Luther the Geek (1989)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Released to video in 1990, Luther The Geek is an ultra stylish and fairly offbeat horror film with a Euro style feeling that deserves to be more well known. Why is it that such a chilling and effective horror from the early 90's is so obscure when so many other, less memorable fright flicks from this era are constant fixtures on cable and in rental stores? It really makes no sense at all. Sure, people have seen this film over the years, albeit only a small amount, yet I can't ever recall seeing this film aired on cable in the 17 years following its 1990 release. Many times, these sort of films gather a following, but only a few people have seen them. Also, many times these films are quite overrated, and once more people discover them, they discover that they weren't worth all the fuss. However, this couldn't be further from the case here with Luther the Geek. With its stylish cinematography, imaginative script, classic nude scenes, above average acting, tight direction, eerie atmosphere, and vibrant score, Luther is anything but cookie cutter. It's a shame I can't say that about most of the horror films released in the early 90's. The film opens up in Illinois 1938. A young Luther is wandering around in a carnival when he soon sees a sight that will change his life forever. He comes across a man, a geek, who is locked in a cage like a wild animal. A rowdy group of men begin to taunt the geek, hoping to see some action. As the men grow more abusive, Luther is shoved from behind. H is mouth in injured. The geek proceeds to bite into the neck of a chicken. He drops the chicken inside his cage and moves as close to the group of men as he can get. As he does this, he vomits blood from his mouth to the shock of the crowd. Luther suddenly realizes that his two front teeth have become dislodged from his mouth. He proceeds to make a very strange facial expression, similar to the one that the geek had on his face moments earlier. Luther goes to the cage, places his hand on the corpse of the bloody chicken, and proceeds to taste it. Present day, Luther is a convicted murderer at a parole board hearing is scheduled, one that sets him free. After causing a commotion at a grocery store, he mortally wounds a poor woman. Luther hasn't been out of prison even a single day and he already has killed an innocent lady!! Luther ducks into the back of an automobile parked outside the supermarket. A woman, in her early forties, proceeds to load her bags of groceries inside the trunk of the same car. Upon reaching home, she hears a noise outside. The woman can only watch on in horror as Luther makes his way towards her. She manages to scream before being knocked out by Luther. When she wakes up, she is terrified to learn that she is laying face down on a bed, tied to it. Each arm and leg is bound to the bed tightly with fabric. To make matters worse, he daughter has returned from school with her boyfriend. Not only is the woman in grave danger, but two others face potential death. The pacing here is perfect. We are not even 15 minutes into the movie and we already have so more many memorable scenes. What will happen next? Will the three of them be killed? The next 70 minutes of this movie are among the most tension filled scenes ever captured in a horror film. Edward Terry is unbelievably good as Luther, a totally ruthless killer with a childlike fascination with death. Although Edward remains silent for a majority of the film, he is quite effective and more than a bit scary. His facial expressions and body movements fit the film perfectly. He prows around with a certain presence that is quite unsettling. Luther is the epitome of madness and Edward portrays him as if he was put on earth to do the work of the devil. Supporting cast all turn in fine performances. The film is noteworthy for the debut of drop dead gorgeous Stacy Haiduk. It's so sad her film appearances are so few. Stacy fabulous body is hard to forget once you see it displayed in this film. As soon as she arrives in the house, she strips down to her underwear and the camera lovingly lingers close up on all of her best parts. In the following scene, Stacy's body is fully displayed as she and Thomas Mills soap up in a shower. In the DVD version of this film, there are additional shots of this classic scene. You see multiple takes of the same scene, including shots of Thomas rubbing soap on every conceivable part of her well muscled body. Carl Albright, the director does a commendable job. The wonderful rural location work to the films advantage. Albright seems assured behind the camera, creating tension and atmosphere, yet keeps the action moving along at a brisk pace. Does this film have problems? Sure. First, Luther watches the geek when he was a kid, but that scene took place in the 30's, so he would be 60 in 1990! When Stacy's character returns home, she doesn't think it's odd that the window in the door to the house is smashed in. She chalks it up to her mom forgetting her keys! Also, no parole board would release a man as criminally insane as Luther, as he is not fit for civilized society. Those flaws aside, you'll regret not seeking out this film if you ever find it available. I look for Luther the Geek to become more popular in the years to come, as time passes more viewers will find and appreciate it.s

This isn't a very good movie, but it is easily the best Troma Studios film I have ever viewed. Lloyd Kaufman - the "brains" behind Troma - isn't concerned with a good plot or even making a moderately entertaining film. His chief concern is making something bizarre. And his definition of bizarre oftentimes mirrors my definition of terrible cinema.In this film we have the titled character Luther - whose favorite pastime isn't Baseball, but biting the heads off of chickens - receiving his release from lockup. The board has deemed him rehabilitated despite the fact that he doesn't speak - he merely clucks like a chicken - and has a set of razorblade dentures at his disposal. Of course, once Luther is set free, he goes about causing mayhem, first at a grocery store and later at a farm house.VIOLENCE: $$$$$ (Lots of violence in this oftentimes tasteless flick. Luther sinks his razorblade chompers into a poor elderly lady waiting at a bus stop and then spends the rest of the film terrorizing the mother and daughter at the farmhouse).NUDITY: $$$$$ (Stacy Haiduk delivers some noteworthy skin in his picture, as the former Lois Lane (I can't recall which Superman edition she was from) gives us a shower scene followed by a romp in bed with her boyfriend - a guy who just doesn't have any chemistry with Ms. Haiduk. The extended shower scene footage in the DVD extras gives the viewer quite a bit more of Stacy. She is quite something).STORY: $ (Forgettaboutit!!!! Whitey Styles' screenplay may just be the worst ever written. The way in which Luther is released from the asylum completely throws all credibility out the window. His dialogue is something that a pre-schooler might write and the actions he writes for his characters border on the absurd. It's as if Styles spent ten years without human contact and completely forgot how people react in certain situations).ACTING: $$ (The film belongs to Edward Terry who actually does a decent job as the Geek. He is quite menacing in a stupid barnyard fashion. Joan Roth as the mother does a super job in support but Haiduk and her boyfriend's lack of chemistry made their roles awkward at best).

Luther the Geek (1990) is a dull horror movie and is really bad even by Troma's standards!! It's about a freak who bites the heads off chickens, and kills people by biting their necks out, and he actually thinks he's a chicken himself!!!!! Luther gets released from prison after 25 yrs because apparentely he's been a "model" prisoner and deserves another chance in life (which is VERY hard to believe after you see how he acts and treats people throughout the movie).After killing an elderly lady in a supermarket car park, he manages to sneak into a womans car, and proceeds to torture her, her daughter and the daughters boyfriend at their family home in the country.Then we get treated to a long winded and boring movie, with awful acting all the way through, before a useless cop turns up to try and kill Luther once and for all!! Oh and the film has a ridiculous and laughable ending too!!! I love low budget horror movies and i think "The Toxic Avenger" is an all time classic, but i'm afraid Luther the Geek is just boring, illogical and dull, not much in the way of gore too, just afew bloody neck bitings and thats about it! 3/10

Revisiting old films that you thought were average isn't necessarily a good thing. They sometimes get worse. Championed by the Fangoria camp (in Gorezone they labeled it "the scariest film since Texas CHAINSAW"…um, no), LUTHER THE GEEK inexplicably developed a cult following as an "intense" horror picture. Actually, it is just an average stalk and slash…uh, bite film that briefly sets itself aside from the pack by featuring a killer who clucks like a chicken. Yes, clucks like a chicken. To the filmmaker's credit, at least they didn't make the killer sound like a duck a la THE NEW YORK RIPPER. That would just be silly.Narrative logic is completely abandoned in LUTHER THE GEEK. I'm not saying that slasher films are abound with reason, but at least in HALLOWEEN Michael Myers escaped. Luther is actually paroled after a lengthy scene where people argue he is reformed, even though he clucks like a chicken and has razor dentures (which he apparently fashioned in prison). It is the kind of film where a couple sees a bashed in door and the girl dismisses it by saying, "Oh, my mom must have forgotten her keys. She forgets a lot of things since my dad died." The kind of film where the hysterical mother runs into a cop looking for Luther and tells him, "The killer is in my house!" So what does he do? He grabs her and literally drags her back to the house and says, "Just show me where he is and I'll do the rest." Why not call back up? It is too bad the film is filled with such horrible action and dialogue because the Luther character is actually pretty interesting. Most of the credit goes to Ed Terry, a dead ringer for Tom Noonan in MANHUNTER, who gives the clucking Luther a genuine air of menace. In the hands of a right director, LUTHER THE GEEK could be on the same level as SONNY BOY or SANTA SANGRE and be a true cinematic oddity. But Albright is not that director and merely places the fascinating character of Luther in tedious slasher trappings.