Killer Workout (1987)

Truly Dreadful Film

Please don't spend money on this.

A Brilliant Conflict

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This movie has one of those soundtracks that literally describes what is happening on screen, but its all cheesy 80's music so it's awesome. There are loads of aerobics montages with gratuitous crotch shots and zoom ins on the girls in skimpy outfits which I guess is cool if you're into that. The plot is standard and the gore isn't much to look at, but it's a corny fun that makes this worth watching.

The first time I watched this film I did not like it, I found it horrible. And I was absolutely right, but on this second viewing I was able to enjoy it quite a bit more. For some reason, even though I completely wrote it off, I found myself thinking about this cheesy flick several times and eventually decided to go ahead and give it a repeat viewing. This film is absolute eighties slasher gold. Everything about it screams eighties from the haircuts to the colorful leotards to the hilarious soundtrack and cringey acting. The dialogue is so bad it hurts and the delivery is worse. I still have yet to determine whether or not this film was intentionally bad or just a quick attempt at a cash-in on the slasher sub-genre... due to the 5 or 6 long work out sequences featuring nothing but scantily clad women I'm inclined to think the latter which only makes this so much better. Probably better with a few drinks.

Now this director knows how to sell sleaziness.Still a far cry from the Italian sleazy gialli but more than enough to give this bad movie the spice that it needs.Let there be no doubt about it.This movie is bad.Real bad.No,not the Michael Jackson kind.I mean it could be considered awful.But it is so bad and awful that it is good.I mean I laughed almost throughout.It went from one hilarious scene to another.Which was intensified by the fact that everything was taken seriously by director and the actors.Resulting in a parody of the slasher genre without intending it to be.Pay special attention to the detective who thinks of himself as a hard boiled and intelligent cop who is amazingly stupid.There is not one moment in the film where you can look at him in action and say now that is some fine acting.Not a hint of damn,"I got to pay the bills that is why I am in this rotten movie".On top of that the director tries to make a film that combines all the Eighties goodness or badness whatever you prefer resulting in something that I could describe as one huge mistake. Slasher,kungfu flick,crime film,flashdance type film,you name it is there.And of course enough crotch and boob shots to please the people who like that sort of thing.Who me?I can't deny giggling at some of the gratuitous shots made.It was like,"we are serious film makers trying to film scenes where serious actresses portray some difficult exercises and these are so difficult in fact that the camera has trouble recording them so we have to zoom in to spots we know very well to get back on the right track.Well,we got lost a lot of times."Or some other excuse like this.OK,I admit it I was expecting these shots and thank god they were there.Otherwise the film would not have been nearly as entertaining as it was.Do I really need to explain to you why Killer Workout is not a proper slasher or horror film? Even when there was enough present to come close.From start till the ending you will be entertained by the randomness of the events and more so when the killer and the motive is revealed.It is beyond ridiculous.But it won't matter much since you had fun for 90 minutes.

"Killer Workout" is one of those movies where I just can't figure out if it was made as a spoof or not. It's just that bizarre.Set in a fitness club, there are multiple EXTENDED scenes of insanely sexy girls in spandex working out and practically revealing it all. The cameraman should be awarded for somehow immediately zooming in on the bustiest girl in the room in every one of these softcore aerobic fetish scenes. These are basically the highlight of the film, and you'd probably be better off watching exercise regiment infomercials than this. HOWEVER, I can not say I don't recommend it, because I absolutely do.The body count is extremely high, though nothing is particularly gory at all. The killer uses a giant safety pin for some unexplained reason to kill the victims, having to stab each of them in the neck like ten times. Why none of the poor girls didn't try to simply use their arm to get poked instead of their jugular vein, I'll never know. I'll also never know why there are also multiple martial arts showdowns lasting an obscene amount of time between ripped bodybuilders, but I digress. The last twenty minutes of this one are an absolute glorious mess, with one of the most ridiculous plot elements in slasher history, and an incredibly long and dull chase scene.While it may sound like I just tore this movie spandex limb from spandex limb, it is a must see on sheer absurdity value alone.