The Direct to Video Connoisseur

I'm a huge fan of action, horror, sci-fi, and comedy, especially of the Direct to Video variety. In this blog I review some of my favorites and not so favorites, and encourage people to comment and add to the discussion. For announcements and updates, don't forget to Follow us on Twitter and Like our Facebook page. If you're the director, producer, distributor, etc. of a low-budget feature length film and you'd like to send me a copy to review, you can contact me at dtvconnoisseur[at]yahoo.com. I'd love to check out what you got. And check out my book, Chad in Accounting, over on Amazon.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

A Killing Affair (1986)

We found this film in a friend's 50 movies for one low price kind of deals. I think he bought it because it had Mitchell. Anyway, we were trying to decide what to watch that night, and I was going through the collection to see what else was in it, when I found this Weller gem. The others were a tad hesitant, but when I read the description, we went with it. We weren't disappointed.

A Killing Affair is about a guy, Weller, whose wife was killed by the dad in Life Goes On, so he kills him and takes the wife hostage while the kids are in town at school. There's also a problem with angry dogs that are all expensive pure breeds. I don't know why that's in there, but it is. Anyway, the Stockholm Syndrome takes over, Weller and the widow fall in love, but before they can runaway together, a posse is formed, and the dogs team up with the posse to take Weller down.


This movie was simply awesome. First, Weller gets to the guy who killed his wife's house by this weird boat exchange. I'm not sure what the film makers were going for, but it seemed like this small West Virginian town had set up a public boat exchange, similar to a bike exchange you might find in an urban area or college campus, where Weller takes one boat so far, leaves it, and hops in another.

The dogs made no sense. They were all these expensive breeds that I'm guessing the film maker herded together for the film. No one really explains why they're there, either. One good thing that comes from them, though, is they attack Weller and the widow while they're in bed, and Weller gives them what for with a machete, then comes back into the house, covered in blood, and screams something unintelligible. We replayed it over and over, it was so hilarious.


The movie took place in 1940s West Virginia, but the props were all 1840s. I'm assuming they just took whatever they could and threw it in there, but this was pretty ridiculous. It was even more ridiculous when you consider there was no reason not to have it set in 1840s West Virginia, except that West Virginia was only west Virginia then.

Peter Weller was great though. This was one of his silliest and lamest movies ever, and he pulled it off with Kinski-esque precision. Knowing that Sunset Grill is out there, I would've like his character a whole lot better if he had a mustache, but I'll settle for this. It was plenty funny enough.


This movie was great in the 50 pack. I don't know what my buddy paid for it, but if it was $10, that's $.20 a movie, which is well worth it. I wouldn't pay much more than that, and I know my friends bought me a used copy on VHS, and they may have overpaid. Just the same, with it being one of our new classics, it might be worth it to us to have it at a slightly higher price.

I must warn you, this movie is for experienced bad movie watchers only. If I didn't have my twenty-plus years, it would've been a wash. You need to be at the top of your game to make this one work, but when you do, it's so worth it.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095445/

Looking for more action? Check out my short action novel, Bainbridge, and all my other novels, over at my author's page! Click on the image below, go to https://www.matthewpoirierauthor.com/


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