Very creepy and atmospheric. Also very misunderstood.

rubellan

***SPOILERS***   ***SPOILERS*** First off, let me state why I believe this wonderfully creepy movie is highly misunderstood. Most reviewers often state this movie as being overtly religious and homophopic, due to some blatant stereotypes being a couple victims. My impression is that the movie portrays how hypocritical religion is. It gives the impression, murder is a sin... unless religiously justified. I think if people could view it as I believe it was meant to be then perhaps there would be more fans. Now my history with this movie. I saw this movie as a second feature in 1979-80 with the awful mutant bear movie "Prophecy". Being that I was only 9 years old, this movie had an amazing lasting impression with me and my sisters. We always remembered it, and tried to find it on video, to no avail, when getting our first VCR in 1986. Having always wanted to see it again, to see if it was as effective on me years later, I continued trying to find it. In 1997, when I connected to the internet, I did a search for the film and found that it had been renamed "Class reunion massacre" for one of it's home video releases. I went out the next day and found it in a place I had looked for it under "The redeemer" years ago. Immediately after starting the film I was very excited with the fact that I have finally found the movie after 17 years of wanting to see it again. The movie began with eerie music with the remembered shot of the boy sticking his hand up through the lake and coming on shore. Then came the creepy bus out of nowhere to pick the boy up. The basics of the movie is that a number of students from a school are invited to a fake 10 year class reunion to be offed for their sins. Nonsense like vanity, selfishness, homosexuality, gluttony, etc... The killer changes costumes and characters to do each of the people in. Most are very creepy, which have stayed with me all these years. Examples: he wears a huge plastic smiley mask and burns 1 of the people with a flame thrower, he dresses like a clown and drowns one woman, he disguises himself as a camper/hunter and shoots another, and the one that was most memorable to me was the killer being on a stage doing some scene from a play with a life size marionette with a sword. He lures 1 man closer when the marionette cuts a rope and a knife plummets in the mans head. I remembered the mans body shaking in spasms as very haunting and effective. The movie definately leaves some questions unanswered. What is the signifigance of the second thumb that moves between 2 characters? Who exactly was the boy from the lake? Etc? The movie is very atmospheric, giving a sense that a strong evil force is aiding the killer to finish his designated task. The music is very haunting and the main character "The Redeemer" makes quite an impression. I was surprised at how much, and how clearly, I remembered this movie being such a young age and having only seen it once, but after rediscovering it 4 years ago I am pleased to say it is one of my top three favorite films, along with the 1976 film "The Haunting of Julia", and the 1982 film "The Sender". I absolutely love it. It was so nice not to be disappointed after all these years. Sadly, after sharing the movie with one of my sisters that saw it back in the day as well, she was very unimpressed. Her loss. It is rumored that a future DVD special edition is to be released within the coming months. Amazing, considering this is not a mass appealing film, or even that much of a cult film. I can't wait!

score 10/10

rubellan 3 June 2001

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0504092/