THE REDEEMER is an early slasher film with a character all of its own and plenty of creepy atmosphere to see it through, even if the story is rather light and stretched out. It was made on an indie budget which means that what takes place is very low budget indeed, but at the same time it manages to achieve a level of realism that a slicker production might have lacked. A bunch of former high school students head off for a class reunion but find themselves in a deserted, run-down old school and pursued by a masked maniac. The kills are inventive and there are some genuine creepy moments here, although elsewhere the tale is hampered by the inexperience of the cast and crew. Still, it's fun to see a slasher film made before certain tropes and cliches became entrenched in the genre.

Combining elements from both the slasher and the demonic horror sub-genres, The Redeemer sees a group of old college pals gathering at their now abandoned school for a class reunion where a killer is waiting to punish them for leading sinful lives.The film opens in surreal style with a young lad, Christopher (Christopher Flint), emerging from a lake and boarding a bus, travelling to a church where he joins a tone-deaf boys' choir and gets bullied by a fellow chorister brandishing a knife. Soon after, we see the killer claiming his first victim, the school's caretaker, using the corpse to mould himself a latex mask which, in true Scooby Doo style, he wears to fool the group of unsuspecting, soon-to-be-dead friends.The film then cuts to the arrival of the six victims, each of whom is guilty of one of the seven deadly sins. Once everyone is inside the building, the killer, disguised as the caretaker, locks all the doors and windows and, discarding his mask in favour of several other creepy guises, proceeds to bump off the victims one-by-one, his job made all the easier by the fact that the morons continually split up to wander around the vast school on their own.The death scenes vary from completely bloodless to reasonably gruesome, the most graphic being a guy turned into a human torch (cool full body-burn stunt here) and another poor sap getting a large blade dropped point down onto his head from a height; however, anyone raised on a diet of '70s/'80s slashers will probably still find these rather tame in terms of gore.What makes the kills much more fun and a bit more disturbing are their macabre trappings: the burn death is caused by a creepy life-size doll holding a blowtorch, while the blade death happens during a bizarre stage show in which the killer controls a freaky marionette. Another murder—a drowning in a sink—sees the killer wearing a disturbing clown get-up, while the final death scene reveals the killer to have two thumbs!Once the six friends are all dead—the film is fairly unique in that there are no survivors—the action returns to the church where it is revealed that the killer was the priest (who I believe was being controlled by Christopher, who also has two thumbs). After taking care of the knife-wielding bully, the boy returns to his lake.Frequently baffling, with awkward pacing, poor acting, and unlikeable characters, The Redeemer is far from a great movie, but it is so strange that I still recommend it to any self-respecting fan of bizarre, obscure cult horror.

A Few years ago, I found this at a Flea Market, after catching the trailer on the VHS of The Wizard Of Gore years earlier. All I remembered was that it seemed like something worth the three dollars the guy was asking, but after years of being burned in my search for decent-bad cinema, I wasn't all that shocked to discover that Class Reunion Massacre is, in fact, not worth the three dollars I paid. I like old B-horror because it's different, because it's outlandish and rebellious, because it can be refreshing compared to all the big-budget, super-hero garbage of today. But none of that means anything if it puts you to sleep.Typical Horror plot. Some kid walks out of a lake, gets on a bus, and goes to Church, where we find a rather loud Priest doing his thing...and I'm sure all of this has something to do with the six "sinners" the story now revolves around. Four People I barely noticed, Mr. metro- fem, and a lesbian are headed to their 10 year high school reunion where they can sit around and eat, and "act", and wonder where the hell everyone's at. With the doors now locked, one by one, everyone is taken out by the redeemer, some guy who probably fancys himself some kind of righteous/sadistic chameleon, hence the killing in the name of God, and constant wardrobe changes. Feeling tired yet? Class Reunion Massacre is mostly made up of endless conversations and ironic killings meant to punish sins such as gluttony, and drinking too much. This film manages to be blasphemous against Christianity, as well as B-cinema. I expected very little, yet was somehow still disappointed. What I find most irritating about Class Reunion Massacre is I can almost detect a hint of potential somewhere in there. The atmosphere is all it has going for it. Ultimately, this is not a good horror movie, not a good B-movie, Class Reunion Massacre, for the lack of a better word, is a failure. Actually, I wouldn't mind a DVD release, with some audio commentary, which might shed a little light, because I just know I missed something. I don't get it. There's way too many positive reviews for this... come to think of it, I'm wasting my time here. I could be reviewing something worthwhile, like Nightmare In A Damaged Brain...

I went into this film not knowing what to expect. I had heard that it was one weird movie, but to my surprise, I ended up enjoying it very much. The plot is simple, besides a truly bizarre prologue and epilogue. The acting and characters are likable, certainly more so than the ones normally found in these types of movies.I must say that this film has a cruel and disturbing edge to it. A few scenes do provoke a few goosebumps, such as the theatre scene and the locker room scene.A must see for rare slasher enthusiasts and those who love retro horror movies.