The film kicks off with a century’s worth of data about mass murders. The dates and kill totals of everyone from Jack the Ripper to Son of Sam are splashed on the screen before the opening titles. Then our story begins.
A psycho kills an orderly and assaults his doctor before escaping to a nearby college campus. It doesn’t take long before the nutzo is terrorizing college co-eds. A detective, who also happens to be the boyfriend of the injured headshrinker, sets out to capture the escaped looney.
Another Son of Sam is only seventy-two minutes long, but it is often a chore to sit through as it feels much longer than the seemingly brief running time suggests. It contains way too many freeze frames, unnecessary slow-motion shots, POV scenes of the killer lumbering around the campus, and close-ups of his bugged-out eyeballs. In addition to the pre-title crime statistics, the film is also padded with a long and unintentionally hilarious lounge singer act. (“Johnny Charro”.) It should be said that this is the only real “so bad, it’s good” moment as the rest is the movie is just “so bad, it’s… well… bad”.
Directed by former stuntman David A. (Grizzly) Adams, Another Son of Sam is shockingly low on chills, thrills, or basic competency. I mean, sure it’s low budget and all, but it could’ve at least been… you know… entertaining. The body count is low too (there’s a throwaway line about it being Spring Break as the reason why there’s only three girls in the entire college) and the kills are weak.
Another sticking point: The killer is just some escaped mental patient with a mother fixation. He really isn’t “another” Son of Sam. Because of that, some true crime fans will be angered at the bait and switch title. Besides, it’s one thing to produce a movie that exploits real life violence to turn a buck. It’s another when the filmmakers don’t even attempt to live up to the title. I mean, if you’re going to exploit something, made a God’s honest exploitation flick and deliver on the sex, blood, and violence fans of that sort of thing expect. Don’t turn it into a painfully dull and woefully inept police procedural.
AKA: Son of Sam.