The Daily Dig: The Las Vegas Serial Killer (1986)

A film out of time, “Las Vegas Serial Killer” is an exploitation flick that offers little beyond background content to play in a sleazy bar.

A serial killer is released from prison and surprisingly kills a bunch more women. Who would have seen that coming? Let’s dig into 1986’s THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER” directed by Ray Dennis Steckler!

As I See It

With a run time of just one hour and sixteen minutes, which is contradictory to the one hour twenty-seven minutes listen on IMDb, it plays so quickly it seems like some disjointed trailer.
There is so little to analyze.

The camerawork has a voyeuristic element that seems only to have been meant to make it look like a pseudo-snuff film.

Dialogue was not a concern. Off camera, indiscernible chit-chat fills the air when we’re not listening to radio broadcasts explaining what has happened.

Almost all of the assaults and murders happen in broad daylight, which doesn’t mean to show how brazen the killers are or how little the Vegas citizens care about the debauchery happening around them. It’s more than likely because it takes a lot of equipment and money to light a night scene.

Strangulation is the method of the day, apparently. It doesn’t require any fake blood, or it was the director’s kink.

This movie doesn’t really belong in the 1980s. Everything about it screams seventies exploitation and experimentation—sensationalism and grotesque “storytelling” just for the sake of it.

Famous Faces

Pierre Agostino was in an Italian sequel to Larry Cohen’s Superstition. The stills from the movie look enticing, and this one might be worth hunting down. Would you believe Agostino is still acting as of 2023? He features in Rebel Drifters Ride Again alongside John Wayne Bobbitt. Yes, that Bobbit of nineties penile fame.

Suzee Slater, who plays one of the models, was Leslie Todd in Chopping Mall.

Of Gratuitous Nature

The entire act of making this film was a gratuitous practice. Murder and mammaries, that’s what they were serving.

Heartthrob

I didn’t want to be snarky and just say that the movie being over was my favorite part, so I’ll point out a movie poster that was in the cafe. It was for another Steckler film with another long-winded title: The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? I appreciate that title for helping me reach the word count covering a film that didn’t have much to talk about.

Ripe for a Remake

No way, man.

Spawns

This follows two earlier Klick films from Steckler, who couldn’t seem to scratch the serial killer itch. In 1964, Steckler played Click in The Thrill Killers, and in 1979, Pierre Agostino took on the role of Klick for the first time in the long-winded The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher.

Where to Watch

A high-definition physical release of The Las Vegas Serial Killer is as necessary as putting a coat on a bear. You can stream it on Tubi or Fandor.