Review: The Mutilator (1984)
(aka Fall Break)
Directed by: Buddy Cooper
Starring: Matt Mitler, Bill Hitchcock, Ruth Martinez
Written by: Buddy Cooper
Music by: Michael Minard
Country: United States
Available on: Blu-ray (Arrow Films)
IMDb
The Mutilator is writer/director Buddy Cooper’s sole film unleashed upon the world, and that’s probably for the best. What’s that they say? “Die a hero or live long enough to make a really fucking stupid entry in the Fast & Furious franchise?” I think that’s it, and it’s definitely appropriate here. Cooper, or those financiers wise enough to withhold future monies from him, called it quits after making this brutal but endearing slasher about young man and his friends who vacation at his family beachside condo and end up hunted by a madman with an insatiable lust for stabbing implements.
Cooper’s work was never going to get more wondrous than it is in this oddball film from the tail end of the slasher’s Golden Age. Cooper, cast, crew, and songwriter Peter Yellen captured a very specific and very unusual magic when concocting this regional mashup of gee-golly earnestness straight from ABC’s TGIF line-up and some of the most agonizingly violent kills in the subgenre. A cursory glance at The Mutilator won’t help distinguish it: you’ve got dumb, horny, drunk teens at a remote location who are killed off one at a time. But it doesn’t take very long at all for things to get weird. The movie opens with a halcyon scene of a lovely housewife preparing a birthday cake for her husband while her son prepares his own present for pops: a thoroughly cleaning of his rifle collection. Of course, the dumbass kid accidentally shoots mom, and dad’s just had the worst birthday of his life (although his wife’s tragic death isn’t enough to evoke any emotions or words from him because those things might require acting of some sort). The film zips to the present day accompanied by Yellen’s delightfully cheesy tune, “Fall Break,” hearkening the lighthearted good times to come.
The main character is of course that well-meaning-but-manslaughtering little boy all grown up and in college, surrounded by a menagerie of chums played by actors wielding peculiar voices or peculiar performances or a delectable combination of both. They wander around daddy’s condo looking for booze and sex, instead finding a variety of father’s strange knickknacks, morbid photographs of accidental boat motor mutilations, and a worrying quantity of weaponry, eventually finding themselves on the beheading, disemboweling, and puncturing ends of battle axes, pickaxes, and gaff hooks. It’s probably thanks to everyone’s complete inexperience making a movie and unfamiliarity with the story beats you’re expected to hit, but The Mutilator is leisurely paced — and actually better off for it. You get ample chance to get to know these goofy kids, who are generally more likable than the usual murder fodder, and the creepy seaside locale. So when the offal hits the blades, it’s somewhat shocking as these affable lads meet increasingly gruesome ends, often very suddenly, courtesy of some very convincing practical effects. Aside from the theme song, the score from Michael Minard adds a foreboding, moody edge to the bloody chicanery when required. And there’s something audacious about the killer just being an angry old dude who’s angry old face is shown on screen very early.
Ostensibly, The Mutilator isn’t offering you anything especially unique, but the charms are all in the accoutrements, like an overdone steak served with warm Kool-Aid, some Tootsie Rolls, caviar, a couple slices of Wonder Bread, and the utensils from a toddler’s play kitchen. It subverts your expectations, often in ways that leave you with no option but to grin. What this flick captures so adeptly — like similarly (de)crafted slashers Pieces and Blood Rage — is an enchanting balance between its best and sleaziest natures.
Overall rating: 8.5 out of 10
