Massage Parlor Murders

It's a low budget 70s sleaze exploitation thriller that was a total blind buy for me. I was at a film store and saw the vinegar syndrome logo and bought it since I love the label and think they have some pretty good releases. When I first put the film on I was like this is such a random film to get a full 4k restoration treatment, but now that the film is over I'm kinda glad we have a company like VS that are restoring these old b-movie films that nobody has heard of (most of the time) and giving them 4k treatments. 

The film definitely isn't perfect but it has its silly moments like when the girl gets acid poured on her and she is pronounced dead but you can see the actress breathing like really heavy or the entire scene where the cop is at a weird sex party and sees a potential suspect and decides to chase the guy down across the city in nothing but a towel. Not to say the film is bad. It did have some aspects that I liked. The way they discover the killers pattern, the kills were decent, the shots of a 70s New York, and the characters were fine. You only really get to know the cops and a character named Gwen (who is probably my favorite character btw). The soundtrack at times was either very good or very interesting. Sound mixing and editing were pretty weird at times but again. low budget. I definitely can't imagine a scenario where I recommend this film as there's just a ton of nudity and it's a freaky film but I did enjoy it as a weird little 70s thriller cop investigation film. Realistically it'd probably be a 2 1/2 stars from me but I'm gonna boost it up to 3 stars just for the fun of it. Ending was really funny...

Edit: saw another review that compared some of the kills in this film to those in Giallo films and I could definitely see it

It's a low budget 70s sleaze exploitation thriller that was a total blind buy for me. I was at a film store and saw the vinegar syndrome logo and bought it since I love the label and think they have some pretty good releases. When I first put the film on I was like this is such a random film to get a full 4k restoration treatment, but now that the film is over I'm kinda glad we have a company like VS that are restoring these old b-movie films that nobody has heard of (most of the time) and giving them 4k treatments. 

The film definitely isn't perfect but it has its silly moments like when the girl gets acid poured on her and she is pronounced dead but you can see the actress breathing like really heavy or the entire scene where the cop is at a weird sex party and sees a potential suspect and decides to chase the guy down across the city in nothing but a towel. Not to say the film is bad. It did have some aspects that I liked. The way they discover the killers pattern, the kills were decent, the shots of a 70s New York, and the characters were fine. You only really get to know the cops and a character named Gwen (who is probably my favorite character btw). The soundtrack at times was either very good or very interesting. Sound mixing and editing were pretty weird at times but again. low budget. I definitely can't imagine a scenario where I recommend this film as there's just a ton of nudity and it's a freaky film but I did enjoy it as a weird little 70s thriller cop investigation film. Realistically it'd probably be a 2 1/2 stars from me but I'm gonna boost it up to 3 stars just for the fun of it. Ending was really funny...

Edit: saw another review that compared some of the kills in this film to those in Giallo films and I could definitely see it

c'comme un slasher avant-gardiste — presque Godard inspired dans le contraste entre la mise en scène voyeuriste des meurtres et les segments d’enquête du détective cliché hardboiled.

Snoozefest par boutes pour finalement se régler sur un eureka un peu weird mais je vais très certainement lui redonner une go un jour, y'a quelque chose.

c'comme un slasher avant-gardiste — presque Godard inspired dans le contraste entre la mise en scène voyeuriste des meurtres et les segments d’enquête du détective cliché hardboiled.

Snoozefest par boutes pour finalement se régler sur un eureka un peu weird mais je vais très certainement lui redonner une go un jour, y'a quelque chose.

see i’ve got to say that this film was a decent one because i wasn’t really going into to expecting a whole lot out of it because the plot itself wasn’t really giving all that much to me but it was the 70s and some of the plots in films in that time were all over the place and were kind of ridiculous but they were in a fun and campy kind of way well some were but this one just wasn’t in my opinion and this is coming from someone who really enjoys these 1970s whodunit murder mystery type of films but i mean the characters in this one weren’t really ones you got to know they were just simply there for you do see get murderer and i guess for nudity as well even the 2 main men in the film were a bit uninteresting to root for in this one also do wish there a bit more blood or some atleast creative kills lastly let’s talk about that awful ending and how i was expecting a bit more action like some fight scene with the killer instead of him just dying off that quickly also the reveal in this film was a boring one because i wanted it to be an actual interesting character and someone who would have had me shocked by the end but it was a huge let down..

see i’ve got to say that this film was a decent one because i wasn’t really going into to expecting a whole lot out of it because the plot itself wasn’t really giving all that much to me but it was the 70s and some of the plots in films in that time were all over the place and were kind of ridiculous but they were in a fun and campy kind of way well some were but this one just wasn’t in my opinion and this is coming from someone who really enjoys these 1970s whodunit murder mystery type of films but i mean the characters in this one weren’t really ones you got to know they were just simply there for you do see get murderer and i guess for nudity as well even the 2 main men in the film were a bit uninteresting to root for in this one also do wish there a bit more blood or some atleast creative kills lastly let’s talk about that awful ending and how i was expecting a bit more action like some fight scene with the killer instead of him just dying off that quickly also the reveal in this film was a boring one because i wanted it to be an actual interesting character and someone who would have had me shocked by the end but it was a huge let down..