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Slasher fans, I’ve got good news for you (as long as you’re really, really sick)!

The underground cult fav Lucker the Necrophagous was made in 1985 and released in 1986 in Belgium by director, writer producer James Desert (neé Johan Vandewoestijne).  The movie has an odd history that equals its plot in strangeness.  With a budget of $30,000, poor quality film, and an ax to grind with an impenetrable Flemish film commission, Desert created the legend of a murderous madman on a rampaging quest to find the one victim who got away.  After lackluster reviews but good word of mouth, almost all of the original negatives and prints were destroyed.  Years later, Desert was able to find a Dutch subtitled version with English dialogue and a non-subtitled French dialogue version.  Combining the two and making some edits, the DVD comes to our store shelves as Lucker the Necrophagous: The Director’s Cut.

Lucker tells the story of John Lucker.  When we first meet Lucker, he has been in a mental institution for three years after being caught on a killing spree that involved first the death of his victims and then the violation of their corpses.  Through expository dialogue, we find out that one of his last victims (a blonde named Cathy Jordan) survived his attack on her.  For some reason, Lucker awakens from a comatose state and kills a male nurse.  He then kills a female nurse in her car, drives her body out to a low traffic area of the highway and has his way with her.

Eventually, Lucker makes his way to the apartment building where his former victim and her husband live.  After “seducing” the hooker who is the only other occupant of the apartment building to gain entrance, Lucker ties her up on her bed, kills her, and sits down in a chair.  After what we are told is four weeks, Lucker gets up out of the chair and has sex with the slimy, maggot-ridden corpse of the hooker.  When he is finished, he dupes his victim’s husband to help him dispose of the body, but of course ends up killing the poor man.

Two more hooker deaths in the basement lead to the final confrontation between Lucker and Jordan through the ridiculously winding, labyrinthine basement (which I’m relatively sure was just one hallway that is shot from different angles) that ends the story once and for all.  Sort of.  The ending does have the classically stupid and cumbersome line from Cathy Jordan, “See you in Hell, you sucker.” Wow.

Though made post-grindhouse era, the rawness of the film stock and the over the top gore force me to want to put Lucker in that category.  The bad lighting, the nudity, the rushed feel of putting the piece together give the film as a whole a gritty allure.  The term “Necrophagous” itself roughly means “carrion eater”, and Lucker feeds off the corpse of the grindhouse greats to fuel itself.  The fact that it is unrated adds to its disgusting appeal.

One thing Lucker does that is cool, is that unlike most slasher flicks of the eighties, this film follows the killer around instead of the stupid teenage victims.  This puts Lucker in the role of the protagonist, going on his quest to finish the Cathy Jordan off.  I found myself rooting for the quiet Lucker, urging him to kill the mouthy idiots around him (especially the annoying hooker).  Sure, he’d lose me a little when he’d abuse the female carcasses, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

The original cut is included in the bonus features as is an interview with James Desert.  The entire history of the film is discussed and was absolutely fascinating.  Desert comes off as a man who loves his livelihood and enjoys talking about the schlocky little film that jumpstarted his career.  References to other films he’s worked on (Rabid Grannies, Engine Trouble, and Troma’s Parts of the Family) piqued my interest enough for me to now be on the lookout for them.

The new edit of the film runs for just over 68 minutes.  The only reason I can see for this is that the same footage is used repeatedly within scenes and the deaths take forever.  The hooker’s pimp/drug dealer gets his head smashed against the wall so many times I lost count.  With proper editing, the film might be about 45 minutes, but would it be as much fun to watch?  Probably not.

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