{"id":5922,"date":"2024-10-14T23:44:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T03:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=5922"},"modified":"2024-10-14T23:44:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T03:44:56","slug":"destroyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/14\/destroyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Destroyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Destroyer<\/strong> (1988)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TMS Pictures\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence, full frontal nudity, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Kirk\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Peter Garrity, Rex Hauck and Mark W. Rosenbaum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Patrick O\u2019Hearn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Chuy Elizondo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 1988 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Deborah Foreman, Clayton Rohner, Lyle Alzado, Anthony Perkins, Tobias Andersen, Lannie Garrett, Jim Turner, Pat Mahoney, David Kristin, Vanessa Townsell.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: \u00bd*<\/p>\n

\u00a0So you thought The Horror Show and Shocker were the only \u201cexecuted killer returns from dead\u201d horror movies of 1989? Well, they were. BUT what many fail to acknowledge is that they were both preceded by Destroyer<\/strong> the year before. Some may say that the 1988 shocker (pun TOTALLY intended!) is simply forgotten; I say it goes unmentioned because it\u2019s just plain rotten. It could have been a really cool flick especially with hulking NFL star Lyle Alzado as the killer, but it\u2019s the opposite. It\u2019s bad for a lot of reasons which I\u2019ll go into in a bit, but its main failing is that it doesn\u2019t make a lick of sense. Let me put it this way. It makes The Horror Show look like a Hammer classic. That, by the way, means it\u2019s truly heinous.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Alzado stars as Ivan Moser, a serial killer about to die in the electric chair for the rape, torture and murder of 23 men, women and children. It\u2019s not exactly clear how or why, but Moser survives and escapes in the midst of a riot that causes the prison to be shut down for good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Eighteen months later, a film crew shows up to film a trashy WIP flick called Death House Dolls. The writer David Harris (Rohner, Just One of the Guys) goes public with his findings on the cause of the riot that claimed the lives of 13 guards and 37 inmates. He blames it on corruption on the part of the warden (Mahoney, Strangeland). David\u2019s girlfriend Susan Malone (Foreman, Valley Girl) is the stunt double for the movie\u2019s difficult star Sharon Fox (Garrett, Kiss and Be Killed) who constantly tries the patience of the director played by Anthony Perkins (Psycho I-IV) who replaced Roddy McDowall at the last minute. The cast and crew don\u2019t realize it until it\u2019s too late, but they\u2019re not alone in the old prison. Good old Ivan is still lurking about, half dead and totally crazed, upping his body count.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although I first saw Destroyer<\/strong> on cable TV, I vividly remember the poster hanging in my usual video store haunts. It featured Alzado wielding a jackhammer which I naturally assumed would be his character\u2019s weapon of choice throughout the movie. FACT, he only kills one victim that way. It\u2019s the only time Destroyer<\/strong> caught my interest. At best, it\u2019s a brain dead slog through familiar territory. Look, I don\u2019t mind a familiar scenario as long as the writer does something interesting with it. This one has THREE writers and it\u2019s still boring. If this is the best they could come up with between them, they really ought to think about a career in anything other than writing. The screenplay is incredibly half-assed with plot holes big enough for an entire football team to charge through. For example, how does Ivan survive a 3000-volt shock? Is it supernatural, genetic or what? Also, it doesn\u2019t seem to faze anybody that a violent serial killer is still unaccounted for nearly two years later. There\u2019s no mention of a manhunt occurring at any time. The locals appear more concerned with the big spooky old prison building than a very large man capable of tearing people limb from limb. And what about the lockdown that occurs about midway through? This aspect of the story is either dropped or forgotten because the cast and crew have no problem leaving to go to lunch a few scenes later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m especially disappointed they didn\u2019t do something more with Alzado\u2019s character. Look at the guy, he\u2019s a brute! He could literally tear his victims limb from limb if he wanted to. The writers really short-change Alzado by not giving him much to work with. Ivan is obsessed with a game show hostess for a reason revealed later. Like everything else, it\u2019s not developed beyond the level of random plot point. It doesn\u2019t further the plot any. In addition to all else, the script is lazy. It gives us character types rather than characters and pointless scenes of the making of the movie-within-a-movie. The pacing is deadly; I almost dozed off a few times.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The best thing I can say about the acting is that Alzado at least tries with his twisted facial expressions and maniacal laughter. Had Ivan Moser been better developed, maybe there\u2019d be franchise potential. Who knows? Foreman and Rohner, who also worked together on the 1986 slasher flick April Fool\u2019s Day, are positively wasted. Foreman, so delightful in Valley Girl, seems to know the material is substandard and responds with a blank page performance. Rohner puts a little more into his role to no avail. There\u2019s precious little an actor can do when the script fails them. Perkins just looks like he\u2019s there to collect a paycheck.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are a few okay kill scenes in Destroyer<\/strong>. The warden gets fried in a bathroom stall with a flamethrower. Don\u2019t ask why there\u2019s a flamethrower in a prison. Maybe it was a means of controlling a riot, I really don\u2019t know. There\u2019s a shot of a bloody decapitated head on a copying machine. Somebody gets electrocuted. I already mentioned the death by jackhammer. At the very least, director Robert Kirk (his sole feature film effort) could\u2019ve made Destroyer<\/strong> a total bloodbath. That would have been something. Instead, it\u2019s a great big nothing that underserves its great big star.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Destroyer (1988)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TMS Pictures\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic violence, full frontal nudity, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Kirk\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Peter Garrity, Rex Hauck and Mark W. Rosenbaum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Patrick O\u2019Hearn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Chuy Elizondo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 1988 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Deborah Foreman, Clayton Rohner, Lyle Alzado, Anthony Perkins, Tobias Andersen, Lannie Garrett, Jim Turner, Pat Mahoney, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Destroyer-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6145,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5922\/revisions\/6145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}