I really enjoyed catching up with this supernatural horror slasher released back in 1988 which perfectly captures the fun aspirational vibe of the 1980's with a soundtrack full of funky music accompanying hip young people working out in a high tech health spa in Los Angeles who soon fall victim to a ghost that goes on a killing spree in an act of jealousy and revenge.
Michael runs the health spa with his deceased wife's twin brother David but there's tension between the two. David blames Michael for his sister's death. His sister, Catherine, returns from the dead and possesses the equipment and starts killing users of the health club in gory and bizarre ways. Catherine still wants Michael and is jealous of him moving on a year after she had committed suicide by setting fire to herself in a fit of depression.
The premise is a little preposterous and the acting is wooden at times but at least there's an attempt here to come up with an original scenario to differentiate from all the other slasher movies that had flooded the market during the decade. Director Michael Fischa does come up with some gory and inventive ways of killing people with fitness machines and sunbeds however while some of the gore effects work well others do not, and not everything you see on screen necessarily makes sense, so it derails itself in the final act which is a shame because this had some potential.
There's plenty of prerequisite nudity on display here, even hiring porn stars for the shower scenes, but as this is a health spa it seems justified to show this type of thing than it does in some other horror movies. From the opening tracking shot that cleverly displays the film's title to the gleefully gloopy and colourful gore Death Spa just about does enough to entertain to overcome the low budget constraints.
Michael runs the health spa with his deceased wife's twin brother David but there's tension between the two. David blames Michael for his sister's death. His sister, Catherine, returns from the dead and possesses the equipment and starts killing users of the health club in gory and bizarre ways. Catherine still wants Michael and is jealous of him moving on a year after she had committed suicide by setting fire to herself in a fit of depression.
The premise is a little preposterous and the acting is wooden at times but at least there's an attempt here to come up with an original scenario to differentiate from all the other slasher movies that had flooded the market during the decade. Director Michael Fischa does come up with some gory and inventive ways of killing people with fitness machines and sunbeds however while some of the gore effects work well others do not, and not everything you see on screen necessarily makes sense, so it derails itself in the final act which is a shame because this had some potential.
There's plenty of prerequisite nudity on display here, even hiring porn stars for the shower scenes, but as this is a health spa it seems justified to show this type of thing than it does in some other horror movies. From the opening tracking shot that cleverly displays the film's title to the gleefully gloopy and colourful gore Death Spa just about does enough to entertain to overcome the low budget constraints.