Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Carolyn Paetow The murders in this schlocky, mistitled movie seem merely peripheral to the real action, which is all the singing, dancing, flirting, and fighting at a local teen hangout. It is hardly surprising, then, that the filmmakers include a songwriter of two tunes featured in the adolescent action. Though the settings are realistic--since actual locations were utilized--no one succeeded in finding a competent director or cast. Bill Bloom, however, as Jimmy, somehow struggles through the mire of an inane script to show some skills as an actor. Most of the players range from wooden to overwrought, so that the movie does emerge with some worth as an unintentional farce.

Dextrousleftie Totally and utterly lame-o, with such a high cheese factor that it makes for hysterical viewing. 'Teenage' Strangler(never understood this one, as the killer isn't a teenager nor is he exclusively killing teens), is a vastly awful film, not quite on the level of Manos but pretty close. To start with, the 'actors' are all rejects from the local community theater. The worst example is not the over-dramatic Betty or the incredibly whiny Mikey, but actually the woman playing Betty's Mom. She is laughing and upbeat the entire time she is talking about the tragedy that saw her daughter's friend strangled right in front of her eyes, and she is so chipper to the cop that's come to talk to her traumatized daughter that one wonders what she had been smoking or popping just before she came on set. The dialog is horrible and wooden, and there are weird sound affects here and there. Not to mention that someone is clearly heard giggling in the background when the cop is standing over the dead body of a strangled girl while solemnly talking about the murder. Just who, one wonders, thought that this death was so funny? The police station looks like it's in the boys' bathroom of a gymnasium, with pink tiles on the walls. The guy who comes to haul the first body away is dressed like a milkman. And what's with the girl dressed like a Swedish barmaid who introduces the horrid song 'Yipes Stripes'? The sets and clothing aside, the dialog ignored, we come to the tragic excuse for a plot. Some guy is strangling girls and women with pantyhose. Its obvious from the get go that it's the creepy janitor - I mean, come on, people! So the director decided to forgo all suspense, I guess. The only other suspects are the world's most mousy, politest 'gang', consisting of five respectful, well-mannered boys whose only claim to being bad is that they wear leather jackets with bulldogs on the back. And something tells me that they made those jackets themselves in Home Ec. I mean, the oh-so-bad Jimmy actually respected the grounding his Dad gave him! And he was polite to the cop, too. What kind of bad ass is this guy?There's a hysterical drag race in which Grandmas on walkers could have outrun the cars, not to mention the sound of squealing tires on dirt. And the best part of the film, if Jimmy would have just hit and done in the horrible little Mikey, just didn't come about. Dammit! It's a toss-up as to who had the best histrionics, Betty or Mikey. The scene where they both whine and wail at the top of their lungs in the police station makes one want to rip one's hair out in sheer agony. When you're not laughing your butt off, that is. I feel sorry for the guy playing the cop, to have to be in the same room with those two while they were both 'emoting'. The janitor finally gets it in the end, before he can finish off the annoying Betty. Double Dammit! When he gets shot, there's no blood or bullet hole. Maybe the sounds of the gun shots scared him into a fatal heart attack? And then there'a a painfully long closing scene of people dancing very, very badly. All in all, this film just didn't work on many, many levels. Not as a morality tale, not as a suspense thriller, not as a drama, not as a teen movie, and not as a film with a good soundtrack. And what was with the opening credits that looked like somebody had made them in wood shop? Teenage Strangler is good for many belly laughs, and should be must-see viewing as an MST3K episode.

lemon_magic You have to like "Teenage Strangler". Or at least I do. There's so many problems and mistakes and inanities and miscues and missed opportunities here that it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet for your inner film critic. But it's still a likable (if laughable) film. The filmmakers didn't have a clue about how to write dialog, pace a scene, direct an actor, film a chase scene, edit a film, or, apparently, market their finished product for a wider distribution. And the acting on display here wouldn't pass muster at the local community theater tryouts. Every scene features some of the most tin-eared lines dialog you can possibly conceive, which are then delivered with some of the most hilariously inappropriate line readings ever kept on film. Example: "I knew a policeman named Henderson once." "The name I have is...ANDERSON." Another example. "I'll pick you up from school I don't know how this is going to end but BY JUPITER I won't be..." Everyone here is straining so hard to make a GOOD film, an IMPORTANT film that comments on contemporary morays while also displaying arch wit and hipness...and everyone here stinks up the joint something awful. Bill Rebane would abandon the project in despair. Ed Wood, Jr. would scrap these scenes as "unsalvageable". Herschel Gordon Lewis would decide that they just "weren't suitable". Larry Buchanan would...well, on 2nd thought, Larry Buchanan might use them. But only because he didn't have enough of a budget for another take. Highlights of "Teenage Strangler" include: The scene where "Mikey" and "Betty", in the emotional climax of the movie, have a joint meltdown in front of the police detective that will cause you to rupture your diaphragm. There is a hotrod 'drag race' scene where the hot-rods reach apparent speeds of 20 mph. The additional 15 mph 'chase scene' near the end of the movie between the same two hot-rods where the camera pans away and the Foley sound effects make it sound as if the driver shot himself and then exploded. There is the whole "I didn't steal no bike neither" subplot which exceeds all known FDA allowances for goofiness. There is the "juvenile delinquent gang" subplot which packs all the drama and emotional resonance of a toothpaste commercial. There is the psycho janitor, and the misunderstood sullen kid, and the "Yipes Stripes" dance party where the peppy girl dances and sings on the lunch counter in her pantaloons while the kids have epileptic seizures all around. (Oh no, my mistake, they aren't having seizures, they're dancing.) But you know something? It's all so kitschy and well meaning that you can't hate the people involved, and you end up enjoying "Teenage Strangler" for its campy sincerity and its fumble fingered tributes to far, far better films made by actual directors. The MST3K coverage of "Teenage Strangler" easily falls into their Top 10 all time enjoyable episodes. Let's hope it gets reissued on one of their DVD collections so it can continue to make our milk go down the wrong pipes and out our nostrils instead.

guanche It almost seems like a satire of teen delinquent movies. However, it takes itself just seriously enough to be even funnier. What's really hilarious is what passes for "delinquent." The tough malt shop gangsters are readily intimidated by, and most respectful to, the police. Some even express concern about their parent's anger if they're out too late. The big drag race is at about 15mph and the only casualty is the retardo "little brother" (he actually appears to be a teenage cretin)and his bicycle being run off the road, causing him to cry hysterically---- though not as hysterically as the viewer will be laughing. The "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" would sure blow the doors off this crowd. The teenage chicks victimized by the psycho look like high mileage 35 year olds of the time, and most of the guys seem to be around 30 or so, some complete with receding hairlines.Most people will find this film quite a bore, but fans of low budget sleazy trash will enjoy it quite a bit.