366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.

DIRECTED BY: Carlton J. Albright

FEATURING: Edward Terry, Joan Roth, Stacy Haiduk

PLOT: Imprisoned as a juvenile for a murder spree, Luther is released on parole and terrorizes a family in a remote Illinois farmhouse.

COMMENTS: What is the goal of imprisonment? Some argue deterrence. Others rehabilitation. A few would make the case for vengeance. Or perhaps it’s some combination of these. Carlton J. Albright and his team put these socio-philosophical concerns aside in their chronicle of Luther the Geek: a madman who began as a mad lad, murdering three people after a formative encounter with a circus performer who ripped open the necks of chickens for the amusement of the crowds (and to earn his much-needed liquor).

Amongst that crowd, Young Luther is thrown to the floor in a scuffle—smashing out his front teeth in the process. Fast-forward twenty years (all of them in prison), and his parole is reviewed by five prison officials, among them a “bleeding-heart” female who notes Luther’s commendable behavior prison, his lack of speech notwithstanding. Luther, you see, merely clucks. By a vote of three-to-two, he’s set loose, and the inevitable ensues.

Albright lucked out finding a performer like Edward Terry, since to whatever degree it may be argued that Luther the Geek works, it could not work without Terry’s all-in performance. His Luther is not fit for society, and quickly murders again. An hour or so of this eighty-minute movie takes place in an out of the way farm, during which—through a series of commendably paced, shot, and edited chase, scuffle & violence set-pieces—various victims are bloodily dispatched by the titular geek.

Why are we here, though? The pay-offs will interest slasher fans. Titillation seekers get their thrills from the buxom daughter. The rest of us may find Luther the Geek an oddity (if not a weird-ity) worth checking out. Through much of the dialogue-free performance from Terry, I was reminded of 183’s Angst. Luther the Geek sort of plays out like that German film’s American hick cousin. Indeed, one weakness I found in Angst is not present in Luther: there is no inner monologue. We have no real idea why this nut is doing what he’s doing; and Luther is all the more terrible and, perhaps, sympathetic for this lack of elucidation. As a violence picture that goes for the throat, there’s a strange undercurrent of pathos—and a remarkable finale that doesn’t chicken out.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“What happens when a horror film refuses to dampen its premise with humor, even when the premise itself borders on the absurd? LUTHER THE GEEK answers that question by committing, sometimes uncomfortably, to a nightmare that never pauses to reassure the audience it’s in on the joke. This is not a standard slasher, nor a self-aware cult oddity; it’s a blunt, regional exploitation film that believes in its monster completely, for better and for worse.” — Chris Jones, Overly Honest Reviews

Luther The Geek (Tromatic Special Edition)

• A young country boy is plunged into the depths of homicidal madness after witnessing the strange exploits of a carnival “geek.”

List Price : 19.95 $

Offer: 13.97 $

Go to Amazon