breaks out of the institution, whomever says that they don’t like his music gets killed. Finally, the handicapped girl he gave the transfusion to just happens to be the one who stumbles upon him digging a grave and burying a body. So, the chase is on.
The movie doesn’t start off well and it doesn’t end well either. It starts with an opening quote by Tennyson that doesn’t make any sense in relation to the movie. So, we were starting off a little bewildered. By the end however, my brother was downright livid that I made him watch it at all. He hated it. And I have to agree with him on a lot of his points: it was completely unoriginal, the chase music was insipid and overused and the acting (aside from Avalon) could’ve used some work. All in all, I say stay away. You’ll be better off.
My score: 36 (I was generous.) DJ’s score: 19.
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