Wicked, Wicked

While investigating a series of mysterious disappearances, the house detective of a beachfront hotel encounters his estranged wife, now a lounge singer who’s being stalked by a masked killer with a thing for blondes.

Wicked, Wicked starts off well enough. Filmed in split-screen Duo-Vision, we see a masked killer and his victim simultaneously, following their paths until they converge in a suitably gruesome murder scene. It’s fun, B-grade, slasher fare with a novel twist.

Unfortunately, after the cracker jack opening, the film shifts gears into a mystery/drama, and starts piling on useless sub-plots and back-story. Sorry, writer/director Richard L. Bare, but when your film is shot in Duo-Vision, you’re not making a serious movie.

All this stiff plotting ends up making Wicked, Wicked something of a chore to endure. Fortunately, the split screen at least keeps things visually interesting, albeit barely. It’s a real shame, as the killer’s masked visage is actually pretty scary, and the Duo-Vision gimmick, if better exploited, could really add a lot of replay value, but as-is you’ll be hard pressed to make it half way through this rather boring disappointment.