Review of Death Spa (1988) by Justin A — 19 Oct 2015

The title really says it all. This is not the kind of movie you go into expecting it to be good. The only shocking thing is how bizarre it turns out to be. You see that title and you would think it might be a generic slasher with someone going around a health club killing people.

But it's not. It's about the vengeful ghost of a woman who burned herself alive haunting a health spa that is controlled by supercomputers. The fact that they need computer programs for members to lift weights is just hilarious to me.

What's the point? The health club looks very cheap. It doesn't even look like a real health club. It kind of reminded me of watching The Outing where it's just a bunch of bland sets where they throw props down and expect the viewer not to know the difference.

Well, it didn't look like a health club to me, it just looked like cardboard walls that had a rowing machine. The death scenes are both confusing and gruesome. There seem to be no rules. A guy's hand explodes (which is great) and another has his face explode.

I think a wooden beam was supposed to be poking through his face, but the editing was so poor that it wasn't clear what happened to him. The acting is very bad and this movie is so cheap that it seemed like they only had money for Ken Foree for only a day.

He barely shows up. I don't think he was the most in demand actor, especially in the late 80s. It's a decent so-bad-it's-good movie, but there are much better you can be watching.