ANOTHER SON OF SAM

Rescued from oblivion by Austin based AGFA (American Genre Film Archive, and now you know whom to thank or blame), ANOTHER SON OF SAM (1977) is one of those craptastic pieces of exploitation cinema that has to be seen to be believed. 

Shot with all of the visual style and panache of the worst driver's ed film (were there any good driver's ed films?) you sat through in junior high, ANOTHER SON OF SAM looks like it was made by someone who, quite possibly, had never actually seen a real movie before lensing this masterpiece. 

That someone is one Dave A. Adams, a jack-of-all-trades who served as the director, writer, producer, film editor, stunt coordinator and casting director for the film. I think it's a safe bet to assume that good ol' Dave also made the bologna sandwiches that he fed to his hopelessly inept cast and crew. 

The cast, by the way, looks like it was composed of either both the in-front-of and behind-the- camera talent from a local television news department or actors from a third rate community theater. 

The film opens with a series of slides documenting famous serial killers throughout history. By the way, Jack the Ripper only killed five women, not the 15 stated on screen. And since notorious serial killer, David Berkowitz, the so-called "Son of Sam" killer had recently finished his legendary killing spree in New York City, it of course makes perfect sense to entitle the film ANOTHER SON OF SAM, even though the film has nothing whatsoever to do with Berkowitz.  

In an interminable 77 minutes of running time,  one-time-only auteur Adams delivers the story of Harvey, a disturbed young man who was, believe it or not, raped by his mother when he was young. Harvey, a patient in a mental hospital, kills two aides and gravely injures his consulting psychiatrist and then escapes to a nearby college campus, where he kills more people before finally hiding out in an empty girls' dormitory.

Although a title card at the beginning of the film states that it's early summer when the action takes place, when Harvey takes up residence in the dorm, it's empty because it's spring break. Come to think of it, KILLER IN A GIRLS' DORMITORY would have made a better title than ANOTHER SON OF SAM. After all, there was the 1961 classic WEREWOLF IN A GIRLS' DORMITORY and who can forget my all-time favorite children's book, CURIOUS GEORGE IN THE NURSES' DORMITORY?

  I digress.

The local cops aren't up to the task of confronting Harvey with their meager resources so they call in a SWAT team from the nearby big city. Remember folks, SWAT stands for "Special Weapons And Tactics" but this group of Keystone Cops are more like "Special Needs Weapons and Tactics". Other than nifty ball caps, bulletproof vests and assault rifles, these dolts have absolutely no clue or plan for how to get rid of Harvey.

Oh, and remember how it was clearly stated earlier that the dormitory was empty? Turns out it's not. Two girls from earlier in the film are somehow, inexplicably still in their dorm room after the building was supposed to have been cleared by the police. 

Finally, the cops decide to send Harvey's mother (!) (whom he hasn't seen in years), into the dorm to see if she can convince her crazy son to surrender. The two square off, there's a sudden jump cut/splice and somebody (we're never shown if it's his mother or the police), fires six shots into Harvey, bringing his rampage to an end. 

But wait, there's more. Director Adams shoots multiple scenes with an extremely shaky hand held camera to represent Harvey's point of view. Harvey himself is only seen in extreme close ups spotlighting his manic eyes and his totally out of control hairy eyebrows. I suspect those closeups may be of Adams himself. Scenes end abruptly with a freeze frame of the action while the post dubbed dialogue continues. One cop gets gunned down at point blank range yet we see no blood or bullet effects, However, when Harvey is hot, he's an absolute bloody mess. 

There's also a pointless scene early in the film featuring a horrible lounge singer (complete with shirt open to his navel) singing a song in a local nightclub (the club is acknowledged during the opening credits). The college girls, however, are cute and remind me very much of girls I knew when I was in college, which just happened to be in 1977, the year this monstrosity was made. 

So bad it wasn't released, it escaped, ANOTHER SON OF SAM is recommended to all connoisseurs of truly terrible cinema. Everyone else should avoid this one like the plague.