"By sword, By pick, By axe, Bye Bye"
"By sword, By pick, By axe, Bye Bye"
directed by: Buddy Cooper
"Their horrifying vacation was no day at the beach!
This spine-tingling chiller is the harrowing tale of five high-school students whose dream vacation of
a fun-filled holiday at the beach becomes a nightmare
when they are stalked by THE MUTILATOR.
Ed, a likeable high school student, busily discusses vacation plans with his friends
when he receives a message from his father asking that he close up the Summer house at
the beach. While his friends feel that it's the perfect opportunity for a vacation, Ed is
uneasy about the request, as his father has never quite forgiven him for the accidental
shooting of his mother.
When the group arrives at the summer house they discover Ed's father's collection of
bizzare weapons. To add to their anxieties there is the ever-present feeling that they are
being watched. Suddenly, Ed's house guests begin to meet bizarre deaths, each one more
grisly than the next, but THE MUTILATOR is saving best for last...the best for Ed."
choice dialogue:
starring: Matt Mitler, Frances Raines,
Bill Hitchcock, Pamela Weddle Cooper
(back of video blurb):
Afraid not. Whilst Wes Craven was wowing them with his re-invention of the genre in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, this tired genre peice was released and was symptomatic of the slide into zero budget, zero talent video hell slashers fell into for the next decade. It had been along time since any studio muscle had been put behind any slasher peice, but the lure of easy money brought all the hacks out of the wood work video cameras in hand. Perhaps I'm being a little unfair on THE MUTILATOR but I saw the 'R' rated version and apparently the only notable thing about this flick was Mark Shostrom's gory FX and most of these had been severely trimmed to secure a rating. Mind you it was impossible to tell what was going on most of the time as the lighting was awful so I may have missed the odd flying limb or too! And any modicum of suspense was lost when I realised that I was staring at a pole rather than at the back of the killer in a especially murky scene!
There are a few jolts to be had at the end of the picture and the scene with the killer on top of the car is quite tense, but it takes 80 minutes to get to it and that's an awfully long time to wait. The ending is a real damp squid too. Perhaps the only thing this movie has going for it is the fact it has the most awesome, and indeed my favourite ever, tag line for any movie..."By sword...By pick...By axe...Bye Bye!". Shame the movie didn't have any of the wit of the person who thought that little beauty up!
BODYCOUNT 7 
female:3 / male:4
1: Middle aged womam shoot dead with a shotgun
2: Female teen drowned
3: Male teen has an outboard motor shoved into his chest
4: Middle aged man decapitated
5: Male teen gets a pitchfork through his neck
6: Female teen has large fishing hook shoved between her legs (ouch!)
7: Middle aged man has leg chopped off with battle axe
