Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

moonspinner55 Fictionalized portrait of a real-life sociopath and killer from Arizona (nicknamed "The Pied Piper of Tucson"), a 23-year-old dropout from reality who easily enchanted all the bored, feckless teenagers hanging out at the local high school and community swimming pool. Robert F. Lyons is quite persuasive as the seductive charmer, disassociated from reality and living off his mother (Barbara Bel Geddes, who enables his freeloader lifestyle). He enjoys playing big brother and lover to the misfit kids in his stifling suburb (it feeds his ego) and, after killing a girl because he "had nothing else to do," he has no trouble getting a few of the teens to help him cover up his crime. Richard Thomas is somewhat miscast as a hitchhiker Lyons takes under his wing (Thomas is intrinsically too bright to play this antisocial rube), but the supporting cast is excellent, particularly Bel Geddes, Gloria Grahame as Thomas' mother, Edward Asner and Michael Conrad. It's a technically assured picture, but one which is ultimately uneasy as a dramatic entertainment. Was it intended as a warning film? Rather, it's an exercise in glamorously dangerous narcissism--the disaffected youth too cool for society. ** from ****

Woodyanders Caustic and sullen, yet crafty and charismatic psychopathic misanthrope Skipper Todd (superbly played with magnetic cool by Robert F. Lyons) kills a few lovely teenage lasses strictly for the sick kick of it in a sleepy small California town. Several severely alienated local youths help Skipp cover up his heinous crimes.Director Barry Shear astutely nails a strong feeling of adolescent malaise, aimlessness, and pure unadulterated nihilism. The bitter and daring script by Joel Oliansky and Dennis Murphy boldly explores the darker aspects of American culture that include fear of aging (Skipper's mom runs an old folks home), obsession with preserving youth for perpetuity (the 23-year-old Skipper refuses to get a job and avidly pursues underage girls in an attempt to stave off encroaching adulthood), misguided (anti)-hero worship, and the impossibly high and unattainable standards perpetuated by the alluring, but frustratingly evasive American dream. The sterling acting by a top-rate cast helps a whole lot, with especially stand-out contributions from Richard Thomas as naive and awkward hang-on Billy Roy, Belinda Montgomery as the saucy and enticing Roberta, Sherry Miles as the ditsy Amata, Holly Near as fawning groupie Norma, James Broderick as perceptive English teacher Sam Goodwin, Barbara Bel Geddes as Skipper's stern mother, Gloria Grahame as the worn-out Mrs. Roy, Fay Spain as the distraught Mrs. Mack, Edward Asner as imposing bigwig Fred Readon, and Michael Conrad as a hard-nosed detective. Leonard Rosenman's moody score further adds to the overall discomfiting tone. Harold E. Stine's sharp widescreen cinematography provides an excitingly vibrant look. Unsettling for sure, but definitely potent and gripping just the same.

Coventry Director Barry Shear here delivers a truly unique and mesmerizing but also sadly unknown and unloved character study about one of the US' most unfathomable serial killers. The film revolves on the mid-60's Arizonian killer Charles Schmid Jr; nicknamed The Pied Piper of Tucson. Schmid was more or less like a crossbreed between Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. Similar to Ted Bundy because he was a good looking, charismatic and eloquent local boy who didn't have the slightest problem luring naive young girls (hence the nickname) and similar to Charles Manson because of the boundary-free hippie setting and because Schmid also had a great influence on his docile friends and involved them in his murderous schemes. Maybe I'm slightly biased, because I'm a big sucker for horror/thriller movies that are based on real-life serial killer cases, but "The Todd Killings" is a genuinely astounding film from many versatile viewpoints. Although the names of the characters were changed to protect the victims (and the guilty!), the script remains very true to the facts as they occurred. It's also a brutally honest film in terms of period setting and atmosphere. "The Todd Killings" shockingly illustrates that the mid-60's weren't all about peace and free love. The clichéd American Dream image of handsome teenagers with all the required capacities to succeed in life gets totally shattered here, because they merely just think about taking LSD and having sex. Robert F. Lyons gives a stunning performance as the unhinged killer protagonist Skipper Todd. He hates and mocks elderly folks, toys around with all the local high school girls that pitiably twirl around him and spends most of his days parading around in shorts at the swimming pool. Skipper eventually falls in love with a sincere girl (the stunningly ravishing Belinda Montgomery) but can't deal with the fact that she disapproves his derailed life-style. "The Todd Killings" is very raw and depressing, with sober cinematography and downbeat set pieces. The film is extremely low budget and doesn't contain a single moment of bloody violence, but the nihilistic ambiance is nevertheless horrifying and the (admittedly gratuitous) sequences of underage nudity form unpleasant confrontations with the wayward world of the 60's. One year after this, Barry Shear directed his most famous film; the stupendous Blaxploitation themed cop-thriller "Across 110th Street". They are two completely different movies proving Shear was a very gifted but sadly underrated filmmaker.

icyfloes.iceway In the theatrical release of this film Belinda J.Montgomery did full frontal nudity but it is missing from the video version. Don't watch it if you wanted to see it for that reason. Also Richard Thomas(John-Boy of the Waltons) did a full frontal nude scene that is still in the video version but toned down from the theatrical version.