Out of the Dark

A straight re-run of those '70s slasher pics in which a string of attractive young women are bludgeoned, strangled or stabbed to death by a mystery assailant whose identity is obvious after about ten minutes. This time, it's the employees of the Suite Nothings phone-sex business (presided over by Karen Black) who are being terrorised by a killer in a clown mask. As a gesture towards sexual equality, a Hispanic male gets a spade through his head, while the sleaze quotient is constantly upped by the woman's breathy phone-talk about throbbing love muscles (what's never explained is why they dress and make-up like hookers to talk on the phone). Candidates for whodunit include the hunky photographer (Dye) with a previous conviction for assaulting his girl, the dorky assistant (Cort) with a stash of SM mags, and the prostitute-killer whom LA cop Divine (in his last film) is tracking in a parallel investigation.