DVD Review
"College Girl Murders"
By Marcus Pan
Another revival of an old 60's release, Dark Sky has put out "College Girl Murders" on DVD this year (2005). Written by Edgar Wallace of 1933's original "King Kong", "College Girl Murders" brings out the 60s in its full groovy form. All the funkadelic hijinxs of the time are whipped up in a smattering of death, gas and mad scientists with a soundtrack that would make Austin Powers shimmy away.
Dr. Kaplan, scientist of the strange, formulates an odorless deadly gas poison. His intentions of wealth are met with a whip of death at a dark night rendezvous. As the movie moves along we're treated to an elaborate jailbreak, mysterious men and a Catholic all girls' college riddled with secret passages, pervy teachers and lots of strangeness being investigated by an over-zealous police chief trying to rely solely on his recent psychological training.
The bumbling Sir John rambles from mistake to mistake with his new age psycho-babble while Inspector Higgins does his best to keep his hands around the elusive case with the arrival of a monk in red, eccentric writer, mysterious gardner and strange after hours parties where rendezvous are scheduled and mysteries conducted. As people on campus drop like flies, including two of his most important leads, Higgins tries to piece together a strange series of ritual like college girls gone dead.
A monk swathed in red shows up to whip things about and the mad doctor's poison finds its way scattered about campus as a mysterious benefactor breaks men out of prison to do his murderous bidding. Utilizing a silly looking poison gun that shoots deadly silly strings, inspector Higgins follows the breadcrumb trail of strangeness to a reptile infested home of the man behind the crimes. The final scene includes a cheeky Scooby Doo like unmasking and the final bumblings of Inspector Clueso-like Sir John.
"College Girl" Murders has a nice mix of mystery and murder while keeping it light and humorous. One detracting caveat is the voice overs being a bit off from the on-screen speakers, but considering the 1967 dating of the movie you can forgive a little distraction what-with the fact that this movie would have disappeared if it weren't for Dark Sky. I liked it - a movie that helped build the shenanigan clichés of modern slasher spoofs without being too over the top. And the mystery of it was really quite good so the plotline, while silly sounding, really isn't bad at all.
--- Originally published in Legends #152. Minor edits since.
Another revival of an old 60's release, Dark Sky has put out "College Girl Murders" on DVD this year (2005). Written by Edgar Wallace of 1933's original "King Kong", "College Girl Murders" brings out the 60s in its full groovy form. All the funkadelic hijinxs of the time are whipped up in a smattering of death, gas and mad scientists with a soundtrack that would make Austin Powers shimmy away.
Dr. Kaplan, scientist of the strange, formulates an odorless deadly gas poison. His intentions of wealth are met with a whip of death at a dark night rendezvous. As the movie moves along we're treated to an elaborate jailbreak, mysterious men and a Catholic all girls' college riddled with secret passages, pervy teachers and lots of strangeness being investigated by an over-zealous police chief trying to rely solely on his recent psychological training.
The bumbling Sir John rambles from mistake to mistake with his new age psycho-babble while Inspector Higgins does his best to keep his hands around the elusive case with the arrival of a monk in red, eccentric writer, mysterious gardner and strange after hours parties where rendezvous are scheduled and mysteries conducted. As people on campus drop like flies, including two of his most important leads, Higgins tries to piece together a strange series of ritual like college girls gone dead.
A monk swathed in red shows up to whip things about and the mad doctor's poison finds its way scattered about campus as a mysterious benefactor breaks men out of prison to do his murderous bidding. Utilizing a silly looking poison gun that shoots deadly silly strings, inspector Higgins follows the breadcrumb trail of strangeness to a reptile infested home of the man behind the crimes. The final scene includes a cheeky Scooby Doo like unmasking and the final bumblings of Inspector Clueso-like Sir John.
"College Girl" Murders has a nice mix of mystery and murder while keeping it light and humorous. One detracting caveat is the voice overs being a bit off from the on-screen speakers, but considering the 1967 dating of the movie you can forgive a little distraction what-with the fact that this movie would have disappeared if it weren't for Dark Sky. I liked it - a movie that helped build the shenanigan clichés of modern slasher spoofs without being too over the top. And the mystery of it was really quite good so the plotline, while silly sounding, really isn't bad at all.
--- Originally published in Legends #152. Minor edits since.