City in Panic (1986)

I have no idea how this dvd ever made it to my collection. And i have no idea how such a movie could end up with a dutch release while tons of other (better) movies get left behind. But well, i have it and i watched it. Did i enjoy it? Hmm...

The city is in panic, as the title made clear. Why? Because there's a serial killer. This killer marks all of his victims with the letter ''M'' (the movie even refers to Fritz Lang's crime thriller ''M'' from 1931). Is there a connection between the victims? Well, they're gay but the most important thing is: they're infected with AIDS. Yeahhh, kill aids!

That's an awesome plan if you're insane. But in any other case, it's nothing but stupidity. Speaking of stupid: the police isn't capable of find a link between the murders by themselves so they try to get Dave Miller to help them. And that Dave Miller guy is a....radio host! Yes, he's a pretentious radio host with the natural ability to step on other peoples toes. It's up to him to get in contact with ''M'' and then...uuhm...they'll try and catch him from where he's calling.

My main issue with this slasher flick is it's lack of originality. It has a straight forward plot which i can accept (gratefully) but it doesn't have that exciting edge to it that could make it stand out of the crowd. The kills are pretty blank. We start off with this obvious Psycho kill in the shower where they have the close-up on the eye, the blood going down the drain and also the editing has been adjusted to fit the picture (back and forth, killer - victim). How should that ever get me excited? I'm just done with it, leave Psycho alone.

We get some annoying chit chat between Dave Miller and some old guy that's writing articles that he doesn't agree with. After some public backstabbing we're on to the next kill. It's not bringing anything new to the table. It's the same weapon, the same damage but in an other enviroment. That's actually how the entire movie goes, poorly acted arguing scene #25 followed by kill #5. It's not suprising in any way.

There's no noteworthy soundtrack and the picture quality is just awful to say the least. Yet it all remains at a nice pace and it kept me awake for quite some time. Some kills (although off-screen) have a nice setup and the ending is alright with me. But it didn't have the suprising effect that i was hoping for, so i can't help but call it a: dissapointment!

57/100