Killing Obsession Reviews

This suspenseless splatter flick is marred by substandard sound recording, abysmal cinematography, and lugubrious direction; its only distinguishing feature is that the maniac's principal victim is nearly as disturbed as he is. Before he was locked up in Parkview State Psychiatric Unit, Albert Clifton stabbed his mother's housekeeper to death and whisked away her 11-year old daughter, Annie Smith, to the Elysee Hotel, where he performed a mock wedding ceremony. Released decades later, Albert decides to renew that bond, combing the telephone book for all the Annie Smiths he can find. The easily rattled Albert stabs and robs the manager of his halfway house (Maurice Shrog) and then slays a pimp (Bobby DiCicco) who's roughing up an Annie look-alike. As psychiatrist Dr. Martin Sachs (John Saxon) confides his doubts about Albert's rehabilitation to Lt. Jackson (Bernard White), his former patient is methodically hunting down Annie candidates and slashing them to death. Among his victims are a hooker named Annie Warbucks (porn star Hypatia Lee) and a drag queen (Mitch Hara), who survives and provides Lt. Jackson with valuable information. Eventually, Albert zeroes in on the real Annie Smith (Kimberly Chase), a photographer, but he's disappointed to discover that her purity has been sullied by a boyfriend, Randy (Hank Cheyne), whom he murders. If Albert finds his reunion with the no-longer virginal Annie is a let-down, he becomes fascinated with her 11-year-old daughter, also named Annie. He kills the mother and kidnaps the daughter (Beverley Mitchell), taking her to the Elysee in a white stretch limo. The cops chase the psycho to the hotel roof, gunning him down when his innocent captive momentarily breaks away. This straight-to-video horror picture is directed with a staggering ignorance of camera movement; visually, it resembles a blood-soaked television soap. For a rampaging serial killer, Albert is so enfeebled that it's a wonder he can lift a knife, let alone kill with it. The pervasive lethargy defeats some capable players (Saxon, Chase, White) and prevents the movie from capitalizing on its one intriguing idea: that Annie was so traumatized by her childhood encounter with Albert that she's incapable of loving anyone as an adult. Drearily episodic and annoyingly flat, KILLING OBSESSION reaches its nadir when Albert and the elder Annie harmonize on "Amazing Grace" just prior to her murder. This Ed Woodsian production doesn't need hymns; it needs prayers. (Graphic violence, extensive nudity, extreme profanity, adult situations.)