Zero in and Scream (1971)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Absolutely brilliant

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Deranged and sexually frustrated sniper Mike (a creepy and intense portrayal by the hunky Michael Stearns) picks off various libidinous swingers while they are in the middle of doing the deed in the Hollywood Hills area.Tightly written and directed by ace grindhouse cinema special Lee Frost (who also did the proficient cinematography), this exceptionally down'n'dirty marvel really pours on the scorching sleaze: The graphic semi-pornographic sex scenes, equally explicit and abundant nudity (even Stearns goes full monty!), unsparingly mean and sordid tone, choice footage of hot strippers bumping and grinding at the seedy dive bar The Classic Cat (special praise here for deliciously lissome blonde stunner Donna Young, who bares her yummy body with pleasing frequency and an admirable lack of inhibition), succinct 63-minute running time, startling moments of ugly violence, and a spot-on ironic ending all ensure that this raw'n'raunchy winner packs quite a savage and scuzzy punch.

Impotent wacko, Mike(Michael Stearns) with a high powered rifle, hunts down men sexing up women, in and around the Hollywood Hills, his sniper attacks striking terror in the community. His obsession becomes Susan, a stripper at the Cats Club, who invites him to her home where a party will be taking place. This is where his seed of lust begins to root, and once Susan is caught, after the party, taking it from behind by a plastics salesman(!), his rage takes shape and another sniper's bullet penetrates the face of an intended victim. Susan was, at the time, under Mike's blind sense of "innocence", pure as the whitest snow, and when his eyes are opened, he'll set his sights on potentially ravaging her. His impotence, however, will keep him from the desire of conquest, and in the midst of spying out another lovemaking couple with his scope, gets an unexpected surprise.Soft-core sex film with plenty of naked flesh..it seems Dawna Rae was merely hired to show her body for nearly the entire running time. That plastics salesman sure got his fill before the sniper's bullet sent him to meet his maker! He got not one, but two sex scenes with Rae and another female partygoer. There's an epic lesbian lovemaking sequence, seen in it's completion through the lens of Stearns' rifle scope. He spares them, funnily enough. Anyway, the film has strange sexual activity filmed underwater, including a dream sequence where Mike is visualizing a tryst with Susan in her pool. Sex shot underwater just looks odd. Rae has a fantastic body and seems uninhibited, frequently showing it off for our viewing pleasure. The film is rather dialogue-less, with some sparse exchanges here and there, but most of the sex scenes are drowned out by an ominous score, which echoes Dark Shadows or The Outer Limits.I don't know where Something Weird finds these flicks, but Zero in and Scream looks like it had been buried away in a basement or something. I can imagine the SW distributors feverishly salivating as a copy of this came into their possession. It really looks like it was put together by a small group of people for little money, and perhaps momentarily distributed to the sex market before slipping into obscurity.

This is just horrible, really horrible trash. Yes, we've got beautiful naked women dancing and having sex. But while this may work in the mechanism of a porn movie – may have even been a hit as a porn movie – this tries to mask itself as a "film" with actual things to say, with real emotion and struggle. It isn't. It's an excuse to get some girls naked and have a fun time. I'm sure all of these women (and men) in this particular movie could have faired decently in the porn movie business of the 1970s . . . but not in the actual movie business.The acting was hackneyed, so bad, I mean real terrible. The writing was even worse. I can't lay all blame on these actors – they had nothing to work with. The very broad structure or plot of the movie could possibly be done and done well with good writers and competent actors. The very broad structure or plot is that of a psychotic man who spends his time shooting people from afar, as a sniper. These shootings were motivated from men not respecting their women enough. If there was more writing - better writing, much better writing - and less gratuitous sexual imagery we might have something to work with.This movie should have been shot, made and marketed a hardcore porn movie all along; it would have made more money. It practically is a hardcore porn film already, and it remains the only non-porn movie I've seen that shows a male erect penis.

ZERO IN AND SCREAM ** (out of four) A lonely guy finds women to be very beautiful until he sees another man on top of them. When a woman isn't "pure" they are ugly so the guy goes around killing any man who would turn a woman ugly. The actual story of this film is rather interesting but sadly we've got around fifteen minutes of story and the rest of the running time is nothing more than strip scenes and a pool orgy. I love nudity but after a while this turns boring. The ending is a very nice tough however.Available on DVD through Something Weird Video. Also on the disc: THE SEX KILLER (1967) and THE ZODIAC KILLER (1971).