Really Awful Movies: Ep 220 – The Mutilator

“Mutilate” is one of the more frightening verbs in the English language.

So, here we come to The Mutilator. The poster is enticing: “by sword, by pick, by axe, bye bye.” For some reason, they neglected to mention “by outboard motor.” So yeah, The Mutilator is a bit gross. But the poster and the occasional gory death belies its utter goofiness.

This is a movie that originally went by “Fall Break.” Is that like, catching yourself before being hurt? Something to break your fall? Labor Day is a long weekend, but it’s not a “fall break.” What in hell is a fall break? No wonder this became…THE MUTILATOR (small point: most victims are decidedly NOT mutilated in the sense we’ve come to understand it).

Still, sure beats “fall break” (which sounds like a Porky’s-style romp).

Some college coeds, bored as usual, are looking for a diversion…And that diversion? The king that comes from getting away from it all and going to swill beer and fool around in isolation somewhere. That somewhere is a condo by the beach (somewhere in the Carolinas) that needs to be closed up for the winter.

Ed (whose father owns the place) is game…and grabs his best friends to drive up to do just that. After lots of foreshadowing (which includes demonic masks as well as shiny fishing gaffs) the group starts getting hunting down and picked off by…a PSYCHO KILLER! (you know you want to see the Talking Heads lyric that follows: “Qu’est-ce que c’est.”

The 1980s gave us such glorious stalk-and-slash flicks as the incredibly fun and inane, Hospital Massacre, the gruesome The Burning (with a young Jason Alexander, pre-Costanza) and of course our favorite hockey-masked monster, the Butcher of Camp Crystal Lake, Jason.

So, how does this one stack up?

Well, tune in to find out! This week’s episode of The Really Awful Movies podcast is The Mutilator…If you like what you’re hearing, chime in (or better yet, write us up on iTunes).