Chad

clckworang

While this movie is definitely bad, I didn't find it as unwatchable as many portrayed. That being said, I did have to restart the movie at least twice because I fell asleep.

Spiderbite

Wow...where to start with this film? Well, if you hated the Casio keyboards on the Linnea Quigley Horror Workout video, then you may actually kill yourself by the end of this movie. If I hear "Beautiful Dreamer" one more time, I may snap.

This movie is awful. And I mean bad awful. It is kinda watchable if you enjoy watching poorly made genre movies but even then, it will test your limits. I do enjoy watching bad movies but typically only if they weren't made intentionally bad and were made with an earnest attempt at a decent film. I truly cannot tell with this one which way the writer/director was going with this. Was it intentionally this bad or was an honest attempt at making a good film made? I have no idea.

This has to be the worst looping of a movie I have ever seen. People's lips move and nothing comes out. Sounds come out of nowhere. Left side suddenly. Then the right side. Then when no one's mouths are moving. I mean, the movie has to be near 100% ADR'ed. Add the atrocious dialogue to the bad looping and you start to wonder if they got their script from a 4th grader who moonlights as a scriptwriter. The acting is nonexistent. As in, there are no actors on this set. Pople must have randomly showed up and run some lines for a doughnut. The story makes zero sense. You know who the killer is the entire time but there is no explanation or motivation why he kills. He falls in love with a girl that he has spent possibly 5 minutes with. Then wants to kill her and everyone else.

Near the end I thought they were going to make the abusive boyfriend the hero which would have not only been offensive but fantastic and hilarious. Alas, it was not to be.

I don't know what else to say about this other than Vinegar Syndrome has a good racket going. They find an awful genre picture (for a cost of probably next to nothing) that relatively few have heard of or seen. Clean it up. Slap some fantastic artwork with a cool slipcover on it and get together some supplements and sell a few thousand copies. Brilliant!

My rating: *1/2 out of *****

Has anyone watched the Rifftrax version of this? I am usually not a fan of tracks like that (it always seems the commentators are trying too hard to be funny and are usually failing) but this may actually be a great movie for it.

Also, when the brunette changes into her swimsuit around 15 minutes in, is it the same girl? Did she come back to do a pick-up shot after she got a tit job? Because either it is a different person altogether or the actress came back with a different, longer haircut after some surgery. Those are not the same tits walking around the rest of the movie.

Undeadcow

Theres no point in pretending this was a good movie; but Im in a positive mood. The killer being obvious from go was refreshingly unpretentious. The Tenkiller Lake was a beautiful scenic background. I liked the un-nerving repetition of Beautiful Dreamer, with a bit more polish and strategy using music cues like that has potential. When the killer murders the perverted old man and abusive boyfriend it gave an antihero flavor that was a little more layered that usual for slahsers. The Indian maiden parallel gave a bit of history and context beyond the simple absurd film itself; part of me would sign on for a Tenkiller prequel. The ending might be one of the most anticlimatic ever filmed. Horrible trash but for the likely budget and talent involved miraculously watchable.

Spiderbite

Go to bed Undeadcow. You're drunk again.

numbercrunch

I used to think this was one of the worst slashers of all time. i still think its not very good, but i have seen worse. First, the Vinegar Syndrome restoration was amazing. The picture and sound quality was excellent. The problem with the film is acting is amateurish and there are extended scenes that do nothing to move the story forward. The other problem is the lack of memorable kills. It is a regional slasher on a micro budget so I do have to cut them some slack. Anyway, after 40 minutes, I didnt care anymore.
3/10

Toddarino

I’ll admit I almost bought in on the VS release. I discovered through this challenge there’s a Rifftrax version free on Prime so I figured I’d start there. Normally I can’t stand these, but I wanted to save $30 bucks.
For some fucking reason I might actually buy this at a sale. To be clear this is not good at all, but I’m really interested in getting loaded and having friends over to subject them to it.

WillieMLF

This movie gives harmonicas a bad rap.

mrcellophane

I can confirm that this is exactly what it's like living in Oklahoma. Of course I'm kidding, but certain locations such as the diner and the cabin made me think of my childhood vacations to Lake Murray and Lake Waurika. Regional nostalgia aside, this is a lackluster drag. It's the most lethargic slasher movie that I've seen. None of the characters seems terribly concerned overly concerned about the rash of murders in the area which is odd cause we Oklahomans freak out at pretty much anything.

I want more from my regional horror: weirdo ideas, ambitions that strain resources, plot points that couldn't make it into a mainstream movie. This doesn't really have any of these. (Though I did like Leslie's dream and the use of the spiderweb as a metaphor.) Tor is a boring, nonsensical killer. He imprints on Leslie, the most boring woman imaginable, which seems to change his MO from murdering women to murdering anyone between him and his new love. Leslie is a drip (who thankfully cannot get back with her abusive boyfriend cause he's dead). I'd have much preferred to for her to die and Janna to live. Janna's sassy, opinionated, and obviously cuts her hair with a Flowbee. I mean she decides to wash her hair in the sink in front of company which is the most interesting thing anyone does in this movie. She deserves to be the final girl.

jholmes

I'm glad I watched the Rifftrak version of this since it would have been excessively boring otherwise. The Rifftrak guys had some very funny one-liners. Certainly the movie itself has very little going for it. Low, low budget, lots of dead space with nothing going on, zero kill effects, no mystery. Overall a super boring slasher.

jholmes

I did. I don't watch a lot of Rifftrax, because normally I'm there to see the movie, not listen to people talking. But I think it made this one a lot more fun.

WillieMLF

This really wasn't as bad as some of the commentary on the other site has suggested. I've been a VS subscriber for some time, so I've learned to brace myself for the typical movie they put out. It had strong vibes of Blood Lake, with runtime padded by extended swimming scenes instead of quarters. I agree there was no real urgency for any of these characters with a sadistic killer on the loose. I thought cutting off Preacher's arm was a pretty cool effect, but most everything else was pretty lackluster. I was really expecting the boyfriend to be the hero in the end, but I'm glad that didn't work out.

I was contemplating the RiffTrax, but I really wanted wanted to give the VS disk a whirl. It looks great BTW

Spiderbite

Well, I tried to listen to it and turned it off after about 20 minutes. I just didn't find the guys very funny and really more annoying than anything. But I never have gotten into "funny" commentary tracks. I never found Mystery Science Theater, The Hysteria Continues, Rifftrax or any others like those very funny. I may throw them on in the background for some noise from time to time but I just find myself more annoyed by them than amused. This one was no different for me.

I prefer historical commentary tracks. I also like commentaries by the creators/actors involved if they actually give interesting info with no holding back and not just describing the scene being played.

DaveyJoe

I know this isn't a great film, but I don't think it deserves its reputation as one of the worst slashers of all time. Halloween is the film that kind of kickstarted the slasher subgenre, but the success of Friday the 13th is where most copycats took their inspiration. Whereas Halloween was a slow burn, emphasizing mood and atmosphere, Friday the 13th was bright and lurid, focusing on gore and bodycount. Most films looking to cash in on the craze followed that formula, serving up shallow teens having fun and getting naked while a maniac carves them up, however Terror at Tenkiller is one of the very few 80s slashers that is influenced by Halloween, and the desire to create a moody slow burn with a sense of lore. It's grounded and I think it's disappointing that so many slasher fans are dismissive of it, because its focus on characterization makes it very unique in the genre.

Characterization in general is pretty weak in slashers of the period, but especially for female characters. Most women in these movies are thinly written extensions of their boyfriends: John wants sex but Jane is reluctant, Chad is a jock that goofs off too much, but Tina still loves him. There aren't a lot of strongly written women in these movies, and I really like how Terror at Tenkiller focuses entirely on two women while the men are basically existing in the peripheral. It's a bold choice to focus on real life issues like domestic violence in a genre that's usually focused on fun and is almost always reluctant to challenge the viewer to think about uncomfortable topics. Leslie's character is incredibly naive, always making apologies for her abuser and deflecting blame onto herself. It's a pretty realistic portrayal of a domestic abuse victim and even in the end she blames Jana for putting her in this situation, not the men who tried to victimize her.

The themes of the movie are disturbingly cynical, but I can't find a lie anywhere in the narrative. The film is about how women always have to be on their guard, there's no place safe enough for them to put their walls down and have fun. Nearly all of the men want something from them, and act incredibly possessive of them. I liked how Tor viewed them as pure creatures that would be tarnished if anyone else put their hands on them. It's an interesting dynamic of a killer putting women on a pedestal just to murder them, in an effort to immortalize their purity. Very twisted but psychologically compelling and more realistic than a lot of slasher killers I've seen. That's why I think revealing the killer at the end of the first act was really clever, the audience knows what Tor is capable and watches helplessly as Leslie and Jana pine over him. The movie is putting us in the role of the concerned friend, watching their friend fall back into a cycle of abuse without being able to stop it.

Terror at Tenkiller is not a masterpiece, but I think it does a lot of things right, and I respect it for its focus on characterization and attempting an actual story that is grounded and relatable. It's a real world slasher and I think most of the issues are due to low budget and lack of experience from the cast/crew rather than poor creative choices. The film has a dreamlike quality and serene setting, which is tragically appropriate for Leslie, who will inevitably understand that a life without the looming threat of violence from men is nothing but a fantasy.

Obi-Wanma

I watched this last night too, the Rifftrax version. I didn't know that the version on Tubi was Rifftrax before I went looking for it. I enjoy Rifftrax, but I wasn't sure that was in the spirit oft the challenge, so I went looking for another version, but everything that I could find for free was Rifftrax. I certainly wasn't going to pay for this movie, so Rifftrax it was. Having watched it, I probably would have fallen asleep if not for the commentary, which made it infinitely more watchable. Boring leads, boring killer, inane conversations, etc. I will never hear a random hi-hat the same way again, lol.