The Mutilator (1984): a boring slasher with a sitcom soundtrack

The early 1980s was the golden age of the slasher film; after incubating as a subgenre since the 1930s, the neon decade saw the fully-developed model and set of rules that these films would come to follow. By the mid-80s though, the market had become oversaturated with carbon copy, razor-thin budget films desperate to leech off the popularity of franchises like Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street. Of this sea of imitators, 1984’s The Mutilator is one of the more dull entries.

Originally titled Fall Break, this Buddy Cooper-helmed film starts out promisingly enough. A young Edward decides to clean his father’s rifle collection as a birthday present. In doing so, he inadvertently shoots his mother, killing her. When his father, “Big” Ed, discovers what the boy has done, he suffers a break from reality.

Soft focused and surprisingly unsettling, this opening gives way to a much more mediocre film. Now in college, a surprisingly well-adjusted Ed receives a call from his estranged father, requesting him to close up his island condo since Fall is coming. Bringing along his trope-ridden group of pals to help, Ed is unaware that his father is waiting for them, finally ready to take revenge upon his son. Pretty standard right? Where the film falters though, is establishing the identity of the killer in the first twenty minutes of the film. There is no question that Big Ed is the killer; he wears no mask, and his face is shown as soon as possible. This decision erased all mystery and suspense before the plot could even get cooking. What we’re left with is a bland antagonist with no almost no scare-factor whatsoever.

From a technical standpoint, the movie is filmed well. Though a few scenes are a little bit muddy to look at, the lighting and camerawork are fairly excellent. The musical score, however, is another story: The majority of the soundtrack is upbeat, 80s pop that would be more at home in an episode of Full House than what is supposed to be a horror movie; in fact, the gang’s entire travel sequence to the condo is accomplished via a classic “getting things done” montage. At this point, this humble reviewer actually had to do a quick Google search to ensure this was in fact not meant to be a comedy film. As characters are hunted down by the killer, the soundtrack switches jarringly between sweet saxophone riffs and Jason Vorhees-esque stalking music. The result is a film that cannot decide what mood to create, let alone retain.

The Mutilator’s script does nothing to alleviate the situation. Far from quality, the writing is bland and the characters are forgettable. The dialogue is laughable at best, and what should be transitionatory scenes drag on for far too long with flat jokes and flatter performances. Interestingly, the cast does feature Frances Raines, niece of actor Claude Raines. Though her uncle was famous for his role in the early Universal Horror film The Invisible Man, Frances appeared in only a smattering of low budget horror films in the 1980s before largely disappearing from the public eye.

Though it takes too long for the film to get to the actual slashing, the practical effects are fairly well-done and gory. The kills themselves though, are a little boring; the exception being a dalliance one character has with a boat motor. After a while though, even these moments begin to feel monotonous.

The slasher is a genre built on shallow stereotypes. At the end of the day, bad writing and stiff acting can all be forgiven. Rather, what decides the entertainment value of a slasher film is the pacing, and as you may have gathered, The Mutilator fails to attain the right speed at any point. The editing is choppy, some scenes cutting too quickly while others linger on for an eternity. Watching The Mutilator feels like watching an entire film of only exposition, always building to something it never quite reaches. More than that, numerous false starts that try to double as “jumpscares” and build a little bit of suspense fall flat at every instance, compounding the monotony even more.

At certain points, the film also injects instances of Chaplin-style slapstick humor, at one point even speeding up the movements in one scene while adding a ragtime piano loop to the soundtrack. While this is one of the most unironically funny parts of the film, it is so out of place that shatters what little atmosphere the film manages to create.

A watchable, if boring, entry into the slasher genre, The Mutilator is good for a few laughs. In a pool that goes as deep as the slasher genre though, there are a thousand better options for your Friday night watch.

2.5/5