Poor Tony (Bob Meyer). A lowly employee in a mannequin factory, he's shy, lonely, and awkward. His co-workers are able to gab about their sexual escapades, but not him. Completely inept around women, Tony resorts to a pretty drastic move. Then something is set off inside him, and he begins to strangle the voluptuous young beauties of Times Square.This is one of the lesser movies to be found on Something Weird multi-movie sets, to be sure. Undemanding devotees of the sexploitation genre may find some appeal in ogling bare breasts for the better part of one hour, and not care whether there's an actual story or not. The girl watching can only do so much for a tale with no real style, a limited amount of depravity, and characters who are all ciphers.The truth is that not very much ever happens in "The Sex Killer". Even though this thing runs a mere 56 minutes, there's notable padding, as we see Tony and others go through the motions at work, and as Tony spends ample time leering at topless rooftop sunbathers through his newly purchased binoculars."The Sex Killer" doesn't really have anything to distinguish it other than the spectacle of seeing Tony take a mannequin head on a DATE. The acting is actually fairly decent, especially from Meyer, and the persistent rock soundtrack is pretty groovy.While this viewer commends those folks at Something Weird for unearthing as many trashy obscurities like this as possible, not all of them can be winners.Five out of 10.

This obscure 1967 sexploitation film is so low budget it doesn't have any acting credits at all. It's almost as if no one wanted his or her name associated with such a project. That said, "The Sex Killer" is not a bad little film. Shot in black-and-white on the mean streets of New York City and using live sound (which occasionally renders dialogue unintelligible) it follows the adventures of a shy, sexually repressed nebbish named Tony who works at a mannequin warehouse. He develops a fixation on female mannequins that spirals out of control, leading first to voyeurism, then murder and necrophilia. As serial killer case studies go, this one's not so bad. It lacks the gore and vivid color of the best Italian giallo films, but the women are all beautiful and there's plenty of nudity. The murders are all strangulations and not particularly graphic. This film is realistic in portraying its serial killer as a nondescript, pathetic figure with a low-paying job, little education, and poor social skills, as most serial killers are.

Tony works in a mannequin factory in grimy NYC. He has this strange sexual attraction to the mannequins. One day he brings home a head from one of them. In his spare time he uses binoculars to spy on topless women sunbathing on the tops of buildings. Then he walks into womens apartments (in this universe no one locks their doors), kills them and has sex with their bodies (not shown). There's also a ton of pointless female nudity which has nothing to do with the plot.There's nothing wrong with showing women dressing and undressing--this is an adult film after all and it has its audience. But when you throw in violence and necrophilia it gets pretty sick. Thankfully the killings themselves aren't that bad--only two are shown and they're just strangulations. That aside the film is painfully dull (I fast forwarded through most of it) and no reason is given for Tony's actions. There's very little dialogue and the guy who plays Tony actually isn't a bad actor. But this is a slow, sick and deadly dull movie. A 1 all the way.

Mention the name "Barry Mahon" to film buffs and most of the time you will get a blank stare. Students of the Adults Only subgenre might bring up THE BEAST THAT KILLED WOMEN and hopefully soon people will be discussing THE DEAD ONE, a serious terror thriller that has just been rediscovered. Barry is also responsible for this film, a moody black and white drama that had a lot of potential which went unrealised. The plot (oh yes there's a plot) centers on Tony, a quiet guy who works in a warehouse that makes mannequins for department stores. Tony appears to be a shy fellow who seldom says three complete sentences in a whole day and lives a Spartan existence in his barely furnished apartment. One day Tony asks his boss if he can take a mannequin home. When he is turned down Tony "borrows" a head and actually takes it on a date! He takes it to a bar and talks to it while the bartender looks on and shakes his head. (The bar, like all other locations in this film, is a real one and that was probably the real bartender playing himself. The look on his face is meant to apply to Tony, the character in the film but you can imagine he was watching the scene being filmed and thought "The things some guys will do for a job.") Tiring of his bodiless date Tony buys some binoculars and sneaks into a high rise apartment to spy on women sunbathing topless on the roofs of the walkup apartments nearby. This is an interesting look at how much easier life was when this was filmed. The apartment we see has no doorman and it is relatively easy for Tony to sneak in a side door and go up to the roof. In fact he does it several times in the movie and is never stopped even once! This is where Mr. Mahon separates us from reality a little too well. Reel-istically all of the women Tony spies on are attractive but notice how the camera angle changes frequently as he spies on them. We are supposed to see what Tony is seeing through his binoculars, so how can the angle of his vision keep changing? Just keep saying "It's only a movie." Even spying is not enough after a while and Tony starts stalking the women he spies on and strangles them to death. Of course since he never bothers to cover his tracks it is only a matter of time (and not much time either, this movie runs less than one hour) before Tony comes to the end of the road. You can see that for yourself though; I won't spoil the end for you. I wondered how this movie would have looked had it been done without dialogue (qv., DEMENTIA (a/k/a DAUGHTER OF HORROR)). The dialogue really adds nothing to the plot except something to laugh at; it is the visuals that hold our interest. Not a classic, but not wholly unwatchable either. The nudity and violence blend into the plot well and even the abrupt ending does not seem to be contrived. Nicely done, but not the sort of movie you can watch over and over.