Aerobicide

If you're a slasher fan, forget the bad reviews for Killer Workout, or Aerobicide as I know it. It's an amazingly entertaining and cheesy slasher flick that can't be taken all that seriously. It has everything - cheesy 80's rock music, tons of breasts, women in skimpy outfits, twist endings and ridiculous death scenes. The only thing that disappointed me was the gore - the deaths have blood but aren't very gory. The killer uses some sort of large safety pin to kill people with, which is an original but not very convincing method. The film also manages to squeeze in some samurai fight scenes, which are funny to watch. The twists are also very good and keep you guessing until the end. There's even the typical 'sequel friendly' ending.

If you love cheesy slasher films, add this to your collection immediately! It's great fun and while it doesn't deliver scares or gore, it delivers plenty of laughs. It's not that expensive to buy on DVD either. If you liked this you might also want to check out Fatal Games and Death Spa, which have similar themes to Killer Workout and are entertaining in their own ways.

Best described as a cross between a splatter movie and a CHER fitness video (!), AEROBICIDE (as it's known in the UK) tells the tale of a psychopathic nut that is killing the members of a fitness class one by one with a giant safety pin! (But that's where the originality ends believe me!)

The plot opens with a gruesome accident, which is possibly the flick's only highlight. A young girl is tanning in a sun bed, when all of a sudden it malfunctions and locks together, causing the hapless and unsuspecting victim to get, well just a little bit over tanned! Sadly from here the plot goes downhill drastically!

We are now introduced to Rhonda (Marcia Karr) the grumpy owner of a gym and a group of happy go lucky fitness fanatics who 'work out' to music that words can barely describe. I suppose you could call it a mix of eighties bubble gum pop with a large helping of mature cheddar cheese, but to be honest i dont think this music has got a genre of it's own. It's a new style! Check these lyrics out for instance: "She's a knockout, you better watch out, She'll take you out"... Hardly Leiber and Stoller is it! Anyway back to the aerobics class who manage to stay smiling and working out throughout the whole film, even after 11 bodies have been found mutilated in their gym! I honestly thought that even if only one person got murdered in a public leisure centre the police would close it down to investigate, but certainly not at this one! While the coroner raps the corpses in body bags, the class boogies away without a care in the world or even the slightest mention of the recent brutal murders! What a brave bunch!

Now I know it's customary in a slasher movie to show the odd bit of T&A, but KILLER WORKOUT manages to completely pad the film full of it! There must be twenty or more female characters in the film and I can't remember any of them except for one wearing any more than a leotard! And they even try to justify this by an insane twist in the story! Director Prior does his best to keep a bit of cleavage in every shot including most of the murder scenes.

It does not take long for the unseen killer to get hastily back to work, armed with a giant safety pin! At least they thought of an original weapon, even though a pin is hardly the most terrifying thing in the world! One thing this movie does have going for it is a massive bodycount, 13 to be exact; but even if a hundred people got killed I dont think that this could be any better. I'm afraid KILLER WORKOUT is a real wet turkey! The acting is terrible as you might imagine, and the whole thing can't help but feel rushed and put together with minimal thought.

Another great 'cheese point' of the flick comes in one or two fist fights that are down right hilarious. In one of them private investigator 'Chuck Dawson' (Ted Prior) and another goon 'Jim Callick' (Fritz Matthews) scrap it out for a couple of minutes , non stop punching each other flat out in the face! When the brawl ends, neither of them is even slightly marked! Maybe they're cyborgs! Another classic is the second murder scene. A girl in the shower gets repeatedly stabbed by the giant safety pin, Michael Myers style. As the camera reels away to show us the victim dying, she hasn't got a scratch on her either...it's unbelievable! You are just spoilt for cheesy moments in this film; check out the bit where one of the aerobics girls takes Chuck back to her house. She tells him to wait outside while she gets changed. He makes a ten second phone call and then she reappears completely changed! Even Superman's phonebox fanatics would have a job to beat that!

KILLER WORKOUT is a bad movie. It was obviously made on the smallest budget imaginable, which is probably why it's so terrible. But I must admit it brought a smile to my face on a few occasions! Depending on how you take your eighties horror movies KILLER WORKOUT could be the gem you're looking for. It's certainly big on laughs (not to mention hair!) But those of you who truly watch horror films to be scared will end up disappointed!

Everyone should see Aerobicide (as it is known in England), everything about it is bad therefore, it's good! It's better than good; the gratuitous nudity, the gratuitous close ups of women in lycra, the dumb death scenes, shockingly bad production and acting values, it's a work of suppressed genius! One of the all time great so bad they're good movies every passing minute is a work of art. Top stuff.

Widely hated by moviegoers and horror fanatics alike, the years have given this cheesy slasher film a certain charm. While it's obviously hampered by the low budget (it's one of those films where the producer/director/actor are all the same person), the cult appeal of this atrocious film is such that I found myself having a great time while watching it.

The acting is bad all around, with the possible exception of the actor playing the cop Morgan, who overacts a bit and chews the scenery in a fun way (at least this variety of 'acting' is better than standing around and delivering leaden lines straight off the cue card). The killer kills people with a giant safety pin, which gives you some idea of the ingenuity of this film (the cleverest thing is the title AEROBICIDE). The '80s pop music soon grates heavily on the viewer's nerves while the point-of-view killer shots are stolen from HALLOWEEN (as per usual), and basically have been copied far too often to be effective anymore. The camera dwells on the girls in the aerobics classes far too long, and works the other way too when focusing on muscular young men. Add the fact that they're all dressed in hideous '80s clothes and you'll be ripping your own eyes out to try and stop the torment.

As you can imagine, this film is pretty dire, full of bland actors, characters who you don't give a damn about, and the murders aren't even particularly gory. So why did I enjoy it? It's difficult to say really apart from the fact that as everything was so bad it all became one big comedy and, in a way, one of those 'so-bad-it's-good' kind of films. Saying that, you probably need a high tolerance level to be able to sit through a film like this… or maybe, like me, you're just a glutton for punishment!

There was a fitness craze in the 80s that probably all started with Olivia Newton John's "Let's get Physical" video… suddenly working out became a cultural thing. People loved to get fit, not necessarily over concern of their heath but more because it was the "cool" thing to do. You see it in movies, TV, fashion trends… and let's not forget the countless celebrity workout tapes with hosts from Fabio to Linnea Quigley. Another thing popular in the 80s was the slasher movie, and although by 1987 they were starting to die out… it was still inevitable that a slasher movie be released that capitalized on the fitness craze sweeping the nation.

Killer Workout AKA Aerobicide is such a movie… and to my knowledge, it still is the only fitness themed slasher movie in existence.

It starts with a semi-shocking mishap in a tanning booth. Then we are immediately thrown into the middle of a workout routine where about 30 gorgeous babes in spandex are getting fit and showing off their tight bodies. This is, essentially, what Killer Workout is about… following a series of murders that take place in this gym (Rhonda's Gym) by a safety pin wielding mad person, then getting to see a sexy workout montage set to corny synth music… over and over….

This is not a bad thing if you are into cheesy b-grade movies like myself. In fact, this is one of the more delightful bad movies I have ever seen. The movie moves at fast pace which keeps your attention. Acting is pretty bad from all parties, but some performances like Marcia Karr's are hilariously over-the-top. Plus, even if the acting is bad, chances are they are still beautiful to look at (you might even see some gratuitous nudity). The plot is pretty uninspired but it works and there are even a few surprising twists towards the end.

All in all, the movie is bad but it has a lot of charm. It offers plenty of laughs and if that is not enough to convince you to see it, the abundance of sexy people working out in spandex might. The movie is also a time capsule that lets us see just how ridiculous the 80s fitness craze got.

In the end, Killer Workout comes highly recommended for the bad movie enthusiast, others might want to stay away.