10 TO MIDNIGHT (1983) ****
A psycho serial killer is on the loose murdering young girls. This guy is a little different than the rest though because he likes to strip down to nothing but a pair of surgical gloves and chase naked women around with a very large switchblade before turning their innards into the consistency of pulled pork B-B-Q.
Since Charles Bronson is on the case though, it’s all good.
The problem is that this killer is SMART. He’ll go see a movie and be obnoxious and stuff; then when the movie starts, he sneaks out and commits his murders before sneaking back into the theater, giving himself an airtight alibi. (If movie theaters had a stronger ticket checking policy, this would never have happened.)
Chuck knows he’s the killer and even confronts him with his electric Pocket Pussy (“This is used for jacking off!”), but since there’s no evidence to convict him, the killer goes free. That don’t matter to Chuck though, cuz he’ll make something up in order to catch him. Unfortunately, his goodie two shoes partner (Andrew Stevens, Chuck’s co-star from Death Hunt) learns that Chuck has been falsifying evidence so he rats him out. Chuck gets kicked off the force, but once the killer comes after his daughter, Chuck goes into full on Death Wish mode.
Chuck retorts with, “No we won’t!” and a bullet to the face.
Director J. Lee Thompson, who directed virtually every movie Chuck made during the 80’s, does a magnificent job, especially in the scenes where the naked nutjob stalks his victims. The opening double murder where the nude killer chases a naked chick through the woods is as good as anything in a Jason movie, and the scene where the murderer preys upon four scantily clad nurses (among them are a young Kelly Preston and Ola Ray from the Thriller music video) is pretty terrific.
The performances are also great. Chuck delivers as always, meaning that he plays himself and blows away scumbags with a very big gun. Stevens is good as his Boy Scout partner, but much of the movie’s effectiveness is due to a genuinely creepy performance by Gene Davis as the serial killer with a penchant for running around completely naked.
Of course, Big Chuck is given the best lines of the movie, my favorite being, “His knife is his penis!”
Thompson and Bronson re-teamed the next year for The Evil That Men Do.