Naked Massacre, Richard Speck in Northern Island

Yeah, Yeah! We've heard it all before. It was said so many times that people believed it. The violence we see everyday on the television and in the streets around us just breeds more violence. Supposedly the Vietnam war bred millions of psycho killers, and to our European friends...the violence in the streets of Belfast between the IRA and anyone they came into contact with, did the same. Excuse me for yawning. In 2018, we can look at 1976's "Naked Massacre" as violent exploitation and not the tired old social commentary it was intended for.

Richard Speck broke into an apartment and mutilated and murdered (and raped one) eight student nurses. Our film purports to tell this story, moving the carnage to Belfast from Chicago. American Vietnam war vet Cain (Mathieu Carriere) is on his way home from Nam and steps off the boat in Belfast (don't ask, just go with that). Instantly he is almost killed as the IRA bombs a church. Machine-gun fights permeate the urban landscape and our soon to be psycho, Cain, is captivated by eight beautiful nurses sharing a flat. With knife in hand, Cain makes his move.

What happens next is lurid and ominous. As the angels in white sleep the invasion begins. He ties them all up and picks up on the lesbian tendencies of Christine (Christine Boisson) and Jenny (Leonora Fani). After strangling the senior nurse, the beautiful Amy (Carole Laure), Cain orders Jenny and Christine to perform sex on each other. Very humiliated, they do and Cain will reward them with a brutal knifing and another strangulation. The nurses are indeed helpless and nothing suggests they will fare well. They beg, they cede to his perverted demands, and they die. Yep, this is a hard one to watch as eight lovely nurses, all depicted as noble and heroic, will meet such an ugly fate at the hands of a psycho vet.

Defenders of this film will claim it is full of powerful social commentary...but its not. Violent exploitation is a better description. All the actresses do a fine job and we do pull for them which makes their demises very sad. Will any of the beauties in white survive? What are the odds of finding eight nurses who are all beautiful...or do only psychos have that privilege? Does this film tell us more about society or the perverseness of the people who made it? Violent and unforgiving, for hardcore horror and sexploitation fans, "Naked Massacre" is for you.