At this point, it’s safe to say that eighties thrillers are my guilty pleasure. Along with the nineties thrillers. And the aughts ones are slowly creeping into the view. Time flies, my friends, time flies. Relentless is a competent eighties serial killer thriller featuring a strong cast and a familiar story. It’s about two detectives trying to catch the infamous Sunset Killer stalking the streets of Los Angeles. One detective is a hotheaded rookie while the other is a grizzled veteran. And we open with the killer narrating his sickening reasons for the murders. It all feels a bit too on the nose, too straightforward, doesn’t it?
This is where the movie starts veering off into uncharted waters. Uncharted waters for eighties serial killer B movies, to be more precise. The psychological elements start getting more prominent, amplified by Judd Nelson’s stunning performance. At first, I thought he was playing the role of the serial killer Buck a bit too over-the-top. However, as time went on, I started realizing what he was trying to do. And it felt so weird as I best remember him as a happy-go-lucky guy from a forgotten 90s TV show Suddenly Susan. Speaking of the nineties, we also have Leo Rossi and Meg Foster, Of course, Robert Loggia was excellent as the veteran detective Bill Malloy.
Relentless is a William Lustig movie. You know, the guy behind the Maniac Cop franchise and a couple of other solid thrillers like Vigilante and Hit List. As such, it has a certain raw vibe, something that sets it apart from all the other generic serial killer movies. His ability to pick the right and highly unusual camera angles is uncanny. These relatively small things have such a huge impact on the atmosphere and an overall vibe of the movie. They make it more engaging and exceedingly easy to watch. The story unfolds at a decent pace and the only problem, if you can call it that, is the final third. It felt a bit too stereotypical.
Nonetheless, the movie was a modest success and it made $3 million at the box office. Yes, in case you didn’t know, Relentless had a theatrical run. Moreover, it spawned not one, not two but three sequels. All of the sequels follow detective Sam Dietz, played by Leo Rossi, as he chases one serial killer after another. So, if you’re looking for that special brand of serial killer guilty pleasure movie, I’ve got four for ya. Granted, the last three are all direct-to-video releases but still worth watching. Each of them offers a different treat.
While in Relentless 3 we get another brilliant performance from an actor playing the serial killer (William Forsythe), Relentless IV: Ashes to Ashes stars none other than Famke Janssen! Just don’t expect too much from these movies and you should be fine. If you’re looking for something more serious, you can always return to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Relentless takes place in the iconic Los Angeles, evoking the terror Richard Ramirez AKA The Night Stalker was spreading throughout the city just a couple of years earlier.
The atmosphere is rather grim and ominous despite the cheeky jabs between our detectives. I love how Robert Loggia’s Bill Malloy keeps noticing the swanky apartments he’s visiting. Speaking of the location, the hotel in which our killer resides might seem familiar. If you’ve watched The First Power, the same hotel was the place where another serial killer lived. What can I say, if you were a serial killer in LA during the eighties, you simply had to stay at this hotel.
Director: William Lustig
Writer: Phil Alden Robinson
Cast: Judd Nelson, Leo Rossi, Robert Loggia, Meg Foster, Patrick O’Bryan, Ken Lerner, Beau Starr
Fun Facts: Quentin Tarantino and William Lustig became good friends after the release of Relentless. Both of them did not go to film school and had several other things in common. Tarantino actually wanted Lustig to direct True Romance while he was thinking of helming the sequel to Relentless. However, after Lustig asked for rewrites, the two fell apart.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098184/
