I remember seeing the very effective box for 'Relentless' on store shelves back in the day. You get a good director helming the first title & a cast of known names in a pretty straight laced tale of catching a serial killer. It scores some style points amongst it's predictable nature.
Sam Dietz (Leo Rossi) is an ex-NYC cop in LA who's just been promoted to Detective. He's teamed up with older, more experienced Sgt. Malloy (Robert Loggia) and they butt heads. A mentally unwell son of an ex-cop Buck (Judd Nelson) starts his rampage killing random victims from the phonebook with a taunting handwritten note. Meanwhile Sam has his wife Carol (Meg Foster) to vent to and a young son Corey (Brendan Ryan) eager to hear his dad's job exploits.
Director William Lustig is able to deliver some nice shots that elevate the mood, create tension. Rossi makes for a decent flawed main character. Loggia kinda just goes thru the paces but he's saddled with a cliche role. Nelson is really effective as the killer who's acting out on childhood trauma and physically looks damaged in a scary way. The only issue is the format. It's predictable to the max - idiot / loudmouth police superiors, partners not getting along, murder you can see coming a mile away, nice & tidy ending.
'Relentless' never veers into camp or boring - a tight 90 min runtime helps - but much of what happens is serial killer 101. Ultimately Rossi, Nelson keep it watchable and some unique killer / victim elements remain interesting. Interested to see how the dtv sequels build from here.
Sam Dietz (Leo Rossi) is an ex-NYC cop in LA who's just been promoted to Detective. He's teamed up with older, more experienced Sgt. Malloy (Robert Loggia) and they butt heads. A mentally unwell son of an ex-cop Buck (Judd Nelson) starts his rampage killing random victims from the phonebook with a taunting handwritten note. Meanwhile Sam has his wife Carol (Meg Foster) to vent to and a young son Corey (Brendan Ryan) eager to hear his dad's job exploits.
Director William Lustig is able to deliver some nice shots that elevate the mood, create tension. Rossi makes for a decent flawed main character. Loggia kinda just goes thru the paces but he's saddled with a cliche role. Nelson is really effective as the killer who's acting out on childhood trauma and physically looks damaged in a scary way. The only issue is the format. It's predictable to the max - idiot / loudmouth police superiors, partners not getting along, murder you can see coming a mile away, nice & tidy ending.
'Relentless' never veers into camp or boring - a tight 90 min runtime helps - but much of what happens is serial killer 101. Ultimately Rossi, Nelson keep it watchable and some unique killer / victim elements remain interesting. Interested to see how the dtv sequels build from here.