I haven't seen this film in nearly 20 years, so it was time to re-evaluate.
Dee Snider plays Carlton Hendricks, who goes by the username "CaptHowdy". He's a sadist and online predator luring teen girls to his lair where he sews their mouths shut and puts them in weird sex/trap devices.What sets him apart from others is that his aim isn't to kill people. He just loves to torture them. What a fucking asshole, but Dee makes it work.
Captain Howdy lures detective Gage's daughter Genevieve (Linda Cardellini) into one of his weird fetish torture traps, and this act gives him a hard-on for Howdy to get his due justice.
About halfway through, the movie takes a different direction. There's a whole subplot about reforming this evil bastard (damn that insanity plea), and it's a great way to introduce Robert Englund into the movie. He plays Jack, part of a lynch mob out to end Howdy, whether he's reformed or not. It's a fun parallel to Freddy getting killed by an angry mob, and Robert got to be on both ends now.
On a side note, when they reform Carlton, he looks like such a lame ugly fucking square. I know Dee was probably trying to make him look as uncool as possible, even admitting that it was one of the hardest parts to film in the movie because of how much he hated his lame aesthetic so much.And did I mention how ugly he looks? I find him more frightening than when he's pierced & tatted!
The movie then resumes its original course and has a pretty decent ending. This includes a house of bodily horrors, and a theme that's always disturbed me. It's when someone goes through something traumatic, but gets out of that situation... only to find themselves back in an even worse situation.
The movie isn't great. I hated it when I first saw it, but it does have a good cast and a decent story, albeit so-so execution. What I'll never understand is how Dee Snider kept the rumors alive for a sequel for like 15 years, given that ending.
And since we're talking about flesh here, I remember Bill Hinzman kept rumors going for a sequel to FleshEater for about 20 years. I'd buy that for a dollar!
#Review