Death Spa (1988)

Very well executed

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Don't Believe the Hype

Awesome Movie

I was in the mood for some good 80 schlock horror, and I stumbled onto this gem Amazon Prime. Somehow, I'd never seen it before, but I wasn't disappointed. It doesn't get any schlockier or anymore 80s than this.Spandex? Check Gratuitous nudity? Check Aerobics? Check Pastels? Check Smoke machines? Check Melting faces? Check Exploding heads? Check Incredibly lame special effects? CheckSeriously, it's got it all. It looks like they had three distinct ideas for how things would play out, and decided to go with all three at the same time, so they all kind of mash together. It's a confusing mess, but who cares. If you're looking for a plot, you're looking in the wrong place.Just relax and enjoy it.

Death Spa (1989) *** (out of 4)Michael (William Bumiller) runs a health club that's the biggest thing in the city thanks to new technology that allows a computer system to run things. However, things take a dark turn when a couple members are severely injured and after more deaths happen it appears there's something much darker at play.If you rented videos back in the 80s or 90s then I'm sure you stumbled across this film in the horror section at some point. I must have passed the video by countless times, picked it up a few times but I never left the store with it. After all, it's a horror movie set in a health club, how good could that be? Now that I've finally caught up with the picture I can't help but be disappointed in myself for not giving it a shot back in the day.Look, if you're wanting high art or some sort of hard-hitting drama then you're not going to find it here. DEATH SPA is basically a low-budget slasher movie that appears to have been directed by someone who knew what the people watching a film like this wanted to see. Director Michael Fischa and writers James Bartruff and Mitch Paradise all do a wonderful job because what you've basically got here are a bunch of gory murders and a bunch of hot ladies taking their clothes off. These are staples of the VHS-era and this film offers plenty of both.I really liked the death scenes in the film as they were not only creative but we also got some extremely gory moments. There are several highlights among the death scenes but there's one where a woman gets some sort of acid on her and just gets eaten away. As for the nudity, yeah, there's the required shower sequence but with a twist. DEATH SPA certainly isn't a masterpiece and it really would have benefited by being ten-minutes shorter but at the same time this is exactly what a film should be like if it wants to be in that low-budget horror field.

After having gone to the amazing two day horror festival Foree Fest,i went round trying to find other films that Ken Foree has been in,and while this film is not up their with the classic horror film Foree gas been in)Dawn of the Dead and The Devils Rejecks)This is still a very enjoyable thriller/horror B-Movie.The plot: Ome of the main investors of a very successful gym/spa Michael(who's wife had killed herself in a very strange way,)girlfriend is at the spa,and she ends up getting very badly burnt.And as other people star to get hurt,Michael starts to think that the spas big brother-style computer system is being tamped with,and he thinks that the person doing this is the brother of his deceased wife.But he starts to find out that his wife is not happy,that he did not die with her..View on the Film: The screenplay:The screenplay is by James Bartruff and Mich Paradise and it seems to be stuck in choosing what type of film it should be,in that the big brother part of the film is really interesting,due to how much we depend on computers now,but the film fails when it turns into another post-Friday the 13th style slasher.(thought the ribs and the fish deaths are great fun)But the rest of the deaths just really drain the clever side of the story.Final view on the film: A really enjoyable film,thats stuck between being a B-horror movie and a pretty clever thriller.

Witch Bitch… For the (alternative) title alone this movie should be considered a "classic" in the industry of silly-n-cheesy 80's horror! "Death Spa" delivers everything you can derive from the title and cool DVD-cover (mine actually displays a girl's bare ass): rancid sleaze, a retarded plot and loads of gooey make-up effects. Recent widower Michael Evans runs the fancy and hi-tech Starbody Health Spa, where all the gym devices are computer-driven and sexy young girls become a member if only to get close to hunky Michael. Business is great until peculiar 'accidents' begin to take place. Michael's girlfriend Laura is the first victim when she gets heavily burned after using the spa. The next incidents are even worse, resulting in the death of several guests. Michael suspects his brother-in-law to sabotage the place, as he never got over his sister's tragic suicide, but it's more likely that Catherine's vengeful spirit returned from the grave herself. "Death Spa" is wacky nonsense, completely without tension or atmosphere, but the gory murders are tremendously fun to watch! Some of the cheese-highlights include a girl literally blown to pieces by an exploding mirror and another hottie melts down to the bones! An elderly guy (a cop investigating the case) even has his throat bitten open by a deep-frozen fish!!! How many times have you seen that before? Everything in this gym center is bewitched, even the cocktail blender and the bathroom tiles. The dialogs & acting performances are horrible, the typical 80's music is atrocious and all the characters are so dumb they really deserve to die. Ken Foree ('Dawn of the Dead') briefly appears as the gym center's caretaker, but his share in the plot is hardly worth mentioning. "Death Spa" is insignificant and brainless 80's trash, and I enjoyed it A LOT!