THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS is a psycho-thriller of the 1970s that plays out more as a skinflick than anything else. Andrew Prine's weirdo killer stalks and slashes a bunch of women who posed as nude models, and he's on a moralistic crusade to clean up a tide of filth. A bit like Mary Whitehouse, then. Much of the running time contains young and pretty women stripping to their smalls (and less) while the rudiments of a plot serve to join the dots. The sub-plot in which a girl flees from a rapist hippy gang only to encounter Aldo Ray's sleazy motel owner before being straight-razored to death is quite arresting, but then there's a lot of padding in the middle section. Some brief P.O.V. stalking shots might have inspired HALLOWEEN. Things pick up again for the last section featuring the admirably feisty Tiffany Bolling.

It ain't easy being sleazy but this film tries its hardest and succeeds. Andrew Prine stars as a repressed young man who decides to "help" centerfold models by killing them. That is the entire plot! The film does do something interesting in that it is an anthology with three separate stalking stories. At the same time, this could easily be the poster child for anyone who belittles horror films and believes they are nothing more than young naked women being stalked and killed. Prine is the film's biggest asset, reminding me of a cross between Val Kilmer and Michael Palin. Also, the final showdown in a burned out patch of forest is quite impressive and surreal looking.

Superb exploitation nasty. I loved this one. Real dirty and gritty and fast moving. Well-directed with some nice performances.Andrew Prine is perfectly cast as a saddle-shoe-wearing nerd who is out to "save" all the calender/pin-up girls he can ("save" as in split their head open with a razor). And he really goes about his business. With his ultra-skinny physique and creepy/quirky demeanor he projects kind of a low-rent Norman Bates quality.Film has three (or is it four?) different stories, each following a girl that Prine is tracking down. The killing is ruthless and quick and somewhat unsettling. Also unsettling is that the girls bounce from one horrific situation to the other like pinballs (ALL the men in this movie are creeps - and most of the women, too!!!).If you get a chance, and if exploitation with a sharp-edge is your bag check this one out, you might like it.

This is the sort of film that has you wishing you could time-travel back to the heyday of the drive-ins to catch it in its ideal environment. Scary, tight lipped Andrew Prine plays a murderous psychopath working his way through a bunch of pretty girls, whose only 'sin' is to have modelled for a sexy calendar. Well-shot, well-acted, but it's the doom-laden mood and oddball structure that makes Centerfold Girls stand out - three stories about three girls linked only through their encounters with the killer, sort of like Pulp Fiction without the self-congratulation. Should be sought after by anyone who likes the darker, stranger drive-in fare of the 70s.