MY CALL: Nope. Hard pass. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone—not even an 80s slasher fan who hasn’t yet seen this. MORE MOVIES LIKE Mountaintop Motel Massacre: “Motel horror” tends to revolve around maniacs and slashers, whereas “hotel horror” tends to comprise hauntings and more elaborate histories (e.g., AHS: Hotel (2015-2016), The Shining (1980) or 1408 (2007)). For more “motel horror” consider Psycho (1960), Motel Hell (1980), Identity (2003) and Vacancy (2007).
Recently released from a mental hospital in Arkansas, Evelyn (Anna Chappell) has little patience for guinea pigs, Satanic rituals, or the voices in her head. The movie makes no effort to cultivate mystery, and that’s okay. We just jump right into it. The opening scenes, preamble captions, and Evelyn’s own daughter Lorie (Jill King) all clearly identify who will be the killer in this movie. After the accidental death of her daughter, Evelyn just doesn’t seem right.
For $7, you can stay in one of Evelyn’s rustic “motel” cabins, and she sure gets a lot of guests one stormy night. Old judgy Evelyn seems to have a problem with all of them. She skulks around in tunnels under the cabins, releases snakes and rats into the cabins, and eventually starts killing people.
Except for bad movie legend Bill Thurman (The Black Cat, Attack of the Eye Creatures, Gator Bait, Mars Needs Women), most of the cast never appeared in any other films. The acting is rough, the writing is worse, the pacing is sluggish, and nothing interesting happens for the first hour. The snake bite scene was toothless. The rat and roach scenes were harmless and lame time-wasters. Things do get bloody once Evelyn gets stabby with her sickle. And even though we don’t see the stabs directly, the blood is at least ambitious enough to keep my attention for a moment. You could blink and completely miss it, but there was one great (very brief) gag with the sickle going through a victim’s cheeks. And then, yet closer to the final moments, a man’s hand is lopped off. But these very brief gore gags don’t make up for the overall woeful shortcomings of the movie.
Written and directed by Jim McCullough Sr. (Video Murders), this movie is no 80s slasher masterpiece. Truly, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone—not even an 80s slasher fan.
