Here's an unwelcome chance to see a young William Sanderson in an early example of his whole career's hillbilly typecasting.

Sanderson is a fine character actor, even if that's hard to tell from this turd of a feature film. Though best remembered for the recurring line "I'm Larry. This is my brother Daryl, & my other brother Daryl" in a Bob Newhart sitcom, a much warmer recollection of his screen presence can be evoked if you just remember he was the "lonely toymaker" with robot friends in Blade Runner (1982).

His character, Otis, opens the film with a teaser of a girl running frightened through the woods, pursued by a hillbilly with a chainsaw. Before there's any bloodshed, Savage Weekend aka The Killer Behind the Mask (1976) flashes back to how it all began.

There's a good deal of nudity & one spiffy horror-mask (shown above), & some so-so gore set-ups that never pay off with any gore, plus a lame "mystery" switcheroo near the end regarding who is the worst psycho.

The climactic chainsaw vs machete duel had potential that was thoroughly botched. It's a no-budget stinker obviously motivated by the idea, "If Tobe Hooper can do it, so can I!" but David Paulson couldn't.

The most exciting thing about the damned film is watching the sound boom intrude into the frame. If you can imagine a seedy amateur psycho slasher gore film, but without the gore, there you have it.

Yet Sanderson has his own kind of charisma & though he's not exactly the star, in terms of performance value for entertainment, he's the star so far as I'm concerned. Watch for his "endearing" smile as the film closes. This guy is a better actor than his typical mountain hick roles have always allowed him to prove.



Evidently filming of Mr. Ice Cream Man was actually completed years sooner, but it wasn't released for anyone to see until 2002.

It's the nonsensical tale of a psycho killer ice cream truck driver, who no one suspects even though he drives through neighborhoods trying to sell ice cream in the middle of the night.

Populated as it is with a cast of children, the promise of gore turns out to be entirely tepid, as it's still somewhat taboo to have child actors on screen re-enacting getting raped or cut to pieces.

The adult women in the cast seem to have appeared in nothing else except porn films so you'd think they at least would get graphically hacked up. I'm not necessarily advocating that, I'm just saying it's supposed to be a slasher.

It's got nothing. So even if you embrace bad acting & terrible photography in a slasher movie, if even the slashing is barely evident, what do you got?

That it took years to get even a lowly direct-to-video deal really is because it's unworthy of being seen. It's cheap & inept beyond belief, but worse than that, it's dull beyond belief.

The disc menu alleges there are extras, but none of them would play if they were actually present, so the eventual distribution has proven as jackshit as the film itself.

copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl