Hellroller (1992)

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Maybe I'm weird, but I prefer low-budget horror movies, and I like story lines that haven't been done to death. "Hellroller" is a one-of-a-kind horror classic, about a serial killer in a wheelchair! The actor who plays the killer, is awesome, and the rest of the cast is just about every horror scream-queen who's ever lived. Michelle Bauer is there, and she ends up naked, as does porn star Hyapatia Lee. Also in the amazing cast is Mary Woronov, Elizabeth Kaitan, and Ruth Collins. Aside from one of the greatest casts ever in any horror film, "Hellroller" has all out amazing makeup effects. Many of the killings are way out there, like double impalement, ironing to death, disembowelment, mouth-stabbing and more. I've watched this movie five times, and I can't seem to get enough of it. Okay, it isn't a big budget movie, but it is a gorefest, with better effects than many of the big studio horror films. The guy who directed this has been involved in producing several horror films, including "Evil Spawn," "Cannibal Hookers," and "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers." He also has parts in these and other horror movies. He was one of the zombies in "Shock Waves." I'd heard about "Hellroller" for years, from horror fans who either love it or hate it. If you see it, you'll probably love it or hate it, but you'll never forget it. It is that farout, and I haven't even mentioned the redneck siamese twins!

Since I've read so much about this movie online, I decided to track it down and see for myself what all the fuss is about. I rented it, and loved it. I prefer horror films that aren't ripoffs of other horror films. This one is unique. A serial killer in a wheelchair! That has not been done before. This guy is mad at the world, and he takes it out on everybody, well at least on every beautiful babe he can catch. He kills in bizarre ways, like ironing to death, disembowelment, double-impalement, and it goes on and on. The effects are among the best I've ever seen, and that includes big budget films. The cast is like a who's who of horror actors, including Michelle Bauer, Mary Woronov, Elizabeth Kaitan, Ruth Collins, Johnny Legend, and porn superstar Hyapatia Lee. Now that I've seen it, twice, plus a lot of slow-motion, since Michelle Bauer and Hyapatia Lee both get naked, I know why everyone is talking about it. There is no other movie in the world like "Hellroller." It's among my ten all-time favorite horror films.

I stumbled on "Hellroller" in the cult section of a video store. The box was amazing, so I figured I'd check it out. I'd heard of this movie, and the plot, a serial killer in a wheelchair, is definitely unique. I wasn't dissapointed. It starts out fast, and is non-stop, one beautiful chick after another getting slaughtered by the wheelchair killer, who does them in in lots of weird ways, like spearing two at once, ironing to death, disembowelment, mouth-stabbing and more. In between the killings, Michelle Bauer and porno-star Hyapatia Lee get naked. Unlike many big-budget movies, "Hellroller" has no filler at all--it's non-stop from beginning to end. It's incredibly original, a very sick horror classic, with amazing makeup effects. It's one of a handful of my favorite horror films that I have to watch over and over again. This one is worth tracking down, especially with the amazing cast that includes Mary Woronov, Elizabeth Kaitan, Ruth Collins, and Johnny Legend.

***SLIGHT SPOILERS*** For the better part of two years now, I have been hunting for the worst horror movie ever made. First, I thought it was "The Crawlers" (aka "Troll 3"). Then, I though it was "Horror House on Highway Five", which left "The Crawlers" in the dust in terms of sheer badness. But now I have seen the light, and I recognize the fact that the Absolute Worst Horror Movie Ever Made is "Hellroller".First of all, I'm stumped as to what this thing was actually shot on. It's not film, but it doesn't look like video either. All of the visual effects anybody can do with a standard camcorder and home computer film editor. And it's chock-full of bad blaxploitation-style editing, where it's painfully obvious that a scene was shot at two or more completely different times, and the actors are not in the same place from one shot to the next.The movie itself is about a wheelchair-bound homeless maniac with a bad twitch who wants to get revenge on the 'beautiful people'. I'm all but convinced that most of the cast was played by actual bums and prostitutes, which explains why some of the acting seems actually to be good because the people are just playing themselves. The murder scenes are nothing but laughable, the best being when the 'Hellroller' rams a blunt stick straight through two prostitutes' chests. The opening scene involves a flashback to the Hellroller's childhood when his crackwhore mother gets raped and killed by Siamese twin rednecks (you can probably guess how the twins' 'effect' was done). On top of that, the rest of the movie is supposed to be 20 or so years after that, but the Siamese rednecks are still alive and are servants to another character called 'The King of Bums'. The same actor who plays 'The King of Bums' also plays a mad doctor whom the Hellroller hires to invent a potion that turns ordinary people into bums (I swear I'm not making this up). Hellroller then somehow poisons LA's entire bottled water supply (not tap water, only bottled water because that is what the rich people drink), upon which everyone - even the newsanchors at KRAP 69 - amazingly transform into bums. On top of all this, the movie also includes two extended mindless scenes of a woman (Michelle Bauer) doing aerobics and another woman dancing alone in her room, apparently added in order to push the movie's length past the one hour mark.But that's it. Right here and right now, I announce that my search for the worst horror movie ever made is over, because it is "Hellroller". There still might be a worse movie than this one somewhere out there, but I don't think I have the will to find it, or even to watch it. I'm afraid that if I ever see a movie worse than "Hellroller", it would cause me to lose all the rest of my faith in humanity.