THE LOVE-THRILL MURDERS (a.k.a. SWEET SAVIOUR) (1971)
by Greg Goodsell
*originally published in SUBHUMAN issue #3 (1986)*
Quick, can you name the 1971 no-budget sexploitation film that warranted coverage in Newsweek magazine, was mentioned in Doomsday Prophet for Profit Hal (THE LATE, GREAT PLANET EARTH) Lindsey's SATAN IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING ON PLANET EARTH as a scathing example of "counterfeit Christianity (?)" and proclaimed by PBS's Jeffrey Lyons as "bar none the worst film that I have ever seen, so overwhelmed was I by its sheer cruelty"? Bzzzzzt, times up, yep, you guessed it, it's Troy Donahue's infamous Manson vehicle, SWEET SAVIOUR, now released on videocassette as THE LOVE-THRILL MURDERS.
So shocking, even by today's standards, that people as depraved as the filmmakers who would think of releasing it - natch, it winds its way to us unlucky viewers by the lovable folks at Troma Releasing (For a different type of horror story, go to SLEAZOID EXPRESS' Bill Landis' expose on that outfil tin the Summer Exploitation issue of FILM COMMENT).
What great career skid would compel California boy Troy Donahue to star in this X-rated (1971 rating) sex and gore flick filmed in a week in New York on two sets with a budget edging slightly into the five figure range? Creditors? Too many micro-dots of Blue Sunshine on the tongue? Young and impressionable, I recall seeing the ads for this thing in the grubby adult theater section at the time of its release, the title smeared in blood with semi-naked girls writhing about with the slogan "They will do anything for Him! Have sex with Him! Kill for Him!" burned into my pre-adolescent psyche.
Flick begins with a ritual with Donahue/Manson/"Moon" in the script initiating the newest member of his hippie cult in an abandoned church. He lays a nubile, naked hippie girl on the altar and bones her in front of the entire congregation. Cut to Donahue wheeling about downtown New York on his motorcycle , free 'n' easy in
