Expected more

Excellent but underrated film

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Deranged and sexually frustrated sniper Mike (a creepy and intense portrayal by the hunky Michael Stearns) picks off various libidinous swingers while they are in the middle of doing the deed in the Hollywood Hills area.Tightly written and directed by ace grindhouse cinema special Lee Frost (who also did the proficient cinematography), this exceptionally down'n'dirty marvel really pours on the scorching sleaze: The graphic semi-pornographic sex scenes, equally explicit and abundant nudity (even Stearns goes full monty!), unsparingly mean and sordid tone, choice footage of hot strippers bumping and grinding at the seedy dive bar The Classic Cat (special praise here for deliciously lissome blonde stunner Donna Young, who bares her yummy body with pleasing frequency and an admirable lack of inhibition), succinct 63-minute running time, startling moments of ugly violence, and a spot-on ironic ending all ensure that this raw'n'raunchy winner packs quite a savage and scuzzy punch.

This is just horrible, really horrible trash. Yes, we've got beautiful naked women dancing and having sex. But while this may work in the mechanism of a porn movie – may have even been a hit as a porn movie – this tries to mask itself as a "film" with actual things to say, with real emotion and struggle. It isn't. It's an excuse to get some girls naked and have a fun time. I'm sure all of these women (and men) in this particular movie could have faired decently in the porn movie business of the 1970s . . . but not in the actual movie business.The acting was hackneyed, so bad, I mean real terrible. The writing was even worse. I can't lay all blame on these actors – they had nothing to work with. The very broad structure or plot of the movie could possibly be done and done well with good writers and competent actors. The very broad structure or plot is that of a psychotic man who spends his time shooting people from afar, as a sniper. These shootings were motivated from men not respecting their women enough. If there was more writing - better writing, much better writing - and less gratuitous sexual imagery we might have something to work with.This movie should have been shot, made and marketed a hardcore porn movie all along; it would have made more money. It practically is a hardcore porn film already, and it remains the only non-porn movie I've seen that shows a male erect penis.

ZERO IN AND SCREAM ** (out of four) A lonely guy finds women to be very beautiful until he sees another man on top of them. When a woman isn't "pure" they are ugly so the guy goes around killing any man who would turn a woman ugly. The actual story of this film is rather interesting but sadly we've got around fifteen minutes of story and the rest of the running time is nothing more than strip scenes and a pool orgy. I love nudity but after a while this turns boring. The ending is a very nice tough however.Available on DVD through Something Weird Video. Also on the disc: THE SEX KILLER (1967) and THE ZODIAC KILLER (1971).

This is one of those strange early 70's sex films, which, like any sex movie, is obviously meant to titillate the audience, but nevertheless really portrays the Sexual Revolution of the time in very sordid and ugly light. It's hard to tell whether it's hypocritical, ambivalent, or just plain incompetent (probably the latter). A sexually-frustrated loner takes to shooting copulating couples with a high-powered rife (shades of the infamous Zodiac Killer). Of course, before he shoots them he has to watch them in his scope for five or ten minutes (so the raincoat-clad guys watching this in the grindhouses could do their thing). I don't know why this guy is sexually frustrated--he lives in this strange parallel universe where a beautiful stripper invites him home to a pool party in the Hollywood hills where an orgy is taking place, but all he does is stand around in his suit watching. From his horribly written dialogue you get the idea that he is kind of a moralist, but that doesn't explain why he hangs around sleazy strip clubs. Character development is not one of this movie's strong points.The lead girl is played by "Dawna Rae" (a stripper/porn star pseudonym if I ever heard one). She has a really beautiful body, which is pretty much always on display one way or another, even if she can't act worth spit (believe me, no one else can either). One of her many lovers is shot to death while they're having sex in the pool, but this doesn't stop her from lounging by the same pool in a bikini or having more sex with the curtains open. There's also a mean-spirited and unpleasant rape scene near the end, which makes no sense given the alley-cat morals of this character--all the guy would have had to do was ask. How bad is it? The director of "The Thing with Two Heads" actually uses a pseudonym here. If you want to see a movie about the Zodiac killer, watch "Dirty Harry". If you want sleazy softcore sex set in 70's strip club, watch "Mantis in Lace". But whatever you do, avoid this seedy, depressing, and incompetent garbage.