“Igor and the Lunatics” is a low budget Troma released slasher that’s poorly written and technically treacherous with almost no redeeming qualities.

THE PLOT: Charles Manson-like cult leader Paul buzz-saws a woman in half after she tries to leave his commune. He is later arrested and serves 16 years in prison. Upon his release, he teams up with his fellow lunatics Igor and Byron to get revenge on the town that sent him away. Tom, an ex-cult member, teams up with Mary Ann to stop the killings and to also find his long lost son…who has been raised by a survivalist named Hawk.

“Igor and the Lunatics” starts off promisingly enough. A woman is chased down by cult members, taunted, stripped topless, and then ran through a buzz saw! The opening scene is the best part of the movie. So good in fact, that they show it to use 2 more times! “Igor and the Lunatics” has a habit or replaying whole scenes and reusing footage. This doesn’t help the already convoluted, almost non-existent plot. The film is told in flashbacks from Tom’s diary and we hear his narration throughout. Characters are introduced (poorly) only to be killed off moments later. The title doesn’t even make sense since Paul is the leader of the group…not Igor. But I guess “Igor and the Lunatics” is a more horrific title than “Paul and the Lunatics”. Character’s names also change from scene to scene, adding to the film’s narrative confusion. The film is credited to 3 different directors, so maybe that’s to blame for the film’s inconsistencies and lack of continuity.

The acting is terrible all around. Igor is so annoyingly over the top, I wanted to punch my TV every time his character appeared on screen. I liked Joseph Eero as Tom though. He wasn’t a good actor by any means but he kind of reminded me of an aids infected Mark Hamill. The two girls that go topless are hot (one is an African American chick-which we don’t see enough of in horror movies IMO). The actress that plays Sharon has massive jugs but she never goes topless unfortunately.

The gore is pretty minimal. There are a couple decent kills though. A hitchhiker gets her heart cut out in a van, another lady gets bisected with a machete and one of the cult killers get an arrow shot through his head. The best death scene however is the opening buzz saw scene.

This is a bottom of the barrel “slasher” that features zero suspense, a headache inducing electronic score, an incoherent plot, and some of the stupidest characters I’ve ever seen. For example, when Hawk finds out his adopted son has been injured he runs across town to him instead of catching a ride with the lady who saved him. Another scene finds Igor screaming and pleading at the top of his lungs for Paul and the others not to kill Sara…because he wanted to kill her with his knife. Ok…? The film tends to drag to…it’s a long 82 minutes.

“Igor and the Lunatics” features death by ice pick, fried chicken, death by pitchfork, freeze frames, a young boy getting his throat slit, and a twist ending involving Igor working at a Benihana’s (which also appears on the cover of the VHS box).

GORE SCORE-3/5

Tit-O-Meter-3/5

Troma Entertainment/82 mins