- Directed by Jim Mallon
- Written by Larry Edgerton, John Galligan, David Herbert
- Stars Mark Jacobs, Lisa Jane Todd, Patrick Danz, Sara Hauser
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhzaOGlB-3k
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This wasn’t as wild and crazy as some Troma productions are. There’s a mysterious killer that we don’t see picking people off at a lake, and we wonder, along with the shrinking number of survivors, who the killer is. Brian was more forgiving of this than Kevin, who thought it was just a mediocre attempt at mimicry or satire or something of the original “Friday the 13th”/“Sleepaway Camp” type of slasher movie.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a man fishing and waving to his little grandson Peter. The old man is listening to an old-style reel-to-reel tape recorder. He makes it play really high-pitched, and something responds with a hook. The man grabs his face and falls into the water, never to be seen again.
Seventeen years later, a bunch of teenagers drive through the woods. They’re heading to the place Peter inherited; his family has avoided it since his grandfather’s mysterious death many years ago. A Winnebago stops at a bait shop, and the driver complains about a lack of signage pointing to the campground. The bait man gives the boy a magnetic stud finder and some minnows. He warns them about treating the lake with respect.
It’s “Muskie Madness” at the fairgrounds, and it’s quite a show. We see casting contests and other fishing ridiculousness. Bev says she likes Finner’s pole. They even go inside a huge muskie and take a look while standing in its mouth. They arrive at the cabin and meet Evelyn Duerst, the military-minded caretaker. Evelyn’s father is Wayne, and he’s a grouchy old fart.
Ann goes inside and finds a bunch of old records. She plays one about… fishing. Peter has a flashback about his grandfather, and he’s very weirded out.
They all go out to dinner at the local restaurant, and we see the weird family from the bait shop earlier. They’re the Swains. Sheila Swain is into doing loon calls, so she goes out to the dock to try some. Suddenly, we see some rod and reel action, and Sheila is pulled off the dock into the water. Peter sees the whole thing– or did he?
Elsewhere, Denny talks to his home-raised muskie fish that he intends to use to cheat in the big contest tomorrow. Wayne Durst sneaks in and releases Denny’s fish. Back at the cabin, Ann nags at Peter for being unwilling to talk about what bothers him. Kiersten, on the other hand, wants to make music with Peter.
The next morning, Rodney and Finner go fishing. Finner catches a big one, but then Bev jogs up and invites them to breakfast. It’s all fun and games until she mentions her husband.
Rodney brags about Finner’s huge muskie to Wayne Duerst. Rodney’s getting into this whole silly fishing thing, so he goes to see Leroy Leudke, the bait man from earlier. Leroy tells stories about the violence that often occurred during the Muskie Madness contests of the past. People take it very seriously. Leroy gives him some hints about where to get the big ones. Rodney goes out on his boat, and we see a giant fish hook come out of nowhere and hook him in the— ouch! It pulls him right overboard.
The sheriff finds the boat adrift, but there’s no body. Peter thinks Evelyn Duerst did it, since there are bullets in the boat. Actually, Leroy gave Rodney a bullet to make an earring out of it. Evelyn has an M16, but it’s only a toy.
Kiersten freaks out at hearing that Rodney may be dead and runs off. She floats out on the lake on an inflatable raft, and we see that someone is trying to hook her. Meanwhile, Dinner and Bev get close, and later, he sees her with Evelyn.
Wayne tells Peter the story of how he shot Peter’s grandfather in the back by accident. The old man recovered and even gave him a job afterward. Ann and Peter profess their love for each other.
Mr. Swain is out on a boat on the lake, and it won’t start. He honks a horn to get attention, but no one responds. He’s soon… hooked. Bev has a fight with Evelyn and then goes for a nighttime swim. She gets the hook too.
Back at the contest, Denny gets caught cheating again. Peter and Ann come to the conclusion that Finner is the killer.
Then we see what’s really going on. Dinner plays his music too loud, which drives Leroy insane. Leroy grabs his big hook and rubs the bullet in his skull. Finner loses an ear before Leroy whacks him with his hook. Leroy then runs a rope through Finner’s jaw, just like a fish on a line. He drags the body inside and saws it apart before running it through a meat grinder. We see that he’s got a whole string of corpses stashed under his dock.
Kiersten returns to Peter. She actually swam away from the killer and escaped. Peter finds Finner’s ear on the boat. Peter remembers the incident with his grandfather and remembers the cicadas; they were big that year too. He’s kind of a musical expert and decides that the audio resonance of the cicadas might set off the killer. Evelyn calls it the “Devils Trilogy.”
Little Irving Swain says he used the stud finder on Leroy, so it’s probably the metal plate in his head. Cicadas only appear every seventeen years, so maybe he did kill Peter’s grandfather. Peter and Evelyn decide to go after Leroy.
Ann goes outside to meditate on the dock with her boombox. We see Leroy rowing up to her. She gets hooked in the hand, but she pulls it off and ties it to the dock. She can’t get away because the elevator up the hill is really slow, so he gets her. Peter soon finds out that Ann is missing.
Peter and Evelyn tell Wayne everything. Old man Wayne doesn’t really believe the story, but he does have a gun. When Evelyn shows him Bev’s wedding ring, he’s convinced. They make a plan.
Peter goes out into a boat with Ann’s boombox as bait. Inside Leroy’s cabin, Ann bargains for her life. Leroy ignores Peter completely.
Wayne confronts Leroy right in the middle of the prize award for the Muskie Madness contest, but the sheriff drags Wayne off, thinking he’s overreacting. He returns to Peter, who now wants to kill Leroy with his own methods– by hooking him.
Peter returns to Leroy’s shack that same night and plays annoying music. It has the intended effect. He hooks Peter, but Peter hooks him right back. Leroy pulls his hook out and captures Peter. Peter wakes up inside the shack next to his boombox, which he switches on. He finds Ann in there as well, but then the sheriff finally arrives, and Leroy runs away.
The next day, Peter, Ann, and Kiersten leave town. Wayne agrees to help the sheriff look for Leroy, who can’t last long hiding in the woods bleeding as much as he is. We cut to Leroy, screaming at the cicadas in the woods…
Commentary
What’s with all the rude teenagers playing loud music outside? They all deserve to die painfully! Even without the resonance thing, that’s enough to set me off!
We watched the extended cut, which had 17 extra minutes of stuff. It was all fine; nothing particularly felt like filler. Still, the ending was very abrupt and didn’t feel quite finished.
It’s well made, the sets look good, the acting is “typical Troma,” and it never got boring. If you’re into fishing, it’s a must-see; otherwise, stay on the hook…