BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER

Jimmy McNichol

BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER (aka Night Warning/1981). Director: William Asher.

Since he was left an orphan many years ago, Billy Lynch (Jimmy McNichol) has lived with his Aunt Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell of Midnight Lace). Now that Billy is reaching the age where he might leave home to go off to college, Cheryl is becoming more clingy and possessive. One afternoon the frustrated Cheryl comes on to a completely disinterested handyman, Brody (Caskey Swaim), and she winds up stabbing the fellow to death. Cheryl insists that the man was trying to rape her, but there's a decided complication. The victim was gay.

"Are you a fag, boy?" Bo Svenson 

The virulently homophobic Detective Carlson (Bo Svenson) has come up with a theory: Brody and Billy were having an affair, and the latter, who Carlson sees as a psychotic "fag," murdered his lover out of jealousy. Even Billy's girlfriend, Julie (Julia Duffy), begins to wonder. Then there's the fact that Billy's coach, Tom Landers (Steve Eastin), is gay (and apparently had been involved with the victim at some point). But as Carlson and his associate Sergeant Cook (Britt Leach) go in opposite directions, Aunt Cheryl is slowly unraveling, and there will be several victims before her reign of terror is over.

Sick, sick Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell) 

Butcher, Baker has a more interesting plot than the usual slasher film, although it isn't necessarily one of the more memorable examples of the genre. McNichol has to do little more than act a bit confused and distressed, and he does that well enough, although the forever-weird Susan Tyrrell -- when she turns into an imitation of Mrs. Voorhees from Friday the 13th --  overacts to the point that the movie starts to resemble a burlesque. Svenson is fine as the hateful, bigoted cop (not to give things away but this asshole does get his comeuppance), and comedienne Marcia Lewis, of all people, is adept as a neighbor who gets more involved in the lives of Cheryl and Billy than she probably should have. Bill Paxton [Aliens] is vivid in the role of a obnoxious fellow basketball player who picks on Billy. The film cries out for a better score and tauter direction, but it is entertaining enough.  William Asher directed a few films, but is best-known as a TV producer (Bewitched); Elizabeth Montgomery was one of his four wives.

Verdict: Oddball slasher film with some LGBT twists. **1/2.