The Las Vegas Serial Killer (1986)

Trivia: Who is Ray Dennis Steckler's favourite filmmaker? If you guessed Michelangelo Antonioni, then you'd be correct. And it shows.

There's scarcely a plot to The Las Vegas Serial Killer. The strangler from Hollywood Strangler is now killing in Las Vegas. At the same time two muggers are on a rampage. Occasionally their paths cross without incident or even noticing each other, until the end. The film consists of these two unrelated parties doing their things--strangling and mugging--intercut with loads of documentary footage he shot of Las Vegas circa 1986.

LVSK is the last real film of Steckler's career. All he made after was a segment of War Cats with Ted V. Mikels. He also made a silent movie (a home video, really) of his granddaughters called Summer Fun as well as a short, unreleased extension to Incredibly Strange Creatures called One More Time that isn't even listed on imdb. So LVSK is the last official feature. And fittingly, it is the culmination of Steckler's cinematic style and ideas. His apotheosis. It is the most steckleresque of all Steckler films. It's Steckler concentrated to his essence in one supreme drop of Stecklerjuice.

Just like Blood Shack, it has videography of local events entirely unrelated to the plot. Only it has a lot more of them.
For one, our old friend from Blood Shack returns. Yes, it's the Helldorado Rodeo!
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And we get to see the Helldorado parade, too.
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Amateur videography at its finest. But wasn't there a serial killer on the loose? And some muggers?

Well, Steckler's not totally mad. He does at least put his mugger characters at the parade. And at the rodeo. And at the airplane show. That's rigth, there's also an airplane show.
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Most of the girls on the planes are nude and the muggers make obscene but not very witty comments about the cartoon females.
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About this plane, they say, "I bet that plane flies sideways!" What does that even mean? If that's a racial slur, it's quite over my head.

The muggers, in fact, spend the whole movie making comments about every woman they see. A great deal of the random footage Steckler takes of people walking around Las Vegas is made 'relevant' by the muggers' commenting on the women in the shot.
Like these: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2750/4080196558_2240349027.jpg
These legs are NOT Mugger Approved.
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Even when running from a good mugging, there's still time to hit on fat chicks.

In fact, the film is almost entirely made up of these Las Vegas events and videography to the point that I was sometimes surprised when the plot would suddenly start up again, with results like the following.
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Nothing ruins a good murder quite like Papa Smurf,
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And the serial killer steps into one of Steckler's porn films, apparently,

Like in The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher, it has the feel of being a sort of urban documentary capturing the city at the time, in this case Las Vegas in 1987. The serial killer plot is just sort of occurring within the documentary, almost disturbing its still waters.

For instance, what here appears to be a series of establishing shots actually establishes nothing.
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Copperfield was doing Caesar's Palace at the time of shooting. Interesting. Irrelevant, but interesting.

Also like Hollywood Strangler, LVSK is shot without sound. There are some voiceovers added later, not really synced up with anything. It's a silent film. But where Hollywood Strangler tried, at least, to have the voiceovers be very specific to what the characters were saying, Steckler loses that restraint with LVSK, making scenes of parties and parades cacaphonies of idle chatter emanating from no particular speakers. Combined with the random videography of the city, this odd use of sound makes LVSK seem like an Arthur Lipsett film with a serial killer plot thrown in as an afterthought. (Lipsett, if you're not aware, was literally insane and also worked for the Canadian Film Board. He made movies by assembling footage he shot around Ottawa of random people and places, found footage, and found radio broadcasts with no relationship to the images. He was quite popular in the '70s and even won an Oscar.) Anyway, the voiceovers in LVSK are usually a bunch of women and men saying inane things, snippets of conversation you'd hear on the street. Occasionally we hear a very robotic-sounding radio announcer, listed in the credits as Matthias Merlin, randomly reading out radio reports regarding the murders and other reports about Cash Flagg. There are no radios in site throughout the film, incidentally.

(Steckler's shameless self-promotion:
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A rather lengthy pool-party sequence occurring in Steckler's backyard is said by the radio announcer to occur at Cash Flagg's house. True enough.)

Joe Bob Briggs tends to joke that Steckler had become an experimental filmmaker with Hollywood Strangler, but with Las Vegas Serial Killer he really has. This is probably the weirdest horror film I've ever seen, and I've seen some weird stuff. There is just nothing else like this. I was mesmerized watching this film. It's not a good horror film at all. That's not how one should view this film, or one will be disappointed. This film is just so odd and abstract, watching it is a Zen experience: so little is happening, you just find yourself scanning the images, letting your mind wander, fantasizing, thinking about how you're going to write a review on such a film or whatnot. Steckler's philosophy was to shoot 'real time' instead of 'reel time' and I supposed he succeeded.

The one thing this film lacks to be the fulfillment of everything Steckler is Carolyn Brandt. She had apparently given up on Ray by this point. Brandt was a real foxy lady! The quality of women Steckler finds for this film just isn't quite up to Brandt standards:

Here are some beautiful women he found:
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A photoshoot scene with her takes up a good five minutes. And oddly enough it is the only sequence shot with sound.
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The credits tell me this is Miss World Burlesque. There's a lengthy dancing scene with her and she is exquisite. Her breasts looked fake, but her hair is lovely. And it takes some damn fine hair to outdo breasts, however fake.

Here are some not-beautiful women he found. Enjoy the '80s hair and fashion:
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Given the sheer level of detachment from plot Las Vegas Serial Killer, the lesson I learned from Blood Shack is more than needed for this film. To enjoy a Steckler film, you just have to enjoy what you're looking at, whatever is on screen, in any way you can. He's just filming stuff and you have to do the work of making it amusing. Lucky for me, I'm pretty good at that. I liked the airplane show, the parade, and, of course, the Helldorado Rodeo! I find them of anthropological interesting; these are cultural events I probably will never participate in, never get to see. Even if I could see them, I would be seeing them post 2010, not in 1986.

It's very difficult to rate this movie one way or the other. It is pretty shamelessly experimental. And the serendipity angle Steckler was going for, with his muggers and serial killer, really works pretty well. But there's really almost nothing happening most of the film. It can't be approached with a traditional viewing mode. I can say this, LVSK is pretty much the supreme Steckler film. That could be praise, or it could be the opposite of praise. Make what you will of that.

The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher (1979) - Steckler

As I expressed in previous reviews of his films, the way to enjoy a Ray Dennis Steckler film is not in the traditional mode. Not only does he dislike sound, but as Jean Epstein before him he dislikes narrative--to the point that he refuses to write scripts. He's a cinematographer who likes to film and loosely structures whatever footage he ends up with around some characters. There's a vague plot, but one gets the sense he's not committed to it. So what one must do is scan the images, get one's own enjoyment out of what footage he came up with: it's surprising what you can find.

The title of The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher pretty much tells you the plot. Two serial killers are on the loose in Hollywood. By chance they meet and one falls in love with the other. In the stunning finale they consummate their special relationship as only serial killers can. We follow the lives of both as they prey upon the vulnerable of society: prostitutes and elderly homeless drunks. This does, as you might expect, give the film a mean-spirited edge.

The Strangler is really the protagonist, the anti-hero, because it's him we're with most of the runtime and it's his interior monologue that's running over half of the film. We never get inside the Slasher's head. She has a cold, expressionless face throughout the film--it only breaks into a wry grin once--and this is actually very creepy and unsettling, especially as she eyes the old drunks who stumble into her bookstore.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2428/4088847860_3bf96217a8.jpg - Her expressionless face is contrasted with the watchful glee of Oliver Hardy.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2706/4088087605_697b6cc524.jpg - Ew! A bum!

The action is very repetitive. The Strangler kills a prostitute and pets his pigeons. The Slasher kills a hobo, goes for a run, then opens her shop. This repeats three or four times until the end. That could never get old, could it?

The most stunning thing about the film, for me, was the discovery that it's a silent film! Steckler even includes references to silent films throughout:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/4088087929_5a5658926f.jpg - A book on the great silent actor, Valentino, beside a KISS album. Not sure what the significance of the album is.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2677/4088089159_8e64028a1e.jpg - A poster for the Raoul Walsh silent film, The Thief of Bagdad.

The distributors insisted Steckler add some sort of sound, so he added some voices later. I couldn't quite call it dubbing. Whenever a prostitute, or 'photographer's model', is stripping for the Strangler's camera, there are some awkward, detached sounds of her saying generally come-hither things to him, as well as the few things he tells her and his internal monologue consisting primarily of "Garbage must die!" "She's a dirty slut!", "Come ooon! What are you waiting for? Kill her!", "She's just like the others," and "Just like Marcia." One interpretation for the detached voices of the women is that what they're saying is all in the Strangler's head, which is an interpretation I quite like. Joe Bob Briggs offers another interpretation: that the Strangler is so detached from reality, the voices of the women is just a background buzz. Either way, it has a creepy quality.

This film is a lot more focused than the other Steckler films I reviewed, which isn't saying that much. We don't get relaxing footage of rodeos or airplane shows here. But there is still plenty of 'relaxing' footage to go around. It's just focused on the characters: in between kills, both of the killers allow themselves 'down time'.
The Strangler takes his 'down time' spending an inordinate amount of screentime with his pigeons and dogs:
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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2759/4088847626_0dba2b8b6d.jpg - Pigeons are faithful, unlike Marcia. Also unlike Marcia, they defecate everywhere, lay eggs and don't press charges for keeping them in a cage.
And going to a weird place called Plato's Retreat West, where we have to watch these people rollerskate around for five minutes:
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The Slasher spends her down time running
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and walking
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and running
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and walking and shopping
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2651/4088846722_c2e1c6a62e.jpg - Don't feed the panda.
and engaging in extreme bondage!
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As I discovered while watching Blood Shack, Steckler's films love to take their time, linger on negative space, people walking, rodeos, and all sorts of things that have nothing to do with the plot or action. Like this: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2577/4088089473_118cd253cc.jpg - We watch her walk from one end to the other; Antonioni, eat your heart out.
This can be quite boring, which is made worse by the lack of dialogue. So you have to make the most of what's on screen and get your own fun out of it. In this case, Steckler has shot loads of documentary footage of 1979 Hollywood, which is pretty fascinating--especially since he was in a pretty seedy part of town, where every second store is a porn shop!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2514/4088089389_33b17d5949.jpg - That theater is playing three of the greatest adult films ever made, and all in one day.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4088089105_b3a124db95.jpg - Is the great enterprise 'Junk for Joy' still in business, I wonder?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2624/4088846900_8e1dff4054.jpg - What's in the bag?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2526/4088847022_2b0c9149d6.jpg -
Did this shorts-wearing frump get the ice she needed?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2800/4088847080_dc15fe144b.jpg - Did this black man ever get his porn?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2611/4088846688_4f4e5245fd.jpg - Did this fellow ever get out of those tight jeans?
I find it very amusing that Steckler was shooting these people and putting them in a movie without their knowing it.

And I found myself noticing all the kiddie stuff around the film:
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That's pretty odd.

And as I found out with Blood Shack, Steckler can frame a great shot. Here are some of my favourite compositions:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2737/4088847318_d5ac6e14e3.jpg - Steckler says on the commentary that it's the Vegas Vampire's coffin in this shot.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2554/4088088001_b18254f5f8.jpg - He only had three lights to shoot this at night. Pretty good, huh?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4088088643_7352a99ef1.jpg - Carolyn Brandt had some fine legs, even at 40.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2750/4088088185_5b9ce4ce0c.jpg - A girl is being murdered in the background; in the foreground, an amusing commentary.

There are also some pretty girls:
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And the requisite references to Steckler himself:
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While the focus of the film on some sort of plot allows a surprisingly clever progression. When the Strangler falls for the Slasher, she's looking washed-out and past her prime. As the film goes on and she kills more, she becomes more attractive: she wears sexier clothes, better cosmetics, and puts her hair put up. This is the direct cause of the final conflict between Strangler and Slasher.

However, I ultimately found the focused quality of Hollywood Strangler did more harm than good. I preferred Blood Shack and The Las Vegas Serial Killer for allowing me more space to create my own film from the images. Blood Shack has the genre-appropriating free-spirited fun of Steckler's '60s films and Las Vegas Serial Killer is so strangely avant-garde, I find myself amused by the former and mesmerized by the latter. Hollywood Strangler is more straight-forward and just beginning the experimental touches found in LVSK. Or maybe I just like rodeos, which both films have. So to reiterate, The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher is not a good film by classical viewing conventions. But I've come to love Steckler's films, including this one, for allowing me space to think and have my own fun within them. Everyone has their own unique adventure with a Steckler film.