28 March 2024
Three on a Meathook (1972)
80 min.
Directed by William Girdler.
With Charles Kissinger, James Pickett, Sherry Steiner, Madelyn Buzzard, John Shaw, Marsha Tarbis, Carolyn Thompson.
Bargain basement Ed Gein/PSYCHO inspired splatter from director William Girdler.

Vacationing at the lake, a quartet of young women encounter some car trouble and find themselves stranded.

But all seems fine when likable young Billy (Pickett, in a decent performance) picks the girls up and offers them a place to stay for the night.

That is, until someone stabs, axes and shoots the poor lovelies to death!

Could Billy be the disturbed killer?

This is an odd character study-cum-slasher mix, with perhaps slightly too much of the former. Still, the abrupt killings are efficiently done (a fun beheading, a nice quick jab stick in the bathtub) and Girdler's low budget definitely contributes to the grisly mood.

Best scene: when curious Sherry finds the bodies of dead women hung by hooks in the shed.

This grindhouse ditty is worth a look see, but keep your expectations low.

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