The Centerfold Girls (1974)

Review

"Now he's killed four girls, let's hope you don't make the mistake of letting yourself be victim number five!" - Sargent Garrett

Clement Dunne is a man on a mission; he's single handled taking down Hugh Heffner one centerfold model at a time. Seems Dunne has a religious fixation on helping nude models realise the errors of their ways by slashing their throats, as you do if you have that old time down Southern weird religious vibe going down. No nude model is safe from our Boy, who goes to extreme measures to hunt down his prey and go all Jason Voorhees on their arses.

The movie features three sort of related sub stories that follow Dunne as he tracks down his intended victims and dispatches them with lethal efficiency. You can't say Dunne isn't dedicated to his calling, warped as that may be. Strap in Kids, we're going 1970s exploitation, and surprisingly turning up a decent movie.

Yeah I know I haven't been rocking the reviews for ScaryMinds this year, blame wife, uni requirements, and a full schedule of sportings. Anyways, and let's not get bogged down here, I got sent a copy of The Centerfold Girls to get things rolling again. A quick check revealed the movie is a 1970s exploitation classic, which didn't go down well with the missus, movies featuring a bevy of babes topless seldom do. Naturally I claimed work commitments and she who must be obeyed decided to dial in to see just what filth we're covering currently. Strangely she really dug the movie and got past the inherent sexism without too much trouble, she even mentioned a number of artistic touches that had escaped my attention, hey bevy of topless babes Bro! So the first surprise with this one was that while being on the cheap side of the aisle it still managed to drag itself into the realms of very watchable cinema. If you have been itching to test the waters of 1970s exploitation and don't know where to start then look no further, this movie is delivering.

The movie opens on a beach at night; some dude is dragging a dead chick across the sand to eventually bury her in a pre-dug grave. Surprisingly, wasn't expecting it, Director John Peyser nails it. Right from the kick-off I wanted to know what this was about, who the dude was, and exactly why he was taking on overnight work. Some movies really nail the opening gambit, get the audience interested and they will stick with it, pretty much like how the first paragraph of a book needs to catch the reader's attention. Sure there was a whole 1970s cheap vibe to the scene, think any of the original Friday the 13th movies, but this was working for the movie and underlined the notion that we just might be in the midst of the sort of madness we all dig the most.

From the get go our antagonist for the duration of the movie is being built up as a psychopath with deep religious issues, and this was way before Hannibal Lector made the whole killer with a delusional world view trendy. Clement Dunne wears a black suit during working hours, has an unholy fixation with centrefold models, and calls a pure white room home. The little lady, she's not going to read this review right? - was quick to point out Dunne's home was a sanctuary of purity, hence the pure white decor, while on the job he wore black. Trademark weapon of mass destruction was a straight razor; our Clement sure has his modus operandi down pat. Dunne even goes so far as to collect a shoe from each of his victims, and has been operating successfully for quite some time judging from the shoe collection going down. Fans of Dexter will be right across our man with a mission here; Dunne is ticking all the boxes when it comes to a psychopath on the prowl. For those less interested in this aspect, straight razor boy is really laying the groundwork for Jason Voorhees, except preying on centrefold girls rather than camp councillors as Jason has a tendency to do. To be honest I picked up on a whole bunch of influences The Centerfold Girls has had over later dark genre outings, not bad for a cheap exploitation flick.

The white elephant in the room is of course the sexism which Centerfold Girls takes great delight in rolling around in. Some viewers will find this repulsive to be honest, hey keep out of them dark genre waters, but strictly speaking the movie didn't go anywhere later movies like V/H/S haven't been visiting. Dudes are sexual predators, chicks simply work as victims, Ellen Ripley would be lock and loading the pulse rifle. There are a few ideas that go over the top, one chick is so over the whole trauma she's ready to be raped, another chick gets the date rape treatment, and yet another is warned not to be the next victim. Your local feminist collective won't be putting this one on their Netflick queue kids. So be warned there isn't a hint of political correctness here, did you really think there would be?

Quick final note here before moving on, like a lot of outings in horror this movie does feature one strong female that fights back in pretty vicious fashion. I also picked up on a tad of "don't look into the abyss" but might be overstating the world viewpoint of this flick.

So we have one nasty movie that simply delights in carving up its cast, showing about every female cast member naked - not complaining friends and neighbours, and with aesthetics that are from the cheap end of the motel parking lot. However what saves this movie is that it provides a blue print for a hell of a lot of horror cinema that would follow, check it out and then tell me some of the auteurs of horror cinema haven't been catching a crafty peak behind the bike sheds. Director John Peyser does what he can with a miniscule budget and actually gets performances a tad above looking directly at the camera from his less than Oscar winning thespians.

The Centerfold Girls came to us courtesy of Glass Doll Films and I have to say we get a very decent disk package. Besides the movie, presented as it was back in the day, we get a full documentary and enough extras to have disk geeks happy with life. I really appreciated the old school presentation Glass Doll put into this release and reckon it wouldn't be out of place in any film buff's collection. Two thumbs up for the package folks.

There is a kind of strangeness to reviewing The Centerfold Girls that had me carefully stepping between potential minefields. On the one hand there's the whole exploitation thing on the other there is an argument that this movie presents a unique view into Western movie history, and hence has a lot of importance to the more than occasional blockbuster viewer. Centerfold Girls is raw, doesn't apology for its content, and is pretty entertaining to say the least, I can respect that honesty. This is a movie that doesn't claim to be anything other than what it is, T&A tinged psycho melodrama, but which is an instant classic due to this. Full recommendation kids, The Centerfold Girls has influenced a lot of horror cinema, you really need to check this bad boy out. High five to Glass Doll Films who are keeping the cult and drive in classics alive for a new generation, I look forward to checking more of their catalogue in the coming weeks.