BRINGING THE WAR HOME: 'THE EXTERMINATOR' (1980) - URBAN VIGILANTE JUSTICE

After avenging the tragedy of his friend, John Eastland becomes the exterminator of society's ills. Credit: StudioCanal

The tagline on the theatrical poster of The Exterminator reads, “In war, you have to kill to stay alive… on the streets of New York, it’s often the same.” There is a moment in the film when protagonist John Eastland (Robert Ginty, 1948 - 2009) tells his best friend and brother-in-arms, Michael Jefferson (Steve James, 1952 - 1993), “I found the guys that did this to you, and I’ve taken care of it. It’s strange; it feels like we were back in Nam. It didn’t matter whether it was right or wrong, I just did it.” Michael is lying on a hospital bed and is on life support, as John tells him this. Michael is a husband and father of two, who saved John‘s life in the Vietnam War. Michael was the victim of a vicious attack by a street gang named the Ghetto Ghouls, in which they gouged his spine with a meat hook, leaving him paralysed for life. John retaliated with swift and brutal retribution.

Much like Michael Winner’s Death Wish six years before it, James Glickenhaus’ The Exterminator was born from the frustrations of citizens inhabiting densely populated cities. This was due to the high crime rates, and the police and politicians’ inability to deal with it and protect them. Filmed at the tail end of 1979, it unflinchingly depicts the urban decay of New York of the era. It is a nasty piece of exploitation - a gritty, grim, grimy, sleazy, and über violent vigilante actioner. It is set in two locations of the city: 42nd Street, Times Square, which ironically, is populated by the grindhouse theatres that showed exploitation pictures such as this, and in the cesspool of Hell’s Kitchen. Its lack of visual flair only works to its advantage in painting a bleak portrait of the mean streets that are mostly shot at night.

However, the film is thoughtful with its sympathetic portrayal of Vietnam veterans’ inner turmoil, as they try to cope with their returns to society and fit in, just four years after the end of the conflict. John’s PTSD deepens the narrative, as his traumatic experiences have left him with deep-seated scars, and we empathize with him. He is a quiet loner, has no other friends, has no family, other than Michael and his wife and children, and he is fiercely loyal to them. After John takes revenge for his friend, he gets the hunger for vigilante justice, and turns New York City into his personal warzone. He now has another use for his military training that gives him purpose. He has found his place by being judge, jury, and executioner of the dregs of the society he has been forced back to. He has been a delayed bomb, and it took him being pushed too far to go off. We root for him to take out the scumbags, as he remains compassionate to their victims. What Robert Ginty lacks in charisma and versatility as an actor works within this context, as his character is an everyman like you and me. This is what makes him identifiable as an anti-hero. John sends a letter to the media signed with a nom de guerre (war name) as ‘The Exterminator’.

John deals out brutal punishment on a scum child sex ring. Credit: StudioCanal

One of the most compelling parts of The Exterminator is inspired by Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976):

A man picks up a 20-year-old female hooker. He turns out to be a child sex ringleader, when he takes her to his “chicken place”, which is a street slang term for a prostitution house where young children are provided to paedophile clients. Here an elderly state senator wants to have a threesome with her and a boy. She is disgusted by this, so refuses and tries to leave, but they take her to a bed, tie her to it, strip her, and the old vile pervert scalds her breasts with a soldering iron.

Later, by chance, she approaches John on the street as a potential customer, and he accepts her proposal, so they go to a seedy room. When she undoes her blouse, he sees her unsightly scars, and she tells him what happened. He promises her nobody will hurt her again. He tracks down the child sex trafficker and his client that did this to her. He gets into the place by posing as a sex trader who wants to sell a boy. When he gets the response he needs for confirmation, it makes him angrier and his punishment of these sick fiends more severe, as he dispatches them with such malice.

The set-up seeks our revulsion, and then we are given catharsis, as we see this slime of humanity get their comeuppance in exploitative thrills. Then we are emotionally rewarded with John’s endearing act of human kindness, when he unties a young boy who the senator was abusing, and comforts him. These scenes were shot in an illegal prostitution house on 42nd Street, which had just been closed down by the police.

Christopher George gives one of the most solid performances as Detective James Dalton, and provides moments of levity in a grim affair. Credit: StudioCanal 

Juxtaposed to these horrid events are romantic scenes between Detective James Dalton (Christopher George, 1931 - 1983) and Dr. Megan Stewart (Samantha Eggar, 1939 - 2025). Dalton is investigating John’s murders, and is himself a Vietnam War veteran. Meagan is overseeing the treatment of one of John’s low-life victims. While they are having a late-night picnic in Central Park, the other events take place simultaneously. As we hear the sound of non-diegetic sentimental music, the camera leaves them with an aerial shot to establish the bright lights of the city. It then cuts to the setting of 42nd Street, where we see the child sex ringleader pick up the young prostitute. When the heinous act has been committed, the film goes back to Dalton and Samantha’s date. This is a contrast between light and dark. We see a fledgling romance, but we are reminded that it is a harsh and cruel world by the prostitute’s horrific ordeal.

This is further emphasized during their second date. Samantha asks Dalton what it was like in Vietnam, to which he replies it was bad, but not as bad as New York. It then cuts to an old woman being mugged by the remnants of the Ghetto Ghouls. John had interrogated one of them before to find Michael’s attackers, but this time, he does not let him off. This perfectly illustrates the tagline, “In war, you have to kill to stay alive… on the streets of New York, it’s often the same.”

There are some much-needed moments of levity from George’s Dalton. He says to an interfering CIA agent, “I think you have to take a shit, it’s coming out of your mouth instead of your asshole.” Christopher George gives one of the most solid performances.

The CIA does not want the NYPD to bring in John because they would rather assassinate him. The presidential election is coming up, and they do not want to risk the trial bringing up some "embarrassing issues", because the president’s campaign promises include fixing his administration’s inability to tackle crime. They suspect John’s vigilante work is a conspiracy by an opposition party or a foreign government. John’s way of clearing up crime gets more results than the government could hope for, but it exists outside of its judicial system. They would rather take John out of the picture than let him shame its inadequacies by his more violent yet effective methods. It is not as simple as good vs. evil on the streets of New York, as nothing is black and white. Just like in Nam, it is always politics.

The UK pre-cert VHS release of The Exterminator.

The Exterminator was a hit at the US box office, grossing $5 million on a small $2 million budget, and would find more success on the home video market. I can remember it being a favourite rental of adults in the UK. When I was growing up in South East London, England, in the 1980s, I would go with my parents to our local video rental store called Showtime Video. One of my earliest memories of this is seeing the big box VHS cases of The Exterminator and its 1984 sequel, Exterminator 2. The latter of which was produced by Cannon Films, and was less successful, both artistically and commercially. The infamous image on both the theatrical poster and the video case cover of The Exterminator, features a man wearing a motorcycle helmet, and wielding a flamethrower, but this does not feature in the film. Whereas the artwork for Exterminator 2 features a man wearing a welding mask, and is using a flamethrower too, which a returning Robert Ginty does do.

The film descended into obscurity in the 1990s, but due to the rapid rise of DVD and the internet at the turn of the century, it developed a cult following thanks to film fans and commentators spreading awareness of it. At the time of writing, Arrow Video’s 2011 Blu-ray release is the best way to watch it at home.

The Exterminator delivers on its promise with satisfying brutality on the scum that deserves it. Although the pathos in its examination of post-Vietnam War anxieties, sets it apart from the slew of urban vigilante action movies of the time that were inspired by Death Wish.

© 2026 Dave J. Wilson. All rights reserved.

Credit: StudioCanal

“EVERYBODY’S DROWNING IN THE NEON SLIME” - 'VICE SQUAD' (1982)

Season Hubley channelled her real life agony into her character Princess' intense climactic confrontation with the crazed Ramrod (Wings Hauser). Credit: StudioCanal

“The motion picture you are about to see has been produced with the cooperation of law enforcement authorities. Though a work of fiction, it is a composite of events that have actually taken place on the streets of Hollywood.”

Gary Sherman’s gritty, grimy, and sleazy crime thriller, Vice Squad, is so steeped in the gutters of the downtown streets of Los Angeles in the early 1980s, it is as if we can feel its filth on us, its stench, so we need to have an obsessive wash when it is all over. It extensively depicts the city’s low living of the era: pimps and prostitutes, pushers and junkies, and freaks.

It takes place in one night. A down on her luck middle-class single mother (Season Hubley), who is struggling to support her small daughter, works the streets of Hollywood Boulevard as a prostitute. We know her only by her street name, Princess. Hubley is best known for playing Priscilla Presley in John Carpenter’s biographical TV film, Elvis (1979). She starred alongside Kurt Russell in the eponymous role, and they became romantically involved in real life. They married in the same year of the biopic’s ABC premiere, and would have one son. Two years later, they went through a messy divorce and custody battle. This was at the time Season Hubley was filming Vice Squad in April 1981. She channelled her agony into her character’s intense climatic confrontation with the major antagonist of the piece. He is a pimp simply named Ramrod (iconic cult actor Wings Hauser, 1947 - 2025), who is a brutal and ruthless psychotic and misogynist. He is one of the great-unsung villains of cinema.

Ramrod uses a pimp stick (a wire coat hanger bent out straight then folded over several times) to beat one of his girls, and sexually assaults her with it and mutilates her vagina. Her name is Ginger (original MTV VJ, Nina Blackwood), and she is a good friend of Princess. Thankfully, we do not get to see this. We find out after the fact, in the hospital, when the doctor tells vice squad detective Tom Walsh (Gary Swanson). Walsh knows Ginger, and knows her pimp is Ramrod, who he despises. While he is convinced the man is responsible for Ginger’s injuries, he cannot get her to identify him as her attacker before she dies. He knows Ginger and Princess were close, so he gets her to help him arrest Ramrod, by putting a wire on her to get incriminating information. However, when Ramrod is apprehended, he escapes. This puts Princess in extreme danger, because he goes in deadly pursuit of her, hell-bent on revenge for setting him up. At first, all he has is her street name, but it is only a matter of time before he catches up to her. Walsh and his team struggle to keep Princess safe, as they race to get to her before the crazed maniac Ramrod does.

The crazed maniac Ramrod. Credit: StudioCanal

The title sequence is a montage spliced with B-roll footage that shows us the nocturnal activities on the streets of Hollywood, and establishes the theme, mood, and trashiness of the setting. We see: prostitutes, johns in their cars negotiating with these ladies of the night for a short time of pleasure, pimps, drug dealers and the users, weirdos, a vile paedophile handing over money for the sexual services of a young boy, busy pavements where tramps are sleeping, and patrolling police and arrests.

We hear over this the suitably deep down and dirty hard rock theme song, Neon Slime, sung by Wings Hauser. The music is by composer and frequent Gary Sherman collaborator, Joe Renzetti (Dead & Buried, 1981, Wanted: Dead or Alive, 1986, Poltergeist III, 1988, Lisa, 1989). Over the incessant cutting guitar riffs, and the grinding beat from the rhythm section, Hauser’s hoarse vocals bellows out the supplementary trashy lyrics:

“Faded to black, the streets come alive, that big city monster just opened his eyes, the hustle, the muscle, the chrome and the steal, got what I want baby, let’s make that deal.

Bang bang shoot ’em up, talking about crime, somebody just bought it in the neon slime, everybody’s drowning in the neon slime.

You see I’m the survivor, and I know how it feels, to be part of the night-time where everything is real, the music/the violence/the sex/the sweet smell, I’m a stone cold believer in the pleasures of hell.

Bang bang shoot ’em up, feeling just fine, been baptized in the river of the neon slime.”

Because we have been with Ramrod over the course of most of Vice Squad, when Neon Slime returns in an alternative form over the closing credits, we get the feeling the actor is in character singing about himself.

Wings Hauser is sensationally over the top as the wild-eyed, deranged, cowboy pimp, Ramrod. He is a genuinely terrifying, ferocious force of rage, violently tearing through the proceedings, which is something the premise calls for. Ramrod embodies misogyny. When he escapes custody, he has the resources to try to leave the city, but does not think about this at all, because all he cares about is his single-minded retribution on Princess. He repeatedly calls her “Bitch”, instead of her street name. Of course, we would not have a film otherwise, but it says Ramrod cannot accept the fact a woman got the better of him.

The "... wild-eyed, deranged, cowboy pimp, Ramrod" hates women. Credit: StudioCanal

Season Hubley, in a brave turn, portrays Princess as a tragic figure, which draws our sympathy for her harrowing plight, through her strength to fight. Gary Swanson gives an excellent committed performance as the hard-nosed Walsh, who despite having seen it all, refuses to become jaded. He still cares about these girls and looks out for them. We sense he feels duty bound to protect Princess, because he blames himself for putting her in harm’s way. The solid supporting cast making up Walsh’s vice squad ably backs them. In the scene after their operation to capture Ramrod, set at a hot dog restaurant, Princess and Walsh have a conversation about their lives and the night-to-night horrors they both experience. While they are on opposite sides of the law, they can relate to each other. Princess says, “We both live in the same toilet, Walsh.”

The screenplay takes detours into subplots with Princess, while she is unaware Ramrod is free and looking for her, to show us the nightlife of this wretched other world these characters inhabit. For instance, when a horny conventioneer approaches her, she goes with her client to a shabby room. He is unsatisfied with her stiff performance, so while she is in the shower, he goes into her purse and takes his money back. She comes out of the bathroom and catches him at it, and when she confronts him, he pins her down on the bed. When he is about to punch her, she threatens him with her imaginary pimp, as she is actually an ‘outlaw’, meaning she is an independent working girl. He then mocks her by kissing her. As he leaves, she throws one of her shoes at him, and curses him and wishes him dead, but he just laughs and shuts the door behind him. This is a hard-hitting, sad but true, slice of life. Princess also takes part in bizarre kinky sex acts that the freaky johns indulge in, which gives us some of the film’s genuinely funny moments of levity.

Vice Squad was filmed almost entirely on location in Los Angeles. The exceptions are the sets used for Ramrod’s apartment and the police station. Director of Photography, John Alcott (1930 - 1986), knew how to give grubby an aesthetic quality. The big city neon lights at night provide a rich neo-noir sensibility. Alcott was Stanley Kubrick’s favourite cinematographer. His first collaboration with Kubrick was as a mid-shoot replacement for Geoffrey Unsworth on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He would go on to win an Academy Award for his work on Barry Lyndon (1975). He also shot A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Shining (1980).

 Vice Squad Detective Tom Walsh (Gary Swanson) is in hot pursuit of a stone cold psycho. Credit: StudioCanal

Only two other works of American cinema have perfectly captured this seedy subculture unseen by the mainstream in the 1970s and 1980s. The first is Martin Scorsese’s neo-noir psychological drama, Taxi Driver (1976). Robert De Niro’s titular character, Travis Bickle, a disturbed Vietnam War veteran loner, wants to “wash all the scum off the streets” of New York’s moral decay. The other is that film’s writer, as writer/director, Paul Schrader’s neo-noir crime drama, Hardcore (1979). George C. Scott plays a conservative, Calvinist Christian, and a single parent, who is searching for his missing daughter. When a private investigator finds an 8mm stag film featuring her with two men, he goes looking for her in the sordid porno underworld of California. A young prostitute/porn actress/stripper helps him, who is played by none other than Season Hubley. While Vice Squad shares thematic similarities with Taxi Driver and Hardcore, its narrative sets it apart, as it is a realistic documentation of the work of LAPD vice detectives.

Martin Scorsese is actually a big fan of Vice Squad. So much so, that he championed it as a contender for Best Picture at the 1982 Academy Awards. This led to him having a huge disagreement with the then-vice president of production at Paramount Pictures, Dawn Steel (1946 - 1997), at a dinner function. This is because Scorsese accused the Academy of not having the guts to nominate the film, due to its hard subject matter that it explores so deeply. This made it a provocative and controversial release at the time.

Vice Squad is lively paced, action-packed, and highly entertaining. But it is more than just a tough piece of crime exploitation. It has gut punching, real human drama, in a ballsy and intense portrayal of this vicious street life, as we watch everybody drowning in the neon slime.

© 2026 Dave J. Wilson. All rights reserved.

Credit: StudioCanal

SLAUGHTER AND SURVIVAL IN THE SLUM: 'TENEMENT' (1985)

Residents of a rundown tenement "... stand their ground and fight for what little they have, and for their lives, against a vicious drug-crazed street gang." Credit: Shriek Show

Bloody violence and bloody boobs are on display in Tenement (a.k.a. Game of Survival, Slaughter in the South Bronx). It is a long-forgotten entry in the slew of urban warfare action B-movies seen in the grindhouses, drive-ins, and video stores in the 1980s. It is a scuzzy and sleazy take on John Carpenter’s cult classic siege action thriller, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). While Tenement cannot compare, judging it on its own merits, it is an entertaining little flick, because it has no pretensions about what it is, as a gritty, grimy, and trashy exploitation piece played out for shock value. It is one of only a few films given an X certificate by the MPAA in the United States based solely on its graphic bloodshed. It was rejected by the BBFC in the United Kingdom for a VHS release in 1987, but it was passed uncut for DVD in 2005.

Tenement is an effectively put together quickie, shot in August 1984, on the paltry budget of an estimated $80,000 - $90,000. It is set in a ghetto of the South Bronx, New York City. This is the childhood home of director and cinematographer, Roberta Findlay. She lived with her family in a tenement from the late 1940s to partway through the 1960s, and based the film on her experiences. Poor immigrant workers built these old low-income housing units because they needed homes. All interior and exterior filming for the pivotal setting of the tenement was done in the isolated location of a vacant building in Harlem, Manhattan, New York, separated from the Bronx County by the Harlem River. The city council was renovating it, and the electricity and water were still on, so it was used as a giant set. Real gang violence took place in the surrounding area. All other exterior shooting was done in actual Bronx locations. The movie perfectly captures the squalid atmosphere of a poverty-stricken and crime-ridden neighbourhood, which generates a genuine sense of danger.

Screenwriters Joel Bender (1948 - 2021) and Rick Marx inject some heart into it. Us average folk can relate to the ensemble cast portraying impoverished tenants of a rundown tenement apartment building, who are just trying to make ends meet, and they give a real sense of community. We sympathize with these downtrodden innocent peoples’ plight in this tale of home invasion, and we root for them when they stand their ground and fight for what little they have, and for their lives, against a vicious drug-crazed street gang.

A blood-drenched stabbing in Tenement (1985). Credit: Shriek Show

The title sequence establishes the urban decay with B-roll footage of dilapidated buildings and rubble. Over this, we hear the sound of an old-school (new in 1985) inner city hip-hop track, aptly titled ‘Tenement’. It sounds upbeat, as if giving off a positive vibe, but a closer listen to the lyrics details the struggles of living in such difficult conditions. This message of economic and social hardship returns for the closing frame of the film, over an exterior shot of the tenement at night. Roberta Findlay employs a heavy Goblin-esque prog rock soundtrack to supplement the action set pieces.

In the inciting incident, the gang of degenerates are arrested, as the landlord - the cowardly and surly loudmouth slob, Mr. Gonzales (one-and-done actor Alfonso Manosalvas) - calls the police on them for squatting in the basement. They are taking drugs, but the leader Chaco (Enrique Sandino, 1951 - 2015) burns it all, and they hide all their weapons. When they are taken away, the tenants celebrate, but as the police have nothing to hold them on, they are released shortly after. They score some angel dust (PCP), and they return to the area and get high. As the effects of this drug induce feelings of invulnerability and power in these already aggressive people, they decide to take revenge. They cut the phone lines of the isolated tenement, and terrorize the tenants in a hostile takeover of the building. Eventually, the victims are forced up to the top floor, where they turn the tables on their attackers by constructing and setting up various improvised traps in a siege actioner trope. This culminates in a surprisingly visually impressive final confrontation on the rooftop during the pouring rain, thunder, and lightning of a storm, which defies this small production’s meagre resources.

The proceedings are energetically paced and packed with tension, as the events unfold in real-time. This is signified onscreen by the scene-setting location timestamps (like in Assault on Precinct 13), and this includes which floor of the building the action takes place. With the exception of the first act, we are stuck in this dingy apartment building the whole time. Roberta Findlay works efficiently in the tight confinement of her surroundings, with freewheeling shaky camerawork, and plenty of low-angle shots and tracking shots. All this generates a docudrama aesthetic.

One reason why Tenement works is its unpredictability, as we never know who will or who will not survive. Everything is wide-open, as we witness blood-drenched slashing and stabbing, a brutal strangulation, and a gruesome castration (complete with the man holding his severed meat and veg while dying). The most disturbing and haunting moment is the savage rape and murder of a single mother, Leona (Rhetta Hughes), followed by the heart-breaking sight of her small daughter discovering her corpse. Findlay makes sure to capture all this with long, lingering shots for the exploitation market. While this violence may sound gratuitous, its vileness and harrowing nature provokes our angry reactions to get behind the victimized innocents to get payback, which makes the villains’ inevitable downfall more satisfying for it.

 Straight out of Death Wish: chains and leather are this street gang's attire. Credit: Shriek Show

The multi-ethnic street gang looks like they came straight out of Michael Winner’s Death Wish trilogy - Death Wish (1974), Death Wish II (1982), and Death Wish 3 (1985) - as they are decked out in chains and leather. But they are uncharacteristic of the Street Thunder gang in Assault on Precinct 13. John Carpenter did not humanize his antagonists, as they are depicted as a mysterious force of nature with almost supernatural attributes. He took direct inspiration from George A. Romero’s zombies in Night of the Living Dead (1968), as the gangbangers have almost no dialogue, they move at a deliberate pace, and they are relentless. Here in Tenement, the scumbag punks have personalities.

 

Enrique Sandino certainly has a presence as the enigmatic and sadistic gang leader, Chaco.

 

Dan Snow hams it up as the junkie thug, Rudy. Troma fans will recognize Snow as Cigar Face in Lloyd Kaufman’s original Toxic Avenger trilogy: The Toxic Avenger (1984), The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989), and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989). He also played Sgt. Kazinski in Kaufman’s Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000).

 

The standout from the entire cast is the intense Paul Calderon. He plays Chaco’s loopy right hand man, Hector. This was Calderon’s film debut, and he went on to carve out a respectable career as a character actor. This includes memorable supporting roles in high profile cult films: Sidney Lumet’s Q&A (1990), Abel Ferrara’s King of New York (1990) and Bad Lieutenant (1992), the latter of which he co-wrote, and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). Tarantino even almost cast him as Jules Winnfield, the role that made Samuel L. Jackson a megastar.

 

Another noteworthy cast member is Angel David. He plays Poppo, a heroin-addicted resident of the tenement. His girlfriend Carol (Corinne Chateau) sells herself to help him feed his habit. David gave an impressive comic performance as Skank in Alex Proyas’ The Crow (1994).

 

The closest to a lead protagonist is Sam Washington (Joe Lynn, 1947 - 1987). He is a 30-something African American, a manly mechanic, and a loner. He is possibly a Vietnam War veteran, due to the framed photos of his Asian wife and child in his apartment, but no explanation is given for their absence. He wants to be left alone, but he has to help his neighbours fight the scumfucks invading their shoebox homes. The outsider reluctant hero is an action archetype. While this seemingly strongest of all the characters usually saves the day, this is not the case here, because it subverts our expectations. It falls on someone on the opposite side of the spectrum who we would least expect, a pregnant single Latin American woman, Anita (Gy Mirano). She wants to raise her child on her own, because she does not love the father, which is a sign of her strength. Transgressive portrayals of women such as this earned Roberta Findlay the label of ‘feminist filmmaker’, but this is something she has always denied.

Roberta Findlay

Roberta Findlay began her filmmaking career when meeting husband, Michael Findlay (1937 - 1977), while attending the City College of New York in the mid-1960s. Michael was an ardent cinephile obsessed with silent film. When he ran a festival on campus, he hired the classically trained pianist Roberta to play piano, to accompany D. W. Griffith’s epic historical anthology, Intolerance (subtitles: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages, A Sun-Play of the Ages, 1916). When they married, they became a filmmaking duo, with Michael as director, and Roberta as cinematographer. They became among a number of pioneers of the ‘roughie’ picture. This is a sub-genre of softcore sexploitation - a pastiche of seedy violent crime and sadomasochistic sex. Roberta starred in supporting roles, playing characters that were either sexually promiscuous and/or masochistic victims. When Roberta and Michael separated, Roberta directed her own films in the Golden Age of Porn (1969 - 1984), just to keep working, and proved successful. When this era of hardcore pornography with real production values, shot on 35mm, and shown in theatres, ended due to the rise of home video, Roberta moved into horror and exploitation action features such as Tenement.

Tenement is true exploitation cinema. It makes good on its promise by delivering the extreme B-movie violence, while dealing with the horrors of living in a ghetto. The brutal gang of miscreants’ sustained assault of intimidation and terror tactics on the innocent people makes for an unsettling experience. However, the endearing quality of its good ol’ black-and-white theme of good triumphing over evil, wins through. This is raw, edgy, filthy, nasty, and enjoyable midnight viewing.

Note: Shriek Show’s 2017 Blu-ray release is a 2K restoration presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. It features a commentary track by Roberta Findlay and an interview with her.

© 2026 Dave J. Wilson. All rights reserved.

Credit: Shriek Show

“YOUR FEMININE PULCHRITUDE IS DETESTABLE” - 'THE LOVE BUTCHER' (1975)

"Caleb/Lester’s origin of his madness, and hatred of women, stems from a childhood trauma related to his mother."

Exploitation filmmaker Don Jones (1938 - 2021) is best known in horror circles for his debut in the genre as writer/director. The sleazy and haunting Schoolgirls in Chains (1973) is a riff on Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological horror masterpiece, Psycho (1960). It tells the shocking tale of a pair of deranged brothers who are seemingly under the influence of their domineering and crazy mother. The brothers chain up nubile young women in the basement of their Californian orange farm, and the women fight for survival in disturbing and violent scenes of torture and sexual assault.

Don Jones’ gig as the director of photography on the twisted trash piece, The Love Butcher, would earn him a credit as the co-director. Mikel Angel (1926 - 2001) was in the director’s chair and was co-screenwriter. He was best known for co-writing the supernatural horror, Psychic Killer (1975), and the sub-genre pastiche, Grotesque (1988), starring horror icon Linda Blair. The Love Butcher was produced by Mirror Releasing, the distributors of Schoolgirls in Chains. It was shot in just twelve days on a minuscule $40,000 budget. It would prove to be Angel’s sole directorial effort, because the entire crew deemed his first cut to be nonsensical and unwatchable. Don Jones then stepped in as the writer and director. He injected humour into it, and created a new supporting character, so he did a little more casting. About half of the film would end up as his. Austin McKinney took over as the director of photography, who had just finished shooting the independent horror, Axe (1974).

The Love Butcher is unable to decide what it wants to be. Don Jones’ quirky dark humour in a schizoid psychological character study (again inspired by Hitchcock’s Psycho) contradicts Mikel Angel’s sleaziness with powerful and harrowing depictions of misogynistic violence. It makes for an uneven tone.

Gruesome murders of beautiful young women can be seen in this proto-slasher. It was released in the grindhouse theatres and on the drive-in circuit in 1975, predating the rounded out and established slasher film by three years, when John Carpenter's Halloween was released. But nobody saw The Love Butcher. It was given a slightly wider release in 1983, in an attempt to capitalize on the slasher boom, which was ignited by Sean S. Cunningham’s gory elaboration in Friday the 13th (1980). The Love Butcher became lost in the sea of red of all the cookie cutter slice and dice flicks released every weekend, and sunk into obscurity. 

The Love Butcher does not entirely live up to its title, because it features only a little bloodletting and minimal female nudity. However, when it does hit these marks, it does so effectively.

 The Love Butcher features "... powerful and harrowing depictions of misogynistic violence."

Bizarre and brutal murders of young and attractive housewives with the use of garden tools have an upscale neighbourhood in a grip of terror. Shot entirely on location in Los Angeles, California, the gross interior décor of these suburban houses reminds us of why the 1970s was the decade taste forgot. 

Local gardener Caleb (James Lemp, credited as Erik Stern, 1938 - 2012) is a lonely, bald, hunched over, and crippled, middle-aged simpleton. He wears overalls and thick-lensed glasses. He performs his daily duties tending to the gardens of female residents who verbally abuse him. At the end of his days, he returns to his filthy little apartment, and argues with his younger brother, Lester, due to their sibling rivalry. Caleb is delusional, though, because Lester is just a mannequin with a wig. Caleb is not as he appears, because when he is pushed too far, he transforms into Lester (also Lemp). He is handsome with chiselled features, confident, charming, and psychotic. The deranged Lester personality uses a variety of disguises and accents as crude stereotypes, to gain entry into the women’s homes, and to seduce them. He then punishes them, as he believes all females are evil. “Your ugliness is on the outside… theirs’ is hidden away”, Lester tells Caleb.

The inept police are unable to catch Caleb/Lester, despite all the women being killed with gardening tools, and Caleb being their regular gardener. In this weak procedural investigation aspect, there is a butting of heads between the police chief (Richard Kennedy, 1929 - 1985, Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, 1975) and newspaper reporter, Russell (one-and-done actor Jeremiah Beecher). Russell berates the police for their incompetence in failing to catch the killer, but this just makes him a hypocrite, because Caleb is his girlfriend Flo’s gardener. Flo (Kay Neer in her sole acting performance) is the only likable female character, as she is kind to Caleb.

It is hard to care about most of the female victims because they are such cruel bitches. We see them ridiculing the weird, yet harmless, gimp Caleb for his disability, so we cannot feel sympathy for them when they meet their grisly demises at the hands of Lester. But nor can we root for him getting revenge for the poor unfortunate Caleb. Lester is an alpha-male stud who sees himself as a godly figure of masculinity, thinks all women should worship him, and is a detestable misogynist. He hates ALL women. When the killer and their victims are awful alike, how are we supposed to feel?

 James Lemp plays dual roles as Caleb/Lester.

In a scene when Sheila (Robin Sherwood, Tourist Trap, 1979, Death Wish II, 1982) is swimming in her private pool, Lester dives in with a hosepipe and attacks her. He tears off her bikini, and then forces the hosepipe down her throat, drowning her in phallic rape symbolism.

Caleb/Lester’s origin of his madness, and hatred of women, stems from a childhood trauma related to his mother. This is revealed in a tragic, heart-breaking moment, in a flashback during the climatic twist. In author Stephen Thrower’s tome, Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents (Fab Press, 2008), he points out an auteur thread of “nasty mothers” in Don Jones’ work. He writes that the mother in Schoolgirls in Chains is an “incestuous dragon”, and that the mother in The Love Butcher guilt-trips her child by laying the blame on him with callous words, and “... sowing the seeds of future mental illness in her son.”

In Stephen Thrower’s interview with Don Jones in Nightmare USA, there is a quote from The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror (Aurum Press, 1984). “The Love Butcher is interesting in that whilst its production pre-dates the stalk- ’n’ -slash craze, its ironic tongue-in-cheek script actually highlights and parodies the gross misogyny of the sub-genre.” A long line of short-sighted film critics has accused slasher horror of being the male fantasies of the sexualized mutilation of women. They miss the point that the lone killers are often unattractive and socially inept (Caleb), and they are mentally ill, abhorrent, and their homicidal actions are never morally justified (Lester). No male viewer in their right mind could identify with them. Films can be about misogyny and not be misogynist.

The slasher film inhabits the puritanical, conservative, and Christian/Catholic world. Pre-marital sex, drugs, and alcohol are all sins, and the killers embody this poisonous worldview. In The Love Butcher, Pat (Eve Mac, yet another one-time performer) is the character Don Jones created. After she and Lester have had a few beers together in her home, he seduces her. Then a bible-bashing nuisance turns up at the door, preaching to her how her “immortal soul is in jeopardy.” She closes the door on him, and then Lester stabs her to death. Halloween would later codify this as a major slasher trope.

 "The most shocking murder is deliberately saved for Flo, because she is the only sympathetic female character."

Lester kills the warm-hearted Flo out of jealousy for being kind to Caleb. The most shocking murder is deliberately saved for Flo, because she is the only sympathetic female character. Used as buffers are moments of romantic light-heartedness between Flo and Russell. This includes their plan to get married, which makes us relate to them. Because of Russell’s determination to catch the killer, we are fooled into thinking they are the ones who will bring down Caleb/Lester. This comfort zone makes Flo’s nasty and unsettling death more tragic. As Lester and Flo struggle, he tears off her clothes until she is completely naked. He tells her, “You will leave this world as you entered it.” As she sits on the floor and tries to cover herself with her arms, she begs for death rather than being tortured, to which he obliges. He hacks her to death with a serrated garden hoe, and she dies covered in blood. In the end, Caleb must overcome Lester to put an end to his reign of terror.

James Lemp has a lot of charisma and is full of manic energy. His performance in his dual role is highly memorable, with his transformation from Caleb to Lester and back being astonishingly convincing. We sympathize with the poor Caleb, but are terrified of the menacing and merciless Lester. When the two personalities spar with each other, it is pitch black comedy, as Lester berates Caleb for his handicap. Lester taunts his victims with ridiculous and demented lines like, “Your feminine pulchritude is detestable, and you were trying to drain the energy from me!” James Lemp carries a film that would not have worked without him. Unfortunately, due to The Love Butcher being little known, the actor would end up playing mostly bit parts in TV shows. He landed a supporting role in Cannon Films’ Charles Bronson action vehicle, Assassination (1987).

The Love Butcher is a mixed bag piece of curio exploitation with enough highlights to make it enjoyable. Considering the unideal circumstances of its production history, it is surprising it turned out this well. This is a testament to Don Jones’ talent in undertaking such a salvage job. It is certainly much better than his next trip into horror with his unsuccessful mix of supernatural and slasher in The Forest (1982).

 With charisma and manic energy, James Lemp gives a memorable performance.

Note: Code Red’s 2015 Blu-ray release presents The Love Butcher in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It features a commentary track by Don Jones, moderated by Lee Christian and film historian and hip-hop artist R.A. Thorburn a.k.a. R.A. the Rugged Man.

© 2026 Dave J. Wilson. All rights reserved.