Grotesque (1988)

User Rating:

3.6/10   

Director:

Joe Tornatore

Writers:

Mikel Angel (writer)
Joe Tornatore (characters)

Release Date:

9 September 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

There is a fate worse than death.

Plot:

A gang of crazed punkers breaks into a family's vacation home in the mountains and slaughters the entire family...

Plot Keywords:

Punk | Freak | Wolfman | Frankenstein | Revenge

Cast

Linda Blair	...	Lisa
Donna Wilkes	...	Kathy
Tab Hunter	...	Rod
Brad Wilson	...	Scratch
Michelle Bensoussan	...	Shelly
Sharon Hughes	...	Donna
Nels Van Patten	...	Gibbs
Billy Frank	...	Ear Box
Robert Z'Dar	...	Eric (as Bunki Z)
Stacey Alden
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mikel Angel
Charles Dierkop
John F. Goff		(as John Goff)
Mike Lane	...	Frank N. Stien
Chuck Morrell	...	Mr. Fulton
Luana Patten	...	Gothic old lady in opening film-within-a-film segment
Jeff Richard	...	Wolf Mann
Guy Stockwell	...	Orville Kruger
Lincoln Tate
Donald Tornatore	...	Ghoul (as Don Tornatore)
Joe Tornatore
Robert Zoller	...	Sherif

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | UK:18 | Finland:(Banned) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, California, USA

Company:

United Filmmakers Group

Trivia:

Linda Blair once stated in an interview with Fangoria magazine that the original title of the film wasn't as exploitive, and as associate producer, she could have sued to fight the change, but it would have ended up costing her more money than she got out of the whole project.

Wasted potential

I think other reviewers have been a little harsh on this film. OK so the whole "movie-within-a-movie" aspect did ruin it, but if you can overlook that you can see what could have been an effective little horror flick. The storyline is basic, but that is what makes it so good. A group of punks (that reminded me of the crazy guys in Last House On The Left) go looking for money from a retired film effects maker. They murder him, and other members of the family. But the tables are turned when they find a deformed "thing" in the house (who reminds me of Leatherface) who chases and kills them. The "thing" chases them out into the forest and snow. Sounds simple but it works very well. People will complain that there was no gore in the movie - to me this was one of those movies that didn't need gore.

Everything starts to fall apart when the "thing" is killed and the remaining two punks are taken to the police for questioning. What follows is boring dialogue in the police station. After that we get an explanation of what the "thing" was and why the murdered guy was raising him. After that...well...I won't spoil it. What follows is stupid and pathetic and completely ruins what could have been a neat little film.

Overall I would say that this is one of those films that failed to reach its potential, and I hate it when that happens! I would urge people to see it as it does have "something" about it, but remember that there is a stupid ending and boring dialogue at the end. In fact I think it would've been better if they'd ended the film as soon as the "thing" was shot dead, so perhaps that would be the best place to stop watching.