The Thrill Killers (1964)

In this entertainingly seedy early work from Ray Dennis Steckler, you get FOUR psycho killers in one slim seventy-minute flick. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. It was originally supposed to be about three murderous escaped mental patients who are on the loose in Hollywood, but in the middle of shooting, Steckler felt that the film needed something more so he shoehorned in a fourth killer who also happens to be on the loose at the same time and played the part himself (under his acting pseudonym Cash Flagg). I guess everybody’s gonna have a favorite psycho here. Me, I’m going with Steckler’s Mort “Mad Dog” Click. Maybe he doesn’t get to chop anyone’s head off or giggle like a maniac or have a great death scene in which he drinks coffee spiked with rat poison like the other guys’ do, but the scene in which he stabs a prostitute with scissors by the light of a flashing sign holds its own.