Retribution (1987) — Triskaidekafiles

RETRIBUTION

WRITERS: Guy Magar & Lee Wasserman

DIRECTOR: Guy Magar

STARRING: Dennis Lipscomb as George Miller

Leslie Wing as Jennifer Curtis

Suzanne Snyder as Angel

Jeff Pomerantz as Alan Falconer

Pamela Dunlap as Sally Benson

Clare Peck as Carla Minelli

Chris Caputo as Dylan

Hoyt Axton as Lt. Ashley

Mario Roccuzzo as Johnny Blake

Danny Daniels as Rasta Doctor

Mike Muscat as Vito Minelli, Sr.

QUICK CUT: A man survives a suicide attempt, and tries to reacclimate to the world around him.

THE MORGUE

George - A struggling painter on his last straw. He’s troubled, he’s not had an easy life, and he starts the movie by trying to kill himself.

Angel - A hooker who lives in the same building as George, and has a thing for him. She’s sweet, and fun loving, and will always have time for her friends.

Dr. Curtis - George’s therapist after his suicide attempt. She’s your average psychologist, but comes to care about George’s fate, and intervenes on his behalf more than most anyone else would.

…is a dish best served en flambe, apparently.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! Not much to say this time out, just checking out a supernatural slasher that caught my eye from the mid 80s, called Retribution. So let's get into it.

It's Halloween night, outside the Don Hotel, a low income housing facility, and all kinds of cops and ambulances are rushing to the scene. It seems there is a jumper on the roof, and I'm sure our main character will show up soon to stop him!

Wait? What? The jumper IS our main character? Oh. Oh this is gonna be a short movie, huh?

Someone recently pointed out how no one is allowed to sweat in movies anymore, and I think about that a lot.

Shockingly, George actually jumps, and lemme tell ya, that is definitely one way to grab your attention right out of the gate.

He hits the ground below, and somehow manages to not be a red smear at the end of his fall. The paramedics rush over and try and save his life.

We travel down a green tunnel towards the light, and this is indeed shaping up to be a short movie, until a blue face comes straight at us, mugging for the camera.

In another shocking twist of events, they stabilise George, and he is rushed off to the hospital where the real work begins.

We spend a bit of time with George in the hospital as he recovers, and meets Dr. Curtis, his psychologist. Considering he was suicidal, it's understandable, and we spend a bit of time with George and Dr. Curtis, as she tries to assess if he can be released safely. The movie slows down a bit, but when you start your movie with a jumper, that’s fair.

George is having trouble sleeping, seeing a man being attacked, on top of everything else. Curtis asks if he remembers anything about his dreams, but before he can answer, her coffee mug mysteriously tips over without being touched.

You don’t understand! You’re WASTING! COFFEE!

Curtis decides George is in good enough shape to be let out, and he heads home. Along the way, he meets Angel, the typical hooker with a heart of gold that he'll get involved with shortly.

George has a few awkward encounters with the other tenants, what with having taken a dive off the roof and all, but he makes his way back to his apartment. We learn he's an artist, and I really hope he doesn't start eating green mush, because c'mon.

He works to get back to work, try and grasp at normalcy, and get back to what he loves, painting. As he does though, the yellow paint suddenly turns red, with no explanation.

George can't explain the change in colour, is a bit unsettled, but he does his best to ignore the strangeness, and get some sleep.

A plan which doesn't go so well, as the next we see of George, he is walking into a club and getting a drink.

While there, he meets Sally, the club's owner, and they get to chatting, which eventually leads to the pair going back to her apartment. She gets a weird feeling that she's met George before, but he's never been to the bar prior to that night.

Mustang Sally gets some drinks, and tells George to make himself comfortable, but then lights start flickering, a window explodes, and it's like we're in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2.

Every appliance’s warranty ended at the exact same moment.

George wanders in to see what all the commotion is, and his eyes are glowing green. More stuff explodes, as he flings more stuff around the already wrecked kitchen, with some sort of powers of his mind.

Sally grabs a knife to protect herself, but George uses his newfound mental abilities, to make her use it to slice open her own guts.

As he does so, he declares, "Santa Maria, mother of God, help me!" and this triggers some form of recognition in Sally. So...is that a "yes" to being familiar, then?

But can she put them back in, like Alex in Slime City?

The next day, George is all shaken up, from what he believes was all a terrible nightmare. However, as he's grabbing breakfast at a nearby diner, he sees the morning headlines, and Sally's picture next to a story about her murder.

He heads to Dr. Curtis and tells him all about the nightmare, and she assures him there must be an explanation. Unfortunately, there is, and she is not gonna like it. But, that's me getting ahead of myself.

Following his session, George hops on a bus, with no real idea where he's going, just a compulsion. Suddenly, he has a flash of recognition, and insists the bus stop. After the driver refuses, the bus takes matters into its own hands, and crashes into a fountain, spraying water everywhere.

He wanders further away, drawn to a building, where he meets Vito Jr., and his mother. He senses something with the woman, but all this is all rather unsettling to have a strange wet man show up at your door, so she slams it in his face.

That night, George gets roped into a welcome home party, while Doctor Curtis talks with her boyfriend about the case, genuinely concerned for George.

Following the party, George passes right out, and we cut to a nearby slaughterhouse. They're finishing up for the day, and Johnny the foreman stays behind to finish things up.

George shows up, and uses his newfound mind powers to taunt Johnny, and fling his body into an animal carcass. He then flings said carcass towards a saw to be sliced up, and does just that, as he again declares, "Santa Maria, mother of God, help me!", to Johnny's recognition.

We’ll never know who Johnny was, because like, he’s dead!

He snaps awake, freaking out, and Angel knows he never left the room, so things are getting curiouser and curiouser. George visits Doctor Curtis the next day, and proceeds to freak out. As one does.

Curtis decides she wants George to be readmitted because of his behaviour, and also at the very least, they'll be able to observe him.

George leaves for now while things get worked on, and he has a cab take him to a graveyard he doesn't know. But once he arrives there, he sees Vito and his mother visiting one of the graves.

They are at the grave of the woman's husband, Vito Senior, and we learn that he died on the exact same night George jumped off the Don Hotel. And also, they share the same birthday.

George asks if the death was an accident, but instead Vito was tortured when a scheme went wrong. They never caught who did it, and oh yeah, Vito also knew the two people who have been killed by Sleepwalker George.

Meanwhile, Doctor Curtis meets with the hospital board to present her case, and they take her suggestion that he's been possessed about as seriously as you'd expect. As in, not at all.

During all this, the police show up, since someone (Curtis's boyfriend) leaked the whole situation with George to the authorities. Doctor Curtis won't cooperate without a warrant, and the head of the hospital stands by her on the decision.

Curtis announces her breakup with Dr. Falconer by dumping a bedpan full of piss over his head. Oh, I like her.

Back with George, he's wandering around still, and meets up with Angel. They decide to go on a date to a local art show, and get a bit high while they do so. Oh that can't go horribly wrong with George's mental state.

They eventually make their way to an exhibit of a Moai stone head from like, Easter Island, and things are going great with the lovely couple...until blood starts gushing from the statue's eyes. Huh, that's not right.

Following the freakout, Angel takes George to see... *sighs* Doctor Rasta, to have him poke at George's aura and whatnot. I'm out, that's it for me. Amusingly enough, the credits were arguably smart enough to list him instead as "Rasta Doctor"

The reading does not go well. Doctor...Rasta starts bleeding from the nose, twitching, and demanding George let go of his hands. Everyone spins around like they’re dancing on the Titanic, things start breaking, and eventually Doctor...Rasta passes out.

Following that, Angel, and another tenant, Dylan...who has barely been in the movie thusfar, but I digress, want some answers. So, George fills them in as best he can, and insists that they tie him down to the couch, and he'll sleep in the common area, so they can keep an eye on him.

The cops, who have gotten that warrant and George's file, come along to take him in for questioning, but the building's owner protects George, and sends them on their way. Instead of leaving, they stakeout the place hoping to catch George doing something.

While George sleeps, we are suddenly in a garage, where George appears to torment Bill the mechanic. You know the drill by now. Maniacal laughter, Santa Maria, brutal death. This time, with a blowtorch and a face getting smushed.

George suddenly wakes up, still tied to the couch, and cuts himself loose with Dylan's knife. Well, if it was THAT easy, this really wasn't that good of a means to keep him there, huh?

He makes his way upstairs to his apartment, and sees the painting he was working on, has been completely redone to the burned, screaming face we've seen a few times in his nightmares. He goes a bit wild and stabs at it with a knife, causing more blood to gush out of it.

I'll give the movie two points; it sure does like blood pouring out of places it normally shouldn't, and the lighting is VERY Suspira, but in shades of blue and green. And that is a compliment.

Things seem to be coming to a head, as well as there only being about 15 minutes left, and George is literally beside himself.

Vito, because let's face it, we all know that's who it is right? communicates with George via typewriter, saying there's just one more victim he needs revenge on, but George is having none of it.

Doctor Curtis arrives, and the cops see all the commotion, and everyone is rushing towards the movie's conclusion.

All work and no play make George something something…

The movie SLAMS to a halt as George is tossed to the ground from all the wild energies Vito is spewing out, and we get a very lengthy flashback to Vito’s death, which we've already seen fragments of up to this point.

It's a good death and there’s some power to the scene, but it's too long, a lot of which we’ve already seen, and we don't really know who the fourth killer is, nor will we. It's a good scene, but it just doesn't work in this spot, and being this long, since it kills the movie's momentum.

Back in the waking world, Curtis arrives at the apartment, and realises George has split in two, and that kinda? explains? the events of the movie. While George sleeps, Vito makes a George copy, and does his nasty business. Sure, fine, okay.

Vito is trying to kill Doctor Curtis, even though she's not one of his killers, so he can get back to his work. George has had enough, and while shouting no more, he "Leeroy Jenkins" and tackles his other self right out through the window, defenestrating hisselves and bringing things full circle with how he died at the start of the movie.

The cops rush out to the street, and are just kinda like, "Well, problem solved!" and go about their business. It's a shame that George will probably still get all the blame for this, despite being such a victim, and his eventual sacrifice.

Oh, and there was a car that crashed while trying not to hit George's corpse, and the driver ends up taking on the spirit of Vito, so he probably finishes up his dirty work as the credits roll.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: This looks really good, it’s a good quality transfer, and the bright, unearthly colours really pop.

Audio: A solid mix, which is used well with so much being thrown around, and Vito’s supernatural voice.

Sound Bite: “Don't you freak out on me! We only had one joint!"

Body Count: A bit light on the deaths, but they’re fairly high quality.

1 - 31 minutes in, and Sally slices her belly open, thanks to telekinetic powers

2 - Johnny gets stuffed into a dead cow and sliced up

3 - Mechanic Bill gets his hand torched off, and then crushed.

4 - We flashback to Vito’s brutal, fiery, explosive death.

5 - George gives his own life to stop Vito

Best Corpse: Honestly, all of these deaths are notable and well executed. Gun to my head, I’d go with Bill’s death, since I’m always down for fire.

Blood Type - A+: See above comments. The deaths are great, the effects are well done. They SHOVED A GUY in a cow carcass, and sliced it up. They burned an arm off. Vito was in rough shape. Even beyond all that, the movie gushes blood out of every place it can.

Drink Up! Every time George’s eyes go green.

Movie Review: I was pleasantly surprised by this. I didn’t really know what I was in for, and it was a well constructed, classic 80s flick. George’s crumbling reality is so heartbreaking, and you really feel for the guy. The kills are notable. The plot is a bit weird, but it makes internal sense, and it works. My biggest complaint is that it’s a tad slow, coming in at almost two hours long. But you do spend a lot of that time getting to know the characters, so it doesn’t feel like wasted time, just that it needed to be tightened up a bit. Four out of five bedpans.

Entertainment Value: It’s not QUITE as entertaining as some of our usual fare, because it’s just such a solid movie. It could’ve used just a pinch more of something, to really juice it up, maybe another death or two, and tighten that pacing up. That said, there’s a few fun campy scenes, and the deaths are certainly memorable, and they’re either stuff you haven’t seen before, or don’t see that often, save for maybe the guts. This is a solid ride, even if it could have used just a touch more thrills. Fun watch, coming in at about three giant stone heads.