I can remember back in the early 1990's bootleg VHS copies of this going around, that was the only way you could see this here in the UK. I didn't bother but 30 years later I have just watched the official Blu-ray release, it was kinda worth the wait. Sold as a slasher but there is no slashing, Luther uses his metal teeth to not only rip the heads off chickens but also to make a very bloody mess of peoples' necks! He also drinks blood so arguably he is part crazed vampire but without any supernatural elements. The timeline is all wrong, we first see Luther as a young boy in 1938. He is convicted of several murders in his late teens and serves 20 something years in jail before being released. I would date that sometime during the 1970's but this is clearly set/filmed in the late 1980's! Most of the film has Luther holding a woman, her sexy daughter and her lucky boyfriend hostage in their farmhouse, so it is in part a home invasion movie. Although the acting is rather amateur Edward Terry puts in a memorable performance as the horrible. Freakish Geek. I often side with the bad guy in slasher movies, for example Jason in the Friday the 13th's, but Luther is truly vile and I wanted him to suffer. Sadly his victims make so many dumb decisions that I found it hard to side with them either. Stacy Haiduk gets naked for some almost soft pornographic sex scenes and she looks amazing. Despite its failings Luther the Geek packs in some serious gore and should appeal to most splatter movie fans.

This movie could have been great. The character of Luther is pretty terrifying. Those metal teeth and wide eyes are scarier than any latex mask. There's also some genuinely frightening sequences; specifically when Luther first invades the house. But it has just enough problems to be reduced to forgettable schlock.

This movie cuts off ALL the fat. Luther gets paroled and commits his first on screen murder in the first 10 minutes of the movie. The beginning also contains one of the biggest plot holes I've ever witnessed; how on earth did he get paroled? According the the parole board, he was a model inmate and completely rehabilitated. Yet the man only speaks in chicken squawks...

There really should have used more time in the beginning to show Luther attempt to reintegrate into society. But that'd take more work so why bother? The movie comes off as really lazy.

The third act drags in for ages, and my guess as to why is that the shot the first 50 minutes of the film, and realized they didn't have nearly enough footage to qualify as a feature. So we spend the last half hour watching characters who've had absolutely no development wander around in the dark.

So honestly, this movie was too short. They needed to spend time with Luther attempting to cope with his release, and we they needed to take some time to characterize the victims. The only thing we know about any of them is that the Dad of the family is dead, and it was only mentioned in a single line. I get it, writing characters takes work, and who would want to put work into their film?

If they just put the tiniest bit of characterization in, and took 5 minutes to rethink the logic behind a few scenes, this would be a major cult classic. Luther could have been up there with Leatherface. I still recommend it; the first 50 minutes are incredibly entertaining, but I can't help but mourn the wasted opportunities.

Revisiting old films that you thought were average isn't necessarily a good thing. They sometimes get worse. Championed by the Fangoria camp (in Gorezone they labeled it "the scariest film since Texas CHAINSAW"…um, no), LUTHER THE GEEK inexplicably developed a cult following as an "intense" horror picture. Actually, it is just an average stalk and slash…uh, bite film that briefly sets itself aside from the pack by featuring a killer who clucks like a chicken. Yes, clucks like a chicken. To the filmmaker's credit, at least they didn't make the killer sound like a duck a la THE NEW YORK RIPPER. That would just be silly.

Narrative logic is completely abandoned in LUTHER THE GEEK. I'm not saying that slasher films are abound with reason, but at least in HALLOWEEN Michael Myers escaped. Luther is actually paroled after a lengthy scene where people argue he is reformed, even though he clucks like a chicken and has razor dentures (which he apparently fashioned in prison). It is the kind of film where a couple sees a bashed in door and the girl dismisses it by saying, "Oh, my mom must have forgotten her keys. She forgets a lot of things since my dad died." The kind of film where the hysterical mother runs into a cop looking for Luther and tells him, "The killer is in my house!" So what does he do? He grabs her and literally drags her back to the house and says, "Just show me where he is and I'll do the rest." Why not call back up?

It is too bad the film is filled with such horrible action and dialogue because the Luther character is actually pretty interesting. Most of the credit goes to Ed Terry, a dead ringer for Tom Noonan in MANHUNTER, who gives the clucking Luther a genuine air of menace. In the hands of a right director, LUTHER THE GEEK could be on the same level as SONNY BOY or SANTA SANGRE and be a true cinematic oddity. But Albright is not that director and merely places the fascinating character of Luther in tedious slasher trappings.