Fantom kiler

Fantom kiler (1998)

BOMB (out of 4)

Pointless, tasteless, disgusting, amateurish and just downright pathetic horror/sex film from Poland, which caused quite a stir when it hit the underground market several years ago. A man in a mask goes around slaughtering, mutilating and sexually assaulting women who he deems whores. The sexual violence in this film is quite disturbing and even more disturbing is the fact that several people actually get off on watching this type of stuff. I've always stood up for horror films and the mainstreams attack on the violence against women but this film here crosses about every single line and creates new lines just to cross them as well. We see women getting raped by knifes, tire irons and various other objects and for what? There's no story going on here, just various images of women being tortured. The other half of the film is nothing but nudity as the women, for no reason whatsoever, take their clothes off at every chance they get. A truly pathetic film and what's worse is there are two sequels.

The embarrassment of "Fantom Kiler" runs in a straight line from the poor viewer who has wasted his (or, God forbid, her) few sheckels to see the film right back to the pitiful director/producer who hides his shame behind a pseudonym and refuses to admit his cinematic crime by denying that he's the responsible party from his nickel & dime magazine shop in merry ol' England. But, then again, he has every reason to hide his shame because the film and its sequels are talentless and insipid. The target audiences won't find anything to keep their attention for more than a few seconds and the non-target audiences will be lucky if they just fall asleep. The plot about a psycho who stalks and kills women is hardly unique and the various naughty bits that have all been stolen from far better films or stories are amateurishly performed here. This British film hidden behind Polish names and a false claim of Polish origin is an broadsided insult to all Polish people and they deserve an apology from all Britons if the producer himself doesn't have the dignity to do it. "Fantom Kiler" is not watchable. It's not even barley watchable.

I can't imagine what the other reviewers were thinking. They're knocking a movie that is so very obviously meant to be violent porn, as if they were deceived by the cover showing a knife wielding slasher about to tear up a naked surgically-enhanced bimbo. Do you always look for nudity and cutlery on the covers of movies where you expect to see high drama? If you're looking for naked Polish chicks, not just naked but spread-eagled and panting naked, then this is it. If you want a little humor and a bit of slashing thrown in, hey, this movie has it. Let's not pretend we were expecting something else, you're not fooling anyone that way.

In it's own way, this movie has flashes of genius. The scene where the athletic contest is all about a janitor attempting to pull a wooden spoon from the hindquarters of a naked woman. That's not an event you'll see on the Summer Olympics! He only has one minute, will be get that spoon out? You have to wonder.

All the girls in this movie are naked, and that's a recommendation all by itself, to me anyway. I make no bones about it, when I'm watching a movie with a lurid cover like this I'm expecting to see some naked girls, and this film delivered. Who are these guys who pick up a movie like this and get offended by naked women? Who are these guys who get offended by naked women, period? Methinks thou doth protest too much.

There is some serious wit at work here, too. The excuses for girls to strip down are so transparent, so utterly without basis, that you just have to admire it. I only wish that I, a poor pretender to such genius, could come up with such obvious and successful reasons for women to disrobe. I bow before the director who accomplishes this and makes it look easy.

Is it degrading to women? Only if you want it to be. The women in this movie are so definitely having a good time, and so obviously enjoying their power to make men slobber and act like fools, that a good argument could be made that it's degrading to men. Don't bother arguing with me, though, because I like a little degradation. I'm proud to slobber foolishly at the altar of female beauty.

Jess Franco made pretty much the same movie, many times, and he is acknowledged to be a great film maker. I submit that Trevor Barley/Roman Nowicki is just as good, if not better. Fantom Kiler is certainly more coherent and better filmed than many of Franco's movies, if lacking the abundant charms of Lina Romay.

So if you're looking for a slasher flick with explicit nudity and some humorous situations, grab onto this, you won't be sorry.

Might as well stop watching this movie after its first few minutes, they already spoil everything in there during its intro.

But seriously, I'm still really not sure what to think off this movie. This movie doesn't really fit into one particular genre but in this case that really isn't a good thing. It makes this movie a real mess, that is like a crossover between an Italian giallo, fantasy and soft-core porn. I'm definitely sure I would had liked this movie a whole lot better if it had picked one clear approach.

I guess in essence this movie above all remains soft-core porn because of all of its explicit nudity but even a soft-core production needs sex sequences in it, which this movie strangely enough doesn't have at all. I say strangely enough since it's a trashy European production, that has all of the right settings and female models in it, for it.

And as an horror/mystery or giallo, you just simply can't take this movie seriously enough. It's low budget and it features no real story or mystery in it. It still does feature some gore and other explicit sequences but strangely enough the movie doesn't shock at all with any of it.

What's also really a problem with the movie is that is starts to drag far too early on already. The movie is constantly repeating itself (just like its awful music) but what's even far more annoying are its actual killing sequences. They just go on and on forever with its build-up to it and even when someone gets finally stabbed it still manages to go on and on for the sequence to finally end.

I honestly really loved this movie its visual style and approach, which was also foremost the reason why I still kept on watching but I just feel that this was something that would had worked out way better for an 30 minutes short and not for an 90 minutes full length movie like this one.

Really a disappointment, considering all of its potential.

4/10

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Good old Trevor Barley (hiding behind an alias, Roman Nowicki). Clearly spotting a gap in the market, he made this, an erotic horror about a serial killer murdering young women. Even though it was all made in the UK, fearing the authorities, Barley set it in Poland and hired Polish/Russian actresses who speak in their native tongue in the film, thus it's dubbed and looks like it comes from Poland. Clever!

Anyway, the film itself is pretty unremarkable and technically inept - the killings are mysogny to a whole new level with buxom babes being stripped completely before being killed in cruel and unusual ways (one is raped by a knife!).

How anyone can compare this to the works of Fulci or other great Italian directors is beyond me - this is a very cheap and nasty film that is only passable as entertainment and just not that shocking. The ideas certainly are, by the way its made dilutes it so much that you end just watching the screen for the sake of it.

Best to borrow a friend's copy first and see what you think - you may enjoy it, but you may not. I for one, didn't really; it was viewable but could have been so much more with a little more time, effort and money.