Mardi Gras Massacre (1978)

Mardi Gras Massacre concerns a lunatic who worships Quetzelcoatl as an evil deity and sacrifices women he considers evil to his god. Naturally he preys on prostitutes. Meanwhile, two detectives investigate, one of whom falls in love with one of the witnesses, also a prostitute. Not surprisingly, there's a Perils of Pauline-type climax.

The film's style is pretty rough and obviously constructed as quick drive-in fare. However, there are loads of beautiful, naked girls who do some nice dances. One lovely, young blond in particular does a graceful, seductive dance at the very center of the film. There is also the gore to recommend. For '78, it's quite well done, using latex casts of the ladies' torsos. The killer uses a sacrificial knife to cut open the torsos and pull out the heart. It's shocking at first, but gets repetitive. I imagine when Mardi Gras Massacre was first put in the drive-ins, it drew some good crowds. It is gruesome and salacious enough to please.

The unlikely romance that blossoms between the prostitute and the detective is actually kind of charming and yields up a good ol' fashion montage! The police procedural is the other level of the plot and this tends to move along much more slowly, as there are really no leads until the end of the film; the chief of police accuses his detectives of being lazy and he's right, because they're useless most of the film. At least, up until their searching-for-the-killer MONTAGE! Yeah! Director Jack Weis is montage-crazy.

If you like drive-in pictures, you'll probably like Mardi Gras Massacre. It's not great, but it's a decent, if slowly-paced and monotonous splatter/crime film.

Bonus points:
Gratuitous catfight
Random police brutality
A pimp named 'Catfish' who looks like Crispin Glover in his Letterman-attacking days