Totally and utterly lame-o, with such a high cheese factor that it makes for hysterical viewing. 'Teenage' Strangler(never understood this one, as the killer isn't a teenager nor is he exclusively killing teens), is a vastly awful film, not quite on the level of Manos but pretty close. To start with, the 'actors' are all rejects from the local community theater. The worst example is not the over-dramatic Betty or the incredibly whiny Mikey, but actually the woman playing Betty's Mom. She is laughing and upbeat the entire time she is talking about the tragedy that saw her daughter's friend strangled right in front of her eyes, and she is so chipper to the cop that's come to talk to her traumatized daughter that one wonders what she had been smoking or popping just before she came on set. The dialog is horrible and wooden, and there are weird sound affects here and there. Not to mention that someone is clearly heard giggling in the background when the cop is standing over the dead body of a strangled girl while solemnly talking about the murder. Just who, one wonders, thought that this death was so funny?
The police station looks like it's in the boys' bathroom of a gymnasium, with pink tiles on the walls. The guy who comes to haul the first body away is dressed like a milkman. And what's with the girl dressed like a Swedish barmaid who introduces the horrid song 'Yipes Stripes'? The sets and clothing aside, the dialog ignored, we come to the tragic excuse for a plot. Some guy is strangling girls and women with pantyhose. Its obvious from the get go that it's the creepy janitor - I mean, come on, people! So the director decided to forgo all suspense, I guess. The only other suspects are the world's most mousy, politest 'gang', consisting of five respectful, well-mannered boys whose only claim to being bad is that they wear leather jackets with bulldogs on the back. And something tells me that they made those jackets themselves in Home Ec. I mean, the oh-so-bad Jimmy actually respected the grounding his Dad gave him! And he was polite to the cop, too. What kind of bad ass is this guy?
There's a hysterical drag race in which Grandmas on walkers could have outrun the cars, not to mention the sound of squealing tires on dirt. And the best part of the film, if Jimmy would have just hit and done in the horrible little Mikey, just didn't come about. Dammit! It's a toss-up as to who had the best histrionics, Betty or Mikey. The scene where they both whine and wail at the top of their lungs in the police station makes one want to rip one's hair out in sheer agony. When you're not laughing your butt off, that is. I feel sorry for the guy playing the cop, to have to be in the same room with those two while they were both 'emoting'.
The janitor finally gets it in the end, before he can finish off the annoying Betty. Double Dammit! When he gets shot, there's no blood or bullet hole. Maybe the sounds of the gun shots scared him into a fatal heart attack? And then there'a a painfully long closing scene of people dancing very, very badly. All in all, this film just didn't work on many, many levels. Not as a morality tale, not as a suspense thriller, not as a drama, not as a teen movie, and not as a film with a good soundtrack. And what was with the opening credits that looked like somebody had made them in wood shop? Teenage Strangler is good for many belly laughs, and should be must-see viewing as an MST3K episode.
The police station looks like it's in the boys' bathroom of a gymnasium, with pink tiles on the walls. The guy who comes to haul the first body away is dressed like a milkman. And what's with the girl dressed like a Swedish barmaid who introduces the horrid song 'Yipes Stripes'? The sets and clothing aside, the dialog ignored, we come to the tragic excuse for a plot. Some guy is strangling girls and women with pantyhose. Its obvious from the get go that it's the creepy janitor - I mean, come on, people! So the director decided to forgo all suspense, I guess. The only other suspects are the world's most mousy, politest 'gang', consisting of five respectful, well-mannered boys whose only claim to being bad is that they wear leather jackets with bulldogs on the back. And something tells me that they made those jackets themselves in Home Ec. I mean, the oh-so-bad Jimmy actually respected the grounding his Dad gave him! And he was polite to the cop, too. What kind of bad ass is this guy?
There's a hysterical drag race in which Grandmas on walkers could have outrun the cars, not to mention the sound of squealing tires on dirt. And the best part of the film, if Jimmy would have just hit and done in the horrible little Mikey, just didn't come about. Dammit! It's a toss-up as to who had the best histrionics, Betty or Mikey. The scene where they both whine and wail at the top of their lungs in the police station makes one want to rip one's hair out in sheer agony. When you're not laughing your butt off, that is. I feel sorry for the guy playing the cop, to have to be in the same room with those two while they were both 'emoting'.
The janitor finally gets it in the end, before he can finish off the annoying Betty. Double Dammit! When he gets shot, there's no blood or bullet hole. Maybe the sounds of the gun shots scared him into a fatal heart attack? And then there'a a painfully long closing scene of people dancing very, very badly. All in all, this film just didn't work on many, many levels. Not as a morality tale, not as a suspense thriller, not as a drama, not as a teen movie, and not as a film with a good soundtrack. And what was with the opening credits that looked like somebody had made them in wood shop? Teenage Strangler is good for many belly laughs, and should be must-see viewing as an MST3K episode.