Holy crap, this was put on late at night in drunken good fun and somehow this is a late 80's camp gem. The colors, music, and cinematography are crazy good fun. The premise is solidly ridiculous - a murder spree at an LA fitness club seemingly caused by a malfunctioning computer. There's a playfulness to the whole enterprise, from the lighting, cinematography and lighting, to the overall high camp feel of it all. It's slightly surreal but in an offhand kind of way. The opening scene is pretty spectacular - a long take set to some sweet 80's synth with a great title "card". And the kills ramp up nicely - ending with a head exploding in a gale force wind and some killer flying fish.

Death Spa (1989) *** (out of 4)Michael (William Bumiller) runs a health club that's the biggest thing in the city thanks to new technology that allows a computer system to run things. However, things take a dark turn when a couple members are severely injured and after more deaths happen it appears there's something much darker at play.If you rented videos back in the 80s or 90s then I'm sure you stumbled across this film in the horror section at some point. I must have passed the video by countless times, picked it up a few times but I never left the store with it. After all, it's a horror movie set in a health club, how good could that be? Now that I've finally caught up with the picture I can't help but be disappointed in myself for not giving it a shot back in the day.Look, if you're wanting high art or some sort of hard-hitting drama then you're not going to find it here. DEATH SPA is basically a low-budget slasher movie that appears to have been directed by someone who knew what the people watching a film like this wanted to see. Director Michael Fischa and writers James Bartruff and Mitch Paradise all do a wonderful job because what you've basically got here are a bunch of gory murders and a bunch of hot ladies taking their clothes off. These are staples of the VHS-era and this film offers plenty of both.I really liked the death scenes in the film as they were not only creative but we also got some extremely gory moments. There are several highlights among the death scenes but there's one where a woman gets some sort of acid on her and just gets eaten away. As for the nudity, yeah, there's the required shower sequence but with a twist. DEATH SPA certainly isn't a masterpiece and it really would have benefited by being ten-minutes shorter but at the same time this is exactly what a film should be like if it wants to be in that low-budget horror field.

If someone asked me to define 80s horror there's a lot of obvious films to select from, but this would be one of my choices. Between the body obsessed people, the slasher elements, the nudity and the blood, this kind of says it all about your typical 1980s horror film. What's cool about this one though is it's no ordinary slasher. There are your typical red herrings and very inventive kills, but there's also a great supernatural element that at first seems fake but then turns out to be very real and changes the whole dynamic of Death Spa. The movie does seem a bit more brutal than your standard fare as far as it's tortuous ways of killing people and all the bloody/boiled corpses it is willing to show us. That's perfect for those of us who enjoy some dirtier grindhouse elements in our horror movies. I assure you, as typical as this film may feel at first stick with it because whether you enjoy Friday The 13th, The Exorcist or Jungle Holocaust this should appeal to you in some way.

(Credit IMDb) Michael's health club is besieged with a series of terrible murders involving killer saunas and other grisly devices. Michael's wife killed herself a while before and her brother holds Michael responsible. Michael needs to stop the bloodshed before he loses all of his clients. I loved this movie. It's horrendously bad, but incredibly enjoyable. The 80's were the golden age when it comes to horror movies. There were so many delightfully cheesy horror movies coming out all the time. This movie is eerily similar to another "Gym" related slasher, called Killer Workout. I enjoyed that one as well, but this one is much better. You get what you expect when it comes to this stuff. Hot women in aerobics gear, nonsensical plotting, stupid characters, amateurish acting, cheesy 80's music; this movie has a little bit of everything, possession, exorcism, slashing, and dream sequences. We also get some amazing nudity. The shower sequence is unforgettable. It even throws in flying bathroom tiles right after the shower scene. Brenda Bakke is the typical "clueless" blonde heroine. Shari Shattruck is wonderfully delicious and OTT as the bewitched Catherine. Horror favorite Ken Foree (Dawn of The Dead) also has a bit part as a gym caretaker. The gore is very creative. Someone's head explodes by shattering glass, a hand is mangled in a blender, we get a nasty death involving weights, a face is boiled in graphic detail, a spike is impaled in someone's neck, and more. This one is heavy on the red sauce. My only real complaint about this movie is that everybody acts so complacent when they learn Catherine is at large. A dead woman is causing havoc, why are you acting like it's an everyday thing? That sort of thing is to be expected from a low budget horror film like this one, but that did bug me a bit. Overall, if you love cheesy movies like I do, this one will be right up your alley. It's highly entertaining, especially if invite a few friends over. If you can find it, it's worth it7/10