The Nail Gun Massacre is set in a small Texan town where lowly lumber yard worker Linda (Michelle Meyer) is brutally raped by a group of overweight & hairy construction worker. Jump forward several months & one of the rapist's Leroy Johnson is brutally murdered by someone using a nail gun, the local Sheriff (Ron Queen) is stumped. Then two more bodies are found bearing the grisly hallmarks of the nail gun killer, the local doctor (Rocky Patterson) becomes involved as the bodies continue to mount up. Both the Sheriff & the doc struggle to come up with any answers as the nail gun killings continue, will they able to uncover the killer & stop the nail gun massacre?
Written, produced & co-directed by Terry Loftan who also gets the special effects, casting & stunts credits The Nail Gun Massacre is a notoriously bad film that even the likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis, Jim Wynorski & Roger Corman would be embarrassed to put their names to. Yes, The Nail Gun Massacre really is that bad although in it's unashamed awfulness there's a certain amount of sleazy fun to be had if approached in the right way. Obviously ripping it's title off from the classic power tool inspired horror flick The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) one has to say that the script for The Nail Gun Massacre is terrible with virtually no attempt at characterisation at all, the town Sheriif & local doctor who investigate the killings are two of the most bland, poorly written character's that have no personality whatsoever to grace any film you can name. The dialogue is so stiled, flat, static & dull that it seems no effort was put into giving any of the character's any sort of personality at all & the actor's look like they are reading from cue cards in a very monotone way. The plot is awful too, despite all these construction workers being killed in the same way with a nail gun & despite all these construction workers having been accused of rape & despite all these construction workers working for the same company the local Sheriff insist's he can't find any sort of connection until the last fifteen minutes when he finally works it out. I'm not being funny here but you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to work it out & you certainly don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out who the killer is, lets just say when they are finally revealed at the end it will comes as no surprise to anyone, also how did the Sheriff know to turn up at the quarry at the end?
The film is as badly made as any I have seen in a while, it's right down there with the rubbishy output from Troma. Apparently writer & director Lofton has said that he tried to make The Nail Gun Massacre as a comedy but I simply can't see anything funny or humorous about it, the tone is quite serious & there's slapstick or one-liners & my guess is Lofton is trying to cover his ass as he knows he turned in a terrible film & is saying it was meant to be anyway like that makes a difference. The film has point the camera in the right direction & hope for the best cinematography, the opening sequence features a wooded scene that is supposed to be foggy but it just looks like someone lit a bonfire just off-screen as a few puffs of smoke drift by! The sound is abysmal, there's lots of annoying ambient sounds like cars going past that drown out the dialogue & the horrible music is often played so loud that again you can't hear the dialogue. The kill scenes are poorly staged with the killer 'sneaking' up on people in broad daylight & you can't tell me that woman having sex on the bonnet of that guy's car didn't notice some freak wearing a motorcycle helmet & carrying a huge nail gun, she was looking right at them yet seemed surprised when the killer eventually spoke. The gore is OK, there's a fair amount of blood & there's a severed hand. There's quite a few sex scenes that have the production values of your average 70's porno & they seem 'inserted' which of course they were at the request of the films original distributors. The rape is short & not that graphic (one of the few scenes not to feature any nudity in fact).
The budget for this must have been minuscule to say the least, shot in Texas & was in fact released in the US on DVD under the title Texas Nailgun Massacre. The killer is given a modulated voice which is often hard to understand & quickly becomes annoying. The acting is atrocious from all involved.
The Nail Gun Massacre is one of those awful films which has a certain entertainment value & questionable charm about it, it was sleazy & exploitative enough to keep me happy for 90 odd minutes but both conceptually & technically this is the pits. If you are interested in power tool inspired slasher films then check out The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Toolbox Murders (1978) & The Driller Killer (1979).
Written, produced & co-directed by Terry Loftan who also gets the special effects, casting & stunts credits The Nail Gun Massacre is a notoriously bad film that even the likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis, Jim Wynorski & Roger Corman would be embarrassed to put their names to. Yes, The Nail Gun Massacre really is that bad although in it's unashamed awfulness there's a certain amount of sleazy fun to be had if approached in the right way. Obviously ripping it's title off from the classic power tool inspired horror flick The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) one has to say that the script for The Nail Gun Massacre is terrible with virtually no attempt at characterisation at all, the town Sheriif & local doctor who investigate the killings are two of the most bland, poorly written character's that have no personality whatsoever to grace any film you can name. The dialogue is so stiled, flat, static & dull that it seems no effort was put into giving any of the character's any sort of personality at all & the actor's look like they are reading from cue cards in a very monotone way. The plot is awful too, despite all these construction workers being killed in the same way with a nail gun & despite all these construction workers having been accused of rape & despite all these construction workers working for the same company the local Sheriff insist's he can't find any sort of connection until the last fifteen minutes when he finally works it out. I'm not being funny here but you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to work it out & you certainly don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out who the killer is, lets just say when they are finally revealed at the end it will comes as no surprise to anyone, also how did the Sheriff know to turn up at the quarry at the end?
The film is as badly made as any I have seen in a while, it's right down there with the rubbishy output from Troma. Apparently writer & director Lofton has said that he tried to make The Nail Gun Massacre as a comedy but I simply can't see anything funny or humorous about it, the tone is quite serious & there's slapstick or one-liners & my guess is Lofton is trying to cover his ass as he knows he turned in a terrible film & is saying it was meant to be anyway like that makes a difference. The film has point the camera in the right direction & hope for the best cinematography, the opening sequence features a wooded scene that is supposed to be foggy but it just looks like someone lit a bonfire just off-screen as a few puffs of smoke drift by! The sound is abysmal, there's lots of annoying ambient sounds like cars going past that drown out the dialogue & the horrible music is often played so loud that again you can't hear the dialogue. The kill scenes are poorly staged with the killer 'sneaking' up on people in broad daylight & you can't tell me that woman having sex on the bonnet of that guy's car didn't notice some freak wearing a motorcycle helmet & carrying a huge nail gun, she was looking right at them yet seemed surprised when the killer eventually spoke. The gore is OK, there's a fair amount of blood & there's a severed hand. There's quite a few sex scenes that have the production values of your average 70's porno & they seem 'inserted' which of course they were at the request of the films original distributors. The rape is short & not that graphic (one of the few scenes not to feature any nudity in fact).
The budget for this must have been minuscule to say the least, shot in Texas & was in fact released in the US on DVD under the title Texas Nailgun Massacre. The killer is given a modulated voice which is often hard to understand & quickly becomes annoying. The acting is atrocious from all involved.
The Nail Gun Massacre is one of those awful films which has a certain entertainment value & questionable charm about it, it was sleazy & exploitative enough to keep me happy for 90 odd minutes but both conceptually & technically this is the pits. If you are interested in power tool inspired slasher films then check out The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Toolbox Murders (1978) & The Driller Killer (1979).