Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

The_Void It must have been hard to imagine in 1973 that the director of this low budget shock flick would go on to make one of the very best crime films of the nineties with LA Confidential, but indeed that was the case. Anyway, this was his first attempt at directing, and it's a rather lukewarm film. I never go into films like this expecting too much; generally these film were made with the intention of getting as many people into a theatre as possible and that isn't usually the best base for a great film. This one focuses on Eddie Collins, a disturbed man who gets into murdering women after one unsuccessful encounter and then ends up not being able to shake off the urge to do so. The film was obviously made on a shoestring budget and it does look very cheap. There's also rather too many sex scenes in the film which were obviously included to help sell the film, but actually end up making it all the more boring. Naturally the point of the film is to see the lead character butchering some women rather than any kind of character study, and that's really all we get. Still, Sweet Kill is not a total dead loss; it makes for an interesting watch and fans of low budget seventies exploitation will probably get a kick out of it.

Woodyanders Former 50's teen idol Tab Hunter gives a superbly chilling and convincing performance as Eddie Collins, a lonely, impotent and sexually frustrated high school gym teacher who was driven around the bend by his shameless whore mother who used to parade around naked in front of him as a little boy. Eddie viciously murders any lovely young lass who tries (and fails) to turn him on. Writer/director Curtis Hanson, who went on to win an Oscar for the terrific "L.A. Confidential," does an expert job of creating and sustaining a creepy, clammy, clinical tone for this luridly compelling portrait of homicidal madness and seething misogyny. Moreover, Hanson astutely nails the whole right-on groovy swingin' 70's zeitgeist, evokes a highly credible sense of everyday mundane reality and builds plenty of nerve-wracking tension which reaches a harrowing fever pitch in the terrifying final third. The abundant gratuitous distaff nudity, the seedy seaside Venice, California locations, the shockingly blunt'n'brutal violence and the profoundly unnerving conclusion all give this picture a raw, sleazy, unsettling edge that's mighty tough to shake. Nice supporting performances by Nadyne Turney as fed-up, long-suffering unhappy single gal Barbara, Isabel Jewell as a snoopy landlady, a pre-"Phantasm" Angus Scrimm as Jewell's husband, and longtime favorite 70's drive-in flick starlet Roberta Collins as a brassy call girl. Charles Bernstein's supremely spooky'n'shuddery score and Daniel Lacambre's crisp, polished cinematography are both up to par. The inspired casting of Tab Hunter in the warped lead qualifies as the film's masterstroke; Hunter's blandly handsome boy next door persona makes for the perfect front for the severe dementia bubbling just underneath the surface. An excellent and unjustly overlooked little nugget.

lazarillo This is part of a strange trend in the early 1970's of 1950's male matinée idols playing serial killers. First, Rock Hudson appeared in the wonderful black comedy "Pretty Maids All in a Row" as high school guidance counselor, football coach, and sex murderer. Then Troy Donahue appeared in the bizarre "Love Thrill Murderers" (aka "Sweet Savior") as a Mansonesque cult leader. And in this movie, years before more publicly exploding his screen image in John Water's "Polyester", Tab Hunter plays an impotent and murderous PE coach (is there any other kind?). The plot is pretty simple: Tab can't get it up, so in frustration he kills the many women who excite him or come on to him.This movie is better made than many (like the "Love-Thrill Murders), but it is presented in a VERY serious manner and could have really used the black humor of a film like "Pretty Maids". The premise is pretty ridiculous after all. The film also follows another 70's/early 80's trend of being told from the POV of the deranged killer and trying to make him somewhat sympathetic. Again this can work if it's a well-made film (i.e. "Peeping Tom", "Taxi Driver")or if it contains a good dose of black humor ("Deranged"), but often the results ended up being either highly unpleasant ("Maniac", "Don't Go in the House") or just plain risible ("Don't Answer the Phone", "Mardi Gras Massacre"). This falls more into the latter category (despite some lingering misogyny). Strangely, in spite of the killer's occupation as a P.E. coach, the movie resists joining the teen sexploitation trend that was big at the time (with movies like "Pretty Maids", "The Cheerleaders", and Tom Loughlin's ridiculous "sex-with-the-babysitter movies"). Tab's victims are all collegiate age or older women (although I might point out to both the drooling perverts and clucking moralists that the same 18-to-30-year-old actress types were used in all these movies regardless of how old the characters were supposed to be). There is one minor subplot where Tab tries to help a troubled male teenage virgin, but it gets dropped pretty quickly.Mostly this movie just isn't a lot of fun. It's hard to take seriously, but it contains little or no comedy. There is one scene where a hippie girl complains about her missing (murdered) roommate and the cops bust her for possession of marijuana, but this scene is really not mined enough either for humor or scathing social commentary. That really leaves only the generous female nudity to recommend this thing, and that may not be enough for most people.

Oliver-50 It's hard to imagine that Curtis Hanson, the man who directed the exceptional films 'L.A. Confidential' and 'The Bedroom Window' could make such an unmemorable film. Too bad, because it had potential to be a real cult classic. Tab Hunter's performance is terrific as the man who is unable to make love to women, so in order to compensate he murders them. Everything is in place for a great movie and the first third of the film is really quite intense.To show everything from Hunter's point of a view is voyeuristic treat at first, and it all seems quite real. Sadly, director Hanson loses sight of this edge early on and uses the same gimmick throughout, making it quite monotonous and ultimately boring. Not only that, but he shows us other unimportant characters just to fill the already short running time (84 min), because there really isn't enough of a movie here.I managed to find this film under it's alias name 'The Arousers.' Despite my negative remarks, the movie is worth a look, if anything to see one of Curtis Hanson's firsts and Tab Hunter's creepy performance. Maybe some viewers will get into it, but I lost it after a half hour.