The Las Vegas Serial Killer, (1986)

Ray Dennis Steckler in an earlier film.

I sat up watching the late Ray Dennis Steckler's Las Vegas Serial Killer which he directed under the name Wolfgang Schmidt.

He did the editing and cinematography under the name Sven Christian and wrote the scenario using the name Christopher Edwards.

I'm all for fake names in credits, but he should have used them to create a backstory. He should have used fake names with the same national origin so viewers would picture it as a foreign production--- they'd imagine a crew of Greeks or Norwegians coming to Las Vegas to make their low budget movie. Let the audience see the place through their eyes, as an exotic locale.

I went to Las Vegas for a trade show one time and was surprised at how many Asian and European families were on the flight, apparently going to Las Vegas on vacation. I wasn't sure how I should have felt about that as an American. They weren't getting a very good impression of us.

The film had some dialog and narration but it was essentially a silent movie which I rather liked. Steckler was always the Alfred Hitchcock or the Sergei Eisenstein of the extreme end of low budget commercial film.

Had a lot more nudity than his earlier films, and way more strangling.

The plot was wildly implausible. A convicted, confessed serial killer is released from prison on parole after only five years in prison. He immediately goes back to serial killing. The subject matter was terribly grim but it wasn't that bad.

Available on Fandor along with some of Steckler's other films including Blood Shack, The Lemon Grove Kids, The Thrill Killers, Rat Fink A Boo Boo, and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.