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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :- Good character stuck in a bad film, 8 April 2005 Author: udar55 from Williamsburg, VA
Revisiting old films that you thought were average isn't necessarily a good thing. They sometimes get worse. Championed by the Fangoria camp (in Gorezone they labeled it "the scariest film since Texas CHAINSAW"…um, no), LUTHER THE GEEK inexplicably developed a cult following as an "intense" horror picture. Actually, it is just an average stalk and slash…uh, bite film that briefly sets itself aside from the pack by featuring a killer who clucks like a chicken. Yes, clucks like a chicken. To the filmmaker's credit, at least they didn't make the killer sound like a duck a la THE NEW YORK RIPPER. That would just be silly.Narrative logic is completely abandoned in LUTHER THE GEEK. I'm not saying that slasher films are abound with reason, but at least in HALLOWEEN Michael Myers escaped. Luther is actually paroled after a lengthy scene where people argue he is reformed, even though he clucks like a chicken and has razor dentures (which he apparently fashioned in prison). It is the kind of film where a couple sees a bashed in door and the girl dismisses it by saying, "Oh, my mom must have forgotten her keys. She forgets a lot of things since my dad died." The kind of film where the hysterical mother runs into a cop looking for Luther and tells him, "The killer is in my house!" So what does he do? He grabs her and literally drags her back to the house and says, "Just show me where he is and I'll do the rest." Why not call back up? It is too bad the film is filled with such horrible action and dialogue because the Luther character is actually pretty interesting. Most of the credit goes to Ed Terry, a dead ringer for Tom Noonan in MANHUNTER, who gives the clucking Luther a genuine air of menace. In the hands of a right director, LUTHER THE GEEK could be on the same level as SONNY BOY or SANTA SANGRE and be a true cinematic oddity. But Albright is not that director and merely places the fascinating character of Luther in tedious slasher trappings.
4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Filmed As The Freak, 12 June 2005 Author: drhackenstine from United States
I rented the out of print video version of this about a year and a half ago from a mom and pop video store down the road from my house. I watched it and liked it. I asked the old guy who ran the place to sell me the video but he declined. A couple of days ago I saw Troma re-released this and I quickly snatched it up. I'm glad I didn't buy the video. The Troma DVD has some really good extras (love the shower scene outtakes). Anyway, this is a pretty good horror movie and the first hour has plenty of out-of-nowhere twists and turns and the villain in this is entertaining to watch (he clucks like a chicken). The gore is spaced out but heavy and the story moves at a fast pace even though it's pretty slim. A chunk in the last half hour features a cop sleuthing through a dark barn and the scene takes an eternity (my girlfriend then fell asleep). Thats the only downfall of the movie. Otherwise, an original, gruesome, fast-paced time-waster that I don't mind watching now and then. Features gory neck bitings. Three stars.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :- Boring Troma movie about a psycho killer who thinks he's a chicken!, 2 December 2007 Author: cool_cool_1 from United Kingdom
Luther the Geek (1990) is a dull horror movie and is really bad even by Troma's standards!! It's about a freak who bites the heads off chickens, and kills people by biting their necks out, and he actually thinks he's a chicken himself!!!!! Luther gets released from prison after 25 yrs because apparentely he's been a "model" prisoner and deserves another chance in life (which is VERY hard to believe after you see how he acts and treats people throughout the movie).After killing an elderly lady in a supermarket car park, he manages to sneak into a womans car, and proceeds to torture her, her daughter and the daughters boyfriend at their family home in the country.Then we get treated to a long winded and boring movie, with awful acting all the way through, before a useless cop turns up to try and kill Luther once and for all!! Oh and the film has a ridiculous and laughable ending too!!! I love low budget horror movies and i think "The Toxic Avenger" is an all time classic, but i'm afraid Luther the Geek is just boring, illogical and dull, not much in the way of gore too, just afew bloody neck bitings and thats about it! 3/10
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :- a Klucking awful movie, 23 August 2005 Author: paintedwallpaper from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I consider myself a big fan of low budget horror movies. The more bizarre and imaginative the film, the more blood and guts, the better, and i really fall in love with cheaply done flicks if they are done right. Luther starts out well enough... his origin at the circus, a creepy run at a supermarket, an attack of an old lady, and his disturbing occupation of a woman's farmhouse all set the mood nicely. A hot sex/ shower scene ensues when the woman's daughter and daughter's boyfriend arrives at the house. When Luther steals the boyfriends motorbike the movie takes a turn for the worse. The characters are presented with numerous opportunities to: A) save their loved ones, B) get the police to help, C) escape, or (most importantly) D) KILL LUTHER!!! I can't feel empathy or fear for characters that are too stupid to help themselves. Chareters snub chances to arm themselves with guns and knives while Luther is away. A policeman eventually arrives and is equally ineffective in stopping Luther, even though at one point he has a rifle squarely aimed at Luther while Luther clucks and does his rendition of the polish chicken dance. I found myself futilely coaching my television: "Make sure he's dead!", "Hes gone, get out of there!", or "Just kill him already!" Luther is a bloodthirsty savage, but he is hardly Hannibal Lecter. If you can't outsmart this egghead, you deserve what's coming to you. By halfway through the movie you'll be so lethargic to the fates of the half-wits that only morbid curiosity will sustain you to last to the mildly amusing ending. This movie was noted as one of Fangoria's 101 greatest movies you've never seen... well Fangoria is half-right in the case of Luther the Geek.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- Decent Semi-Slasher with Plenty of Grubby Ambiance", 14 December 2008 Author: Rapeman from New Zealand
As a child, little hillbilly Luther once witnessed a sideshow geek doin' his thing in a barn and was immediately transfixed by the man's bloody antics. Now Luther is grown and incarcerated on three counts of murder, but he is about to be granted parole...Pretty much as soon as Luther hits the street he mauls an old lady (who for some reason is a young actress made-up to look old) with his razor sharp set of steel dentures, then while on the run from the police, he jumps into a parked car's backseat to hide. Shortly thereafter, the owner of the car, Hilary, hops in and drives home to her secluded farmhouse to prepare dinner for her daughter Beth, and her boyfriend who are soon to be returning home from college for the holidays. Luther's about to have a feast fit for a king! The first thing I noticed about this film is that it looks like it was made in the late 70s-early 80s; with the faded colours, grainy film stock, and overall atmosphere it really feels just like some grimy piece of trash discarded and forgotten about by the local grindhouse (though I loathe to use this now filthy word!). The other thing that immediately sticks out is that its almost a silent film - there is very little dialog aside from the constant clucks, squawks & crows that emit from Luther's mouth as he does his bizarre chicken act.Now to the violence and nudity! There's definitely some bloody scenes here as we witness Luther gorily tear into necks, fingers and chests with his grill, but it's nowhere near as ultra-violent as its reputation / reviews suggest. The only nudity here is from Hilary's daughter, Beth, (TV star Stacy Haiduk who played Lana Lang in the Superboy TV series) who has a lengthy shower scene - of which there is a whole seven more minutes of in the outtakes section for all you sleazefiends - and a sex scene.All in all, a decent semi-slasher flick with plenty of grubby ambiance. Luther is a total freak and it's fun to watch him gore people up and run around like a retarded chicken, especially when he does his wacky victory / death dance after a kill.One major negative with this disc though, is the idiotic Troma extras: first off we have an utterly witless intro to the film with Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman introducing Troma's "freakshow" which consists of some fag that pretends to suck Kaufman's dick and another f@ckwit who tries to suck his own cock, but farts instead. These childish attempts at humour are really not funny and had me p!ssed off before the film even started. Aside from the brainless intro there's also Troma extras like a global warming awareness short and a twelve minute PETA propaganda film trying to convince us all to become vegetarians. I really don't think this kinda proselytizing bullshit should be on a DVD - yes, I understand that Kaufman is obviously worried about the environment and a vegetarian who wants to get the message out there, but I'm sure most of us know what goes on in a slaughterhouse and what the short life of a battery hen consists of, why force it onto the unsuspecting public who just wanna watch a campy horror film?
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- A decent try at movie horror, 21 February 2006 Author: Prolox from Canada
A young boy named LUTHER who was fascinated by a town drunk dubbed "the geek" back in the 30's who used to bite the heads off live chickens in front of crowds of people in order to get money to buy cheap whiskey, grows up to be a chicken clucking serial killer that hitches a ride in the back seat of a woman's car without her knowing about it. He soon tortures the woman & kills her family & various other characters who step onto the farm where she is being held. Despite some crap acting & somewhat dull direction, LUTHER THE GEEK wasn't all that bad, there's a decent amount of gore, nudity & a truly creepy killer on hand who for some odd reason, is let out of prison after spending a few years in there for murder (Who in their right mind would let a creepy looking, former serial killer out of the slammer even when he still clucks like a chicken & won't talk to people?) some pretty creepy scenes abound, good kills & a okay music score should make this a fun horror movie for horror fans.*** stars
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- hometown classic, 24 September 2005 Author: chronicbliss2 from United States
This movie has been a classic in my part of the country because it was filmed in my own small town. I now have many friends who are guards at Dixon Correctional, and I myself worked for 3 yrs at the SuperAmerica store next to the Krogers store the old lady was at. However, this is still the dumbest movie ever made, destined to be introduced by Gilbert Godfreid or Rhonda Shearer, if it hasn't been already. A bit of trivia, Illinois doesn't even have parole hearings, and Dixon Prison is a medium security facility housing burglars and vending machine vandals. The classic clucking/seduction scene is perhaps the most amusing piece of writing I've ever seen, especially with the suspenseful build-up
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- Pretty bad, but undeniably disturbing, 18 July 2003 Author: squeezebox from United States
**SPOILERS** This movie would be just another gorefest were it not for it's seriously twisted mean streak. The story is about this circus freak with Jaws-like metal teeth who goes on a killing spree after being released from the hospital. He eventually winds up at a country home where a woman, her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend are living. The movie is pretty nasty and mean-spirited throughout, but the ending is so utterly nihilistic and depressing, the movie left a very bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended). I knew the boyfriend was a goner, but I was quite shocked when the daughter suddenly dies from bleeding to death, leaving her mother to deal not only with the killer, but the anguish of seeing her daughter die right before her eyes. I've seen plenty of sick and twisted horror flicks out there, but LUTHER THE GEEK might be the only one that caught me so off guard. It's such a typically lame 80's slasher flick for the most part, that when it suddenly throws such a grim plot point at us, the campiness is over and the nastiness starts.I'm not saying that the movie doesn't have a right to play a mean joke on the audience (which is the only way I can sum this up), but doesn't mean I have to like it, or even appreciate it. LUTHER THE GEEK is too stupid to be effective and too grim to be fun. Just what audience were they targeting?
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- You have to learn to think like a chicken to survive....., 30 May 2000 Author: FATLOSER
All in all, this film could have been much worse. I make this assertion in consideration of it's genre. Scanning the shelves in your local video store's horror section, one can definitely see some truly larcenous attempts at the movieviewer's dollar. This film at least makes an earnest attempt at a feature. The shots used are stable, in focus, and decently lit. It also offers the obligatory (at least in any decent horror flick) female nudity and crudely created gore effects. While the plot is laughable and the pacing is horribly slow the movie is most noteworthy for it's revolutionary use of chicken clucking for sizeable amounts of on screen dialogue, truly one of a kind. Low budget horror fans should give it a peek.
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- This Rotten Egg is Fowl...:=8P, 14 November 1999 Author: MooCowMo from Mooport Moos, VA
This dumb cluck of horror flick is all chicken scratch. Luther, a recently parolled psychopath, has metal teeth and clucks like a chicken all day. After ripping out the throats of various people and chickens, this bad egg then besieges the farmhouse of a mother and her dumb, breasty daughter, played vaccuously by Stacy Haiduk. Haiduk(tv series "SeaQuest" and "The Kindred") gits nekkid, Luther torments her, her dopey boyfriend, and her mother hen, and then kills the stupidest cop in Kansas City. The stirring finale, sporting an all-chicken clucking dialogue between Luther & the mother, has to been seen to be believed. Director Carlton J. Albright must have had all his creative eggs in one shallow basket, because never again did he resurface after this slow-roaster was fried, and rightfully so. Even as Balding Chicken-Clucking Psychopathic Metal Teeth-Wearing Geek moovies go, this is painfully slow, murky, and stupid. The MooCow says even if you feel like chicken tonight, keep this rotten egg in the henhouse. :=8P
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