Contrato sangriento

My review was written in May 1988 after watching the film on Forum video cassette.

"Body Count", a/k/a "The 11th Commandment" is a ho-hum suspense feature, direct-to-video.

Cast is okay, but a little more effort in scripting would have been in order to qualify as either a theatrical feature or network telefilm.

Bernie White portrays hapless Robert Knight, committed to a mental institution by his greedy relatives. He escapes in order to avenge himself, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.

Chief gimmick here is that our hero has been wronged, yet is really crazy and a bona fide killer, so audience sympathies are bound to be mixed. Dick Sargent as his uncle while erstwhile ingenue Marilyn Hassett proves to be impressive as a sexy, ruthless baddie.

Paul Leder's direction and all technical contributions are functional but uninspired.

Occasionally I stumble onto a movie I really like that has been lost to time or the wrong audience and I defend it as much as possible. This is not one of those movies.

The acting is wooden, especially from the supporting cast, and while the main character is fairly convincing he can't carry this cliche thriller on his shoulders all alone.

To make matters worse, the setting ranges between post-industrial slums and plain white wall 80s minimalist decor. It's not even a pleasure to look at as a work of art, particularly so when the only copy available on MGM is washed out and faded. The quality by itself is enough to render this a free film, but it's not.

In order to seize control of the family business, Charles Knight (Dick Sargent) murders his own brother and commits his nephew, trainee priest Robert (Bernard White), to a psychiatric hospital. Undergoing electro-shock therapy on the orders of Uncle Charles, Robert has become genuinely unstable; when he manages to escape from the hospital, killing the head nurse in the process, the bona fide religious nutter goes to see the one person he still loves and could never hurt, his 9-year-old cousin Deborah (future The Young and The Restless star Lauren Woodland), taking her on a day out (but still killing a few people on the sly).

Robert returns Deborah to her home the next day and turns his attention to his wicked uncle; meanwhile, alcoholic cop Lt. Chernoff (Thomas Ryan) is not far behind, having followed Robert's trail of victims.

Bit of a weird little thriller, this one: the viewer is expected to be sympathetic to Robert's plight, and to like him for his tender treatment of little Deborah, but at the same time he is getting stabby with all kinds of people, none of whom are particularly nice, but most of which don't really deserve a blade to the gut. Robert kills the family chauffeur, a motel night manager (who turns tricks on the side), a police informant at a soup kitchen, Uncle Charles' butler, and a lawyer. In a twist, his uncle is actually stabbed by conniving Aunt Joanne (Marilyn Hassett), who sees an opportunity to get her grubby mitts on the family fortune and blame her heinous act on Robert.

The Eleventh Commandment is a fairly mediocre movie for the most part, with unexceptional performances and not much in the way of suspense or thrills, but the final act leaves things on a high, with quite a large body count and plenty of bloody stabbings and bullet squibs.

Mentally ill Robert escapes from the institution in order to spend time with his nine year-old niece, whom he sees as protecting her from his diabolical evil Uncle George (good ol' Darren #2 himself, Dick Sargent) and her equally conniving mother.

That aforementioned plot may very well have had potential if only anything even remotely interesting happened in the film, which is sadly not the case. The acting by most of the cast is simply atrocious and the character motivations are perplexing to say the least. Even the fleeting joy of finding James Avery (Future Uncle Phil to the Fresh Prince) in a minor part at the beginning of the movie isn't nearly enough to recommend this film to anyone.

My Grade: D-

This movie is ok, and it has also some gory moments. The plot is also ok, and the acting is ok. But the movie is not so ok, but you can still watch even a second time around. But believe me, the trailer of the movie is better than the movie itself!