One huge problem is there isn’t much of a story. The son of a serial killer, dubbed the
Hanukiller by the media, grows up to take over where his father left off. He seems to murder at random though and
doesn’t only target who he deems to be bad Jews. Other than that it’s your usual group of
partying teens hanging out and getting picked off.
And these kids are some of the most obnoxious I’ve ever come
across in a slasher picture. They
constantly bicker with each other over petty bullshit and spit out asinine
jokes. They’re hateful, thoughtless and uninteresting. Plus they look like they range in age from
teenager to middle aged and some have Russian accents and I don’t understand
these people.
While that one idea is incredibly gruesome at least it’s a dark twist on something Jewish which the movie doesn’t take enough advantage of. One of the most glaring examples is the generic title. But I’ll give them credit for a few things like the badass looking boney menorahs, keeping the killer in the shadows so his brimmed hat and long trench coat give off an ominous vibe (and makes him look like The Undertaker), spinning a dreidel right before dispatching a victim and carving the scar of David into a corpse’s chest. There’s also a part where the killer skins someone alive to remove their tattoos so the body becomes acceptable for burial in a Jewish cemetery. Now I’m not Jewish so I’m sure there are a lot of other nods that went right over my head.
For being such a low budget movie they managed to attract
some names to be in it. PJ Soles (Halloween,
Carrie), Caroline Williams (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Charles
Fleischer (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Zodiac), Dick Miller (Gremlins,
The Terminator) and Sid Haig (The Devil’s Rejects, Foxy Brown) all
make appearances. This was Miller and
Haig’s final film with Haig also producing.
He’s almost unrecognizable here though because he lost an insane amount
of weight due to illness towards the end of his life. He probably gives the best performance in the
film as the Hanukiller and it’s a non-verbal one to boot.
Sadly this isn’t the defining Jewish horror picture that I
hoped it would be based on the premise and the poster. It’s surprisingly aimless considering the relatively
simple goal the filmmakers were aiming for.
It also has insufferable characters and shows off too much nasty carnage
for my taste. The prize is still up for
grabs if anyone wants to tackle this category.
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