not horrible nor great

I'll tell you why so serious

An unexpected masterpiece

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

With mesmerizing music by Tony Mottola, vintage shots of some out of the way New York City locations and a plethora of creepy characters, this cheaply shot thriller is a film way ahead of its time. A serial killer is stalking models from some of New York's sleaziest agencies, literally scalping them and leaving their corpses out in public. The detectives head into the world of New York's biggest low lifes and find out that some of these female victims weren't necessarily "ladies". Shots of such changed neighborhoods as the 14th Street Arcade, the Bellvue Sanatarium (still in operation as a men's shelter), Greenwich Village and the West Side Highway dominate the photographer's eye as sometimes moving, often creepy music brings the viewer into a view of the Big Apple that they may never have witnessed before.For this type of independent film (which seems like something that John Cassavettes might have done early in his film career), the actors are all unprofessionals, some of them bit players from other movies, but mainly people who made only this film and no others. Their performances cannot be described as acting, but many of them seem so natural that it becomes even spookier. When you compare this to the number of low-budget movies that did manage to get a general release (and featured truly wretched acting by paid professionals), "Violated" is a very refreshing discovery because it seems very true to life in a totally demented, horrifying way. The film really delves into the mind of its leading character, played by the scary looking William Holland, and while you definitely will find him repulsive, you begin to understand what does drive somebody being held together only by a string of sanity into the realm of the diabolical, and so the film ends up working on many different levels: psychological thriller, horror, film noir, and social drama.

Who has ever heard of the director Walter Strate? Like directors Jack Copeland and Edmond Angelo, he is completely unknown on planet Hollywood."Violated" is full of weird tricks : obsessional bluesy guitar music, underground location in New-York like in "Killer's Kiss", scary story of a sexual psychopath tormenting and killing pin ups to scalp them, amateur dialog and a desperate final twist."Violated" is the first movie produced by William Mishkin, also screenwriter of the movie. After "Violated", he will produce sex exploitation movies but that's another story.If you love "Dementia", jump on this one.

The story follows the police investigation of a serial killer with a hair fetish. Lt Mack (Mitchell Kowall) and Det. Dana (William Martel) enlist the help of a psychiatrist Dr Jason (Jason Niles) who we first see checking up with one of his patients, George (Fred Lambert), who has recently been released from jail. We also follow the story of photographer Jan (Wim Holland) and Susan Grant's (Vicki Carlson) attempts to make it as a model in New York. We are also introduced to the world of burlesque where Lili Damar (Lili Dawn) is queen of the scene. At the end, Dr Jason reveals the causes of what makes the killer tick, and the film finishes in a similar way to the beginning with an encounter between a man seemingly helping out a young woman who has dropped some papers.The film starts in quite an arty way - the soundtrack is very effective - as we see the first murder being committed. The music is good throughout the film. However, the acting is wooden and some of the dialogue is suspect, eg Susan's over-use of sentences that start "Gee....". The film is grainy and in poor quality over a certain section but the film has a novelty value. At times it feels like a silent film with a gripping soundtrack and this effect helps, in my opinion, to give this film a cult/art-house status.

This is a wonderful period piece with the feel of Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss"; made around the same time. Though clumsy in places, it's still more professional and better than "Kiss", and perhaps as interesting a visual walk through fifties New York City.A homicidal photographer hunts down and kills women who reject him, until he is caught by a sweaty, working class cop. An interestingly progressive view of a maniac, the killer is a kind man caught in a compulsion he cannot control. Many of the actors seem to be real people playing themselves; though this is for the most part more effectively done than in many more "respectable" films.When the stripper snaps "You make my skin crawl, you jerk!" it chills to the bone. New Yorkers may find many locations still recognizable, and you gotta love the big poodle. According to IMDB, no one here was ever involved in anotherfilm but the producer, who went on to bring us the films of the notorious Andy Milligan. Too bad, much talent is on hand. Find a copy!