gwnightscream
This 1980 horror comedy stars Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke, Nina Axelrod and Nancy Parsons. The late, Calhoun (Pure Country) plays Farmer, Vincent who run a motel with his sister, Ida (Parsons) where they secretly trap and slaughter travelers to make pork products out of them. Axelrod (Critters 3) plays Terry, a young woman who gets into a motorcycle accident and is nursed by Vincent and Ida. Soon, Terry meets their younger brother, Bruce (CHiPs) who is the sheriff and they eventually learn of Vincent and Ida's twisted secret. This is an amusing and a bit disturbing film that pokes fun/pays tribute to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Psycho." Calhoun was great in it and if you like horror/slasher flicks, check it out at least once.
zetes
I caught maybe the last half hour of this movie one time on TNT when I was a teenager, and I remember it vividly. Finally, some 20 years later, I watch the whole thing. Meh. Honestly, it has some fantastic moments. That whole first sequence where the victims who are buried up to their necks in the garden is horrifying. And Rory Calhoun is a hoot throughout. A lot of the rest of it is pretty stupid, though. The leading lady, Nina Axelrod, is a complete blank. She just dumbly goes along with whatever's happening with little objection. The character who turns out to be the hero, played by Paul Linke, the one who has to save Axelrod at the end, is so unheroic he attempts to rape her earlier in the movie. The finale is particularly memorable, but it's moronic. Seriously, Linke has a shotgun and Calhoun has a chainsaw (not to mention he's infamously wearing a pig's head over his own - how the Hell's he seeing out of that thing?), and Linke rushes him. I think it's supposed to be kind of funny, but it's not.
brando647
Here's a nice bit of early slasher fun with all the usual trimmings: psychotic hillbillies, bizarre murders, a clueless cop, a hot blonde, and…uhm…jerky? Farmer Vincent and his sister Ida run a motel on the outskirts of town famous for it's homemade meat fritters. What the unsuspecting townspeople don't know is that Vincent and Ida lure travelers and passersby into traps and they disappear as part of the "garden", where the victims are left to wait until good and ready to become Vincent's next batch of meat treats. One night, Vincent takes out a motorcycle carrying a man and his girlfriend; the man is relegated to the garden but Vincent takes a shine to the girl and, with the help of his sister, nurses her back to health. The girl, Terry, is frightened at first but begins to open up to the oddball backwoods duo. Problems arise when Vincent falls in love with Terry and hopes to introduce her to his secret meat recipes, while Ida stews in jealousy of Vincent's shifting affections. The only person who can save Terry from these maniacs is Sheriff Bruce Smith, Vincent's brother and an ignorant putz who probably shouldn't be left in charge of policing others. So yeah, I guess she's pretty much doomed to become one of Farmer Vincent's fritters.MOTEL HELL is a cheap little throwaway horror film from the early '80s. The story is simple yet strange, the characters are exaggerated, and the story is just what you'd expect. The whole plot of planting his victims in his garden and turning them into fritters is pretty cool, and the guttural noises screeched from the garden's inhabitants is probably the most stomach-churning aspect of the movie. Well, that's not entirely true. Ida (Nancy Parsons) freaks me out. I guess it's a combination of her deep-set eyes, childish pigtails, overalls, and that nasal squealing voice. Add to that the fact that her character is a simple-minded fool with no qualms against murder, and she just weirds me out from the first time we meet her. Farm Vincent on the other hand has the complete opposite effect. He reminds me way too much of Bob Barker. Seriously…he looks like him and sounds like him. Instead of promoting pet population control through spaying and neutering, he eats them. Rory Calhoun is way too charming to be an effective villain. Farmer Vincent shouldn't be murdering people and serving them in jerky form, he should be hosting his own children's show. It's all good until the final confrontation in which Vincent completely loses his mind (but his final lines in the film are probably the absolute best). Nina Axelrod is hot as victim Terry (but not much else…her character's not the sharpest knife in the shed), and Paul Linke is the embarrassment that is Sheriff Smith. You know everything you need to know about the Sheriff when we first meet him. He speeds up Vincent's motel with sirens blaring and lights flashing, lurches to a stop, and puts on his police-game face to…pop in and say hello. He's not smart and he's not tough; it's a miracle he's not dead in the first fifteen minutes.The movie's pretty predictable and follows a few of the usual horror movie conventions. If someone shows up and exhibits "negative behavior" (e.g. sexual deviance, drug use, etc.), chances are they're going to end up as part of Vincent's garden. What annoyed me was that the whole "Farmer Vincent's fritters" plot was put on the back-burner for the majority of the movie so it could focus on Terry's involvement. I wasn't interested in a love triangle, I wanted more cannibalism and horror! It's a fun movie regardless, even if it does wander off track. I'm sure any horror fan will find something they like about this movie, but I don't expect to find it on anyone's top-ten lists.
