Lack of good storyline.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A vicious psycho wearing a beat suit stalks and slaughters cheerleaders on a college campus during a scavenger hunt. It's up to security guard Mac (sturdy work by the always dependable Hal Holbrook) to stop the wacko. Director Robert Duebel relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, stages the bloody'n'brutal murders with nasty aplomb (the maniac screaming harsh words like "whore" and "slut" while butchering the gals adds an extra unsettling misogynistic edge), generates a good deal of tension and dark atmosphere, makes fine use of the college location, and comes through with a supremely creepy mood for the genuinely surprising ending, with a real doozy of a chilling final image. The solid acting from a capable cast holds the picture together: Julia Montgomery as the perky Lynn Connors and James Carroll as likable jock Teddy Ratliff make for appealing leads, David Holbrook delivers a suitably smarmy turn as obnoxious oddball jerk Mike Pryor, Richard Bright does well as the hard-nosed Detective Greenspan, and Rutanya Alda contributes a winningly spirited performance as friendly cafeteria waitress Katie "Barney" Cavanaugh (plus Alda really cranks the ferocious intensity to the alarming ninth degree at the jolting conclusion!). The college students are an engagingly goofy bunch; their wacky antics in the first half are pretty amusing and thus give the much more serious and harrowing second half an additional savage punch. The inspired use of bouncy and upbeat golden oldies songs on the soundtrack provides a further effective contrast to the ugly killings. Slice'n'dice fans will enjoy seeing Friday the 13th Part 2's Lauren-Marie Taylor and The Burning's Carrick Glenn as two of the psycho's victims. The shadowy cinematography by Joe Rovers rates as another definite asset. Kudos are also in order for the eerie score that largely consists of hellish moaning and groaning noises. And the bear suit the nutjob somehow manages to work, too, thanks mainly to the wicked Freddy Krueger-style knives on its paws and those strange googly large greenish yellow eyes. A worthwhile body count opus.

The story here is simple enough: on a college campus, coeds find their good-hearted fun, in the form of a scavenger hunt, hampered by the activities of a brutal killer who has murdered the basketball team's mascot, appropriated his goofy bear costume, and is using it to escape detection while slaughtering the participants. To add to that, there's a melodramatic sub plot about the killing of campus security head Jim MacVey's (Hal Holbrook) daughter once upon a time, which is going to prove to be important to the story later. Name actor Holbrook is clearly slumming here, and looks rather weary; his appearance certainly must have something to do with the fact that his son David is also in the movie playing the pivotal role of Mike Prior, a volatile athlete. But it is great novelty to see him here, and it's a treat to see the other adult actors, lovely Rutanya Alda as Barney (!), and her husband Richard Bright as the detective who shows up on the scene. Other familiar faces include some slasher alumni: Lauren-Marie Taylor ("Friday the 13th Part 2") and Carrick Glenn ("The Burning"), and of course ravishing lead Julia Montgomery was Betty Childs in "Revenge of the Nerds". The problem that this viewer has with this movie is that it gets a little tiresome after a while. Yes, it does have some things going for it: the addition of a scavenger hunt helps to create a somewhat playful approach, as well as the bear costume (it is a hoot to see a slasher villain wearing something like this), the soundtrack features golden oldies like "Summer in the City" and "Do You Believe in Magic", and the killer's weapon of choice automatically calls to mind the glove made famous by Freddy in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" two years later. There is some atmosphere and suspense and a little bit of gore. However, in order to get to this movie's good stuff, one has to sit through a lot of dopey comedy & tomfoolery, and emphasis on character relationships before the pacing picks up at all. The beginning is pretty good, but the ending, once our psycho's identity is revealed, is fairly abrupt and not altogether satisfying. At least the calls that this person places to both campus DJ Kaiser (Larry Mintz) and MacVey are good for major amusement. Underwhelming overall, but does have its moments here and there. Five out of 10.

Got this movie on a three pack of films called bloody schoolgirls which also featured One Dark Night and Blood Sisters. The only one of them that was good was One Dark Night, both Blood Sisters and this one were boring and almost unwatchable. This one sort of goes all over the place, the basic thing to know is some dudes have just won a basketball game and a there is a bunch of girls dumping some guys for other guys and guys cheating on their girlfriends, you have idiots for comic relief and there is an awesome scavenger hunt! The killer should have simply put a nuclear device in the middle of the campus, detonated it and they could have spared us from having to watch all these random scenes and very underdeveloped characters. Seriously, it was so hard to watch this film simply because the characters were so bland and I had a hard time telling people apart. I thought when the two dumb dudes came into the party one leading one by the chain that they were the two idiots that were introduced in a previous scene acting kind of different. Then everyone is cheating and you start to wonder who are they cheating on, is not that the guy's girlfriend, no wait that is the girl he was hitting on at the party. In all this confusing mess we have a killer in a bear suit killing the students, mainly the female ones. You also have guy who is very angry at being dumped that he says things that if this were real life and not a movie would mean that more than likely he should have been the killer, but this is a movie so his scene automatically disqualified him as the killer. No, in films like these it is always the least likely suspect and when we learn of the killer here we know they have to have ties to the person who hung himself at the start of the film. The film does feature Hal Holbrook, who looks very disinterested in the whole affair and we have the most anticlimactic showdown ever in a film of this sort at the end as the film kind of whimpers and scurries away.

This film is an odd little piece of horror history. It stars Hal Holbrook (Creepshow), Rutanya Alda (Mommie Dearest)and Julia Montgomery (Revenge of the Nerds) and features a murderer wearing a dancing bear costume. The murder sequences are goofy but then again so is the entire film. Like a train wreck, you will not be able to take your eyes off of it and the bizarre musical score and odd sense of humor make this a fun little horror gem to have around the house. The film centers around a series of murders taking place on a college campus during their annual "scavenger hunt"...and just when you think you know who the murderer is, the film springs the classic horror movie "surprise" twist ending on you that makes you scratch your head and say "Huh?" This is an excellent "party" film since you really don't have to pay all that much attention to it. Recommended for fans of the "slasher film" genre.