Classic Horrors Club

Prior to his untimely death in a helicopter crash at the age of 30, writer-producer-director-composer William Girdler had a promising film trajectory. Four years after his inauspicious beginnings with two drive-in quickies in 1972 (Asylum of Satan, Three on a Meathook), he made the most successful independent feature of 1976, Grizzly. Sprinkled among his nine films were some that have become cult favorites: Abby (1974), Sheba, Baby (1975), and Day of the Animals (1977.) You have to think his final film, The Manitou (1978) may have somehow been a little better had he lived past the point of its filming completion, if by his potential alone. 

I don’t consider one of his early efforts, Three on a Meathook, to be a “good” movie. However, it’s effective in ways I didn’t anticipate. First, its rural setting outside of Louisville, Kentucky, feels authentic. It has a bit of a Texas Chainsaw vibe. Then, when our “hero,” Billy Townsend (James Carroll Pickett) wanders the “city” streets, it’s as 70s-sleazy as can be. He’s despondent because, earlier, he may have killed four young women that he recused from beside the road when their car broke down. He has no memory of it, but has been raised by his father, Pa Townsend (Charles Kissinger) to believe he also murdered his mother.

You can tell where it’s all headed, but perhaps only because we now have 52 years of watching horror films behind us. At the time, who knows? It’s not exactly like Psycho, but ends the same, with a mostly unnecessary conclusion during which the psychology of the proceedings are over-explained. While the primary twist may not be a surprise, there’s a second one that I didn’t expect. Lack of originality was one of Girdler’s early defining characteristics; Abby was a take on The Exorcist and Grizzly was a take on Jaws. (I don’t call them “rip-offs” because they’re entertaining by their own rights.)

By about the third time Billy mentions his father’s special smoked meats, we’re pretty sure they’re serving the four young women to their dinner guest, Sherry (Sherry Steiner), the bar waitress who’s taken a liking to Billy. And when she later brings her friend, Becky (Madelyn Buzzard) out to the farm on a Sunday afternoon, we’re pretty sure it’s an alternative to grocery shopping. This is when the slow pace of the film, even with the original four murders, picks up and hurtles toward the end. Inexplicably, I gained empathy for the characters, and regardless of your thoughts, you have to admit the movie has a great title.