In Miami, Florida, biker gang leader Edward "Diablo" Santer is about to be executed for murder when he proclaims his innocence and vows revenge from the grave. When a mysterious biker comes to town during Spring Break festivities, leaving several teenagers electrocuted to death, some begin to suspect that Santer has made good on his promise.
Similar titles
Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Yes, I find it interesting that the first review I saw for this movie called it a feel good slasher flick. Well roll me is flour and slap me in a skillet...ah musta missed that part of the movie.What this movie has: Sarah Buxton, John Saxon and Michael Parks.What this movie is missing: Action, suspense, tension, and much of anything associated with slasher flicks, including the all necessary sleaze factor.A biker affectionately known as Diablo is put to death in the electric chair for the murder of a young woman. A few days later his body ends up missing from his grave, unfortunately at the same time spring break week begins for this beachside town. Thousands of tourists and a potential killer on the loose spells disaster......it unfortunately does not spell entertainment.This is not the worst slasher flick I have seen, there is plenty of competition for that title already, but what it is...is predictable. It aimlessly wanders about its story with John Saxon, well...being John Saxon, Michael Parks being assured his career has sunk this low and a killer with an amazingly obvious identity who couldn't scare a timid cub scout let alone inspire chills in anybody watching this who succeeded in staying awake through it.It does succeed in telling its story from beginning to end, but it does not succeed in providing a very threatening killer or much blood and sleaze as one would expect from a slasher flick.
First things first - many have considered this film to be a 'Giallo'. It has some features of a giallo plus an Italian director, but it's a full-fledged slasher. And an entertaining one.Being a slasher fan, I really enjoyed it. Sure, it's dumb as hell, the characters are just stereotypes, plot is as unoriginal as it gets, yet this movie is still fun to watch. It has all the elements right - a bunch of read herrings, a touch of supernatural, a twist ending, Spring Breakers and nudity a plenty plus John Saxon. The killer is easy to figure out, but that's the case with many slashers.If you're a fan, don't hesitate and grab a copy.
Nicolas De Toth and Rawley Valverde play Skip and Ronnie, a pair of college football players who, along with thousands of other like-minded youngsters, head to the beach for spring break in search of sun, sea, sand and sex. The pair's fun is interrupted, however, when they get on the wrong side of the town's local biker gang, and a mysterious killer begins to bump off the Easter revellers in truly shocking style.Hiding behind the pseudonym Harry Kirkpatrick and shooting on location in Fort Lauderdale with an all-American cast, Italian horror director Umberto Lenzi is clearly intending to pass off this 80s slasher as a product of the US of A; to complete the illusion, he sets his sexy spring break shenanigans and murderous mayhem to a suitably loud hair metal soundtrack (he's not fooling me though: with a Claudio Simonetti score that sounds like leftovers from the Demons and Phenomena soundtracks, a really silly motorcycle that electrocutes its pillion passengers, and a daft denouement that could have come straight out of a giallo, this film's Italian origins seem only too apparent).Whenever Lenzi's attention is focused on either the wild antics of the sex-mad teens (wet t-shirt competitions, drunken zany pranks etc.,) or the gruesome activities of the psycho killer (best death: the roasting of a young woman in front of an open incinerator), Welcome To Spring Break is reasonably enjoyable trashy fare. Sadly, the plot frequently wanders into territory far less likely to entertain, the business with the bikers soon getting tiresome and a ridiculous sub-plot about the town's corrupt officials (which sees John Saxon slumming it as a sleazy sheriff) only serving to add to the tedium.All in all, this is a pretty uneven effort, one for those who have already seen the slasher classics and wish to explore lesser known examples of the genre, or who simply enjoy their 80s horror extra cheesy.4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for all those lovely, big-haired, 80s beach babes.
The leader of the biker gang "The Demons" is convicted for murder and is electrocuted in the electric chair. Before he dies, he yells that he'll take revenge on the town. But the beach community main focus for now is the truck load of college students making their way there for "Spring break". Although, things turn bad when the biker's body is now missing from its grave and a serial killer biker has hit the scene and is killing teenagers. This leaves a depressingly good-guy collage football player and a barmaid to figure out who's behind the killings, while the authorities try to cover it up so it doesn't spoil business.SPRING BREAK! Time to riot and be completely idiotic! When watching this, I was thinking that I was going to get mostly a slasher film, but Umberto Lenzi (who's going by Harry Kirkpatrick for the occasion) seemed more occupied with the pointlessly low-brow partying. I thought this aspect would be more in the background, but instead it came to the forefront. This costs the mystery element of the story with Porky's-Revenge of the Nerds II antics winning out.This low-budget, b-grade effort is pretty much a loudly obnoxious copy and paste slasher/goofball item that recycles the usual stereotypes, clichés and red herrings with less than desirable results. These tools are laid on thick very thick. This goes for the token characters, which the camera seems to follow about. You got the thief, prankster, misguided girl conning older men out of their doe, loud-mouth lout, peeping tom, sex-crazed dope, mopey football player, trouble makers (bikers here), Rev.'s skank daughter and the list just goes on and on. Random characters simply come and go in a stereotypical mish mash. I don't mind this, if it didn't uninterestingly drag, which I found it to do. These certain aspects and gimmicks involving these different characters do get tired, like the thief constantly stealing money and everyone believing the prankster's gags. In no time you're thinking how can they keep on falling for it? Everything about this side of the story was so heavy handed, predictable and one-dimensional in its build-up that when it came to "who-dunnit" slasher development it just falls flat on its back.The cardboard premise is chocker block with possibilities as it goes all over the place in what it wants to be and a tepidly dismal script offers very little help. The red herrings are poorly justified and unbelievable that you can see who it is miles before it's even revealed and there are coincidences' too many. Lenzi's statically lazy direction can hardly raise an ounce of sweat with weak attempts of suspense, but there are few effective touches amongst the dross and his pacing is quite stable. Make-up special effects are tolerable enough, but the gore is pretty much missing, as most of the violence involves victims being burnt to a crisp after being electrocuted by the killer/or bike. Yep, bike! They are quite original, but still these buzzing jolts are weakly handled and simply risible in the execution of the deaths. Most of the time he just happens to be there, just like many of the other characters. So there's a high suspension of disbelief needed. The smashingly uproarious rock score by Claidio Simonetti sticks in many heavy metal cues with plenty of impact and with the guidance of some striking cinematography works its way in.The acting throughout is mainly poor. Gladly the capable presence of John Saxon shines through. His snarlingly hard-ass and slimly performance as the police chief adds much needed class to the rest of the fumbling performances. Michael Parks is features briefly in an amusing alcoholically twitchy doctor/coroner and Lance LeGault scornfully chews up the scenery as the priest. Nicolas De Toth makes for a sluggishly vapid heroine and the foxy Sarah Buxton's fine performance adds the much need sparks in their pairing."Welcome to Spring Break" is averagely plain, which in the final product I didn't find to be as fun as it could have been. More mindless fodder to an overpopulated trend.