Retribution (1987)

Dir: Guy Magar

A great little 'lost gem' from the murky depths of the 1980s video market that's well worth hunting down. Considering what a stylish and assured debut this is for writer/director Guy Magar, it's disheartening and bizarre how he never went on to bigger, brighter things. Relatively unknown actor Dennis Lipscomb gives an engaging turn here as George, a lonely, suicidal artist who, at the start of the movie, hurls himself off the top of a hotel and inexplicably survives. All seems to be going well with his recovery until he finds himself experiencing vivid nightmares of brutally murdering complete strangers. The plot develops slowly from here and reveals its hand a little too late for it to be a surprise but what it lacks in pace, it makes up for in above-average characterisation. By the time the really weird shit hits, you find yourself actually caring what happens for a change. What totally ups the ante though is the show-stopping and unflinching gore FX from Kevin Yagher, some of the most jaw-droppingly inventive splatter I've ever seen. There's also a well-orchestrated, scary intensity in the delirious, OTT climax which makes it all the more frustrating that Magar never followed up on such serious initial promise... Oh well. We'll always have George. ***