"Killer's Delight" opens with the familiar statement that the story you're about to watch is based on true events. You don't need to be Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes to figure out the events in question refer to the bloody killing spree of notorious US serial-killer Ted Bundy, mixed with a little bit of Ed "the Co-Ed Killer" Kemper. Like usual, many important details are changed out of respect for the real victims. The modus operandi of picking up hitchhikers and almost exclusively targeting young attractive girls is kept in place, but the locations and names are different. Remarkable here, though, is how the makers also replaced Bundy's iconic beige Volkswagen Beetle with an old yellow Ford Van.
I have a passion for horror/thriller movies based on true crimes, and appreciated "Killer's Delight" quite a lot, but it's obviously a cheap, amateurish, and largely improvised B-movie. There also isn't much of a plot. Crazed killer, with mommy issues, picks up young girls and brutally murders them. Obsessive police detective tracks his down, but he's always too late to prevent another tragic murder.
Just because "Killer's Delight" is so low budget, the film nevertheless comes across as a raw and often shocking thriller. The opening scene immediately sets the right tone, as a ramshackle old Ford van parks at the edge of cliff, and the driver nihilistically throws the naked body of his last victim into the deep. Don't know about you, but I've seen opening sequences that are far less attention-grabbing. There are more shocking moments throughout the film, including the death-struggle of the poor girl who works at the pool and the unexpectedly downbeat finale. Lead actor (and John Saxon lookalike) James Luisi does a decent job as the hardened cop, and receives good support as well, notably from Martin Speer, Susan Sullivan, John Karlen, and many incredibly pretty girls in tiny bikinis. It may not be a great movie, but "Killer's Delight" accurately captures the gritty, shameless, nasty flavors of 70s exploitation cinema, and that's why it comes recommended to my fellow fanatics of this era.
