"Naked Massacre" made me distinctly uncomfortable and made me feel dirty for watching it. It's competent enough that it's not easy to dismiss and make fun of like any number of other bad movies, but it's not good enough to make any kind of intelligent use of the violence and sadism it traffics in, so it feels like what it is -- gratuitous exploitation.
Supposedly inspired by the the Richard Speck murders (that crime is referenced in the movie), the film is about a troubled Vietnam vet who's stuck in Belfast and takes a house full of nurses hostage, killing them one by one after degrading them sexually. The actual killings aren't graphic, but the torture leading up to them is lingered lovingly over by the director, like he's enjoying it as much as the killer in the film. The film makes some half-assed attempts at providing commentary on the violence of the world (there are numerous allusions to the IRA troubles and to Vietnam), but that commentary never gets more profound than "the world is a violent place" platitudes and feels like an obligatory effort by the film's creators to throw something into the movie that will make us all feel less guilty for watching and enjoying it.
Grade: C
Supposedly inspired by the the Richard Speck murders (that crime is referenced in the movie), the film is about a troubled Vietnam vet who's stuck in Belfast and takes a house full of nurses hostage, killing them one by one after degrading them sexually. The actual killings aren't graphic, but the torture leading up to them is lingered lovingly over by the director, like he's enjoying it as much as the killer in the film. The film makes some half-assed attempts at providing commentary on the violence of the world (there are numerous allusions to the IRA troubles and to Vietnam), but that commentary never gets more profound than "the world is a violent place" platitudes and feels like an obligatory effort by the film's creators to throw something into the movie that will make us all feel less guilty for watching and enjoying it.
Grade: C