THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER (1979)
Article 2103 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-18-2006
Posting Date: 5-16-2007
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler
Featuring Pierre Agostino, Carolyn Brandt, Chuck Alford

A Hollywood Strangler meets a Skid Row Slasher.

In this movie, the Hollywood Strangler photographs a model who starts coming on to him. He strangles her.

Then, the Skid Row Slasher (who works at a used book store) encounters a wino who offers her a drink. The wino wanders off and finds a place to sleep. The Skid Row Slasher follows him. She slashes him.

Then, the Hollywood Strangler photographs another model who starts coming on to him. He strangles her.

Then, the Skid Row Slasher encounters another wino who offers her a drink. The wino wanders off and finds a place to sleep. The Skid Row Slasher follows him. She slashes him.

Then the Hollywood Strangler notices the Skid Row Slasher. He is convinced she is different and will understand him. He pets some pigeons and plays with some dogs.

Then, the Hollywood Strangler photographs another model who starts coming on to him. He strangles her.

Then, the Skid Row Slasher encounters another wino who offers her a drink. The wino wanders off and finds a place to sleep. The Skid Row Slasher follows him. She slashes him….

This is a plot? No, but it is a Ray Dennis Steckler film, and I’ve come to expect them to be a little lax in the story department. I’ve noticed that he likes movies with more than one psycho in them, and I always thought it a bit strange that Mad Dog Click and the gang of psychos in THE THRILL KILLERS never met; here there is no such problem. The main character here is called Johnathan Click; I wonder if he liked the name.

Yes, the movie is bloody awful, but Steckler still manages to show just enough competence on occasion that the movie doesn’t become unwatchable. That’s some feat when you consider that it was practically shot as a silent movie, with all of the dubbing done afterwards (most of which is the Hollywood Strangler’s inner monologues).

As the movie progressed, I became aware that the movie would end in one of two ways. Either it just wouldn’t end – the Strangler would keep strangling and the Slasher would keep slashing – or it would end by…well, how would expect a movie called THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER to end?

That being said, if you think of it as a romantic comedy, it’s a lot funnier than THE LEMON GROVE KIDS. And though I’m tempted to say that the topless roller disco sequence is gratuitous, that would imply that the rest of the movie isn’t.