Naked Massacre (as it was titled when I viewed Born for Hell) is a thriller from the 70's which dances around not knowing whether it's horror or exploitation. Essentially, it's too weak to be true exploitation (like I Spit on Your Grave), and lacks the proper atmosphere to make a real horror film. So, it's more like a murderous thriller or a slasher film without the usual flair or atmosphere of either said genre.
This film follows an American Vietnam vet fresh from deployment who has been plunked down in England and is looking for a way to get home. Why didn't the Army send him to his actual home? Hey, if character development was a big deal here, we'd probably know the answer. Well, eventually, our poor and generally homeless war vet ends up stalking and killing a house full of nurses and/or nursing students. He kills them in boring ways like stabbing or stranglingthe hallmarks of the movie killer-man, right? The interesting part of this comes from the fact that he forces a lot of the girls to be naked before he kills, humiliates, or slightly tortures them. He forces one to perform oral sex on another with little success. I figured the title (again, it was Naked Massacre when I viewed it) was just to get some attention and that there was likely not much nudity. There actually was a decent amount of nuditynot a ton, but a bit more than I expected. Remember though, I expected very little because films of this nature from the 70's (60's and 80's, too) often had wildly misleading titles that didn't deliver the goods. Essentially, delivering the goods (naked chicks) is about all this movie does well.
The acting is drabnot terrible, but not very interesting. There are no truly interesting characters, the killer included, and the atmosphere is painfully weak. The music is average 70's fare that does a decent job of feeling dated. The film offers little in the way of unique or interesting moments and overall just feels very average. However, the film is inspired (very obviously) on actual events. The place was Chicago, I believe, the 1960's, and the killer was Richard Speck who did kill eight nursing students in a single night in the house/tenement building they all shared (also, I believe, this was lifted as a plot in an episode of CSI as well). So that does add some level of interest to the film. Not really recommended otherwise.
4/10
This film follows an American Vietnam vet fresh from deployment who has been plunked down in England and is looking for a way to get home. Why didn't the Army send him to his actual home? Hey, if character development was a big deal here, we'd probably know the answer. Well, eventually, our poor and generally homeless war vet ends up stalking and killing a house full of nurses and/or nursing students. He kills them in boring ways like stabbing or stranglingthe hallmarks of the movie killer-man, right? The interesting part of this comes from the fact that he forces a lot of the girls to be naked before he kills, humiliates, or slightly tortures them. He forces one to perform oral sex on another with little success. I figured the title (again, it was Naked Massacre when I viewed it) was just to get some attention and that there was likely not much nudity. There actually was a decent amount of nuditynot a ton, but a bit more than I expected. Remember though, I expected very little because films of this nature from the 70's (60's and 80's, too) often had wildly misleading titles that didn't deliver the goods. Essentially, delivering the goods (naked chicks) is about all this movie does well.
The acting is drabnot terrible, but not very interesting. There are no truly interesting characters, the killer included, and the atmosphere is painfully weak. The music is average 70's fare that does a decent job of feeling dated. The film offers little in the way of unique or interesting moments and overall just feels very average. However, the film is inspired (very obviously) on actual events. The place was Chicago, I believe, the 1960's, and the killer was Richard Speck who did kill eight nursing students in a single night in the house/tenement building they all shared (also, I believe, this was lifted as a plot in an episode of CSI as well). So that does add some level of interest to the film. Not really recommended otherwise.
4/10