Another Son of Sam (1977)

 

Director: Dave Adams

Screenplay: Dave Adams

Cast: Russ Dubuc as Lt. Setzer; Cynthia Stewart as Dr. Daisy Ellis; Robert McCourt as Capt. Thompson; John Harper as Sgt. Flowers; Larry Sprinkle as Officer Mike Shuster; Bill Brown as Officer John Mills; Bonnie Schrier as Heather; Kim Saunders as Darlene Page; Pam Mullins as Tina

An Abstract Candidate

 

[Sung] The shopping list of things she was meant to buy...

As there are films which timestamp the eighties, so there are many which could only exist from the seventies. Beginning with a long list chronicling the history of serial killers and spree murderers from Jack the Ripper in England to the time of the film's release in the United States, this was not even the first time before the seventies when American cinema fixated on serial killers and spree killings. However, with Dirty Harry (1971), a mainstream Hollywood film, presenting Andrew Robinson as a stand-in to the real "Zodiac" killer plaguing the country at the time, the seventies was a time of reflecting on this subject even for exploitative movies within the States. Another Son of Sam is not exactly a treatise on the subject, neither is it actually an exploitation spin on David Berkowitz, the real Son of Sam killer. The film's quick appearance into cinemas is quite disturbing if ballsy to say the least; on its IMDB page, though I would prefer greater factual accuracy, there is a claim that this was filmed in 1975 under the title Hostages, not released until 1977¹ where, on the 10th August 1977, David Berkowitz was finally caught and arrested after a series of killings. If the trivia could be confirmed, then this is a classic case of exploitation cinema pulling directly from the headlines, or in this case, least changing the title to cash in on events. Is it morally questionable, whether this was the real story or that director/writer/producer/editor/casting director/stunt coordinator Dave Adams managed to get the film finished within a tiny little piece of time to sell under the context of the news? Yes, but this is where some of the more fascinating cultural items can be found too, more so as, whilst this is not a Son of Sam depiction, it is still of note for this. This is not like when Spike Lee adapted the real history into Summer of Sam (1999) decades later, but this still has relevance, circling the fixation on serial killer, even if exploiting real life tragedy, by what is a curious proto-slasher/police procedural with techniques accidentally borrowed from avant-garde cinema.

It takes about fourteen minutes in a seventy one minute film for the "Another" of the title to appear, named Harvey, who will escape from a mental asylum as soon as we meet him. We will never see the face of Harvey until the end of the film, baring extreme close-up of his eyes and fragments of his face. Even before then, the opening fourteen minutes are languid and long with a protracted seen on the river for the opening on a motorboat, and an extended musical number from Johnny Charro. Fully informing you this is a film of the seventies, Charro sings a lounge ballad whilst with a shirt open as far as possible to still qualify as a shirt, full with chest hair exposed. Charro, starting off in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, was starting in the seventies as a singer², openly indebted to Elvis Presley³ and, with complete lack of irony on my part but entirely sincere, is an obscure figure I find only online in old newspaper articles, and was still working into the new century, and has find himself immortalised in this oddity, giving great meaning to how these exploitation films preserve the era. The point of these fourteen minutes, to get back on track, is to set up the hero, a police officer who, wooing his doctor girlfriend, takes the case of Harvey's escape and murder spree personally when, working at that asylum, she is badly injured if surviving an escape from Harvey, who goes on to kill women and others when let loose by accident.

If it feels odd exasperating on fourteen minutes of a film, this perfectly shows how exploitation and independent productions from this era, like shot-on-video/straight-to-video of later decades, were a lawless place where rules of how films should be made went out the window. For many, from these fourteen minutes, Another Son of Sam is a baffling curiosity most would not sit through, for some to laugh at, for others and me a compelling cultural artefact whose quirks make it unique. The film's tone is contrasted by its schism as exploitation, only a little violent, a little gory, usually cutting away from the murders despite being sold on the Son of Sam name, with most of Harvey's work, usually hiding behind the bushes in first person prowling camera scenes, cut away from when he strikes. A little titillation is barely there, and the film, if sold at a drive-in during this more relaxed era, would definitely be more sizzle than steak. Like many of these films influenced by older Hollywood genre films, from the b-movie and poverty row era, Dave Adams was clearly influenced by crime films from a time before in his emphasis on dialogue and law enforcement doing their thing. It is all deathly serious - this killer is marked by the fact his mother, in the one aspect which does add a severity to material, molested him as a child, and eventually culminates with the police having trapped Harvey in an apartment complex on a school campus, but with hostages involved and stray police likely to meet their demise if they wander in after him. That it has passages that are absurd by accident comes from the swaying in trying to be this deathly serious, but making some choices which undercut itself, such as the son-in-law being name checked among the police after Harvey, as a result doomed to die as soon as that information is brought up.

The result, shot Charlotte in North Carolina, is regional cinema which gives you a nice snapshot of the era, all grey building designs, brown aesthetic and green parkland. Where things get weird is how it feels like Another Son of Sam was made from what footage was available in the editing room, cutting it precariously to not having enough filmed at times and there being strange pauses suddenly where the film feels like it has broken down. Whether deliberate or not, one of the oddest touches is how suddenly as well, with these pauses, scenes can stop as if they have just finished only for the still frame of the final shot to linger onscreen as more dialogue is layered on top. It is a technique from avant-garde cinema inexplicably found here, and alongside the cutting away from the violence, not showing the killer barring cuts to his eyes in close-up and fragments, and the pacing, and Another Son of Sam has a weird atmosphere. Alongside its era trappings, it is a curious film to experience.

It is an acquired taste mind, so be cautious that, if your tastes are not for the perplexing, many could find this frustrating instead. I found it weird and compelling. David Adams did not do much in his directing career - again having to rely on IMDB for accuracy, it says he may have had to wait for decades until Angel with a Kick (2005) to make one other film. His little filmography elsewhere still gives you an idea of how the exploitation/regional era of American cinema was a fascinating and prolific one, where he has a stunt gaffer credit for Whiskey Mountain (1977), from the prolific Floridian director William Grefé, and a stunts credit for Grizzly (1976), a film by William Girdler, a Kentucky born native who travelled states of his country as much as genres in his prolific career, close to the mainstream with The Manitou (1978) with Tony Curtis before his career was tragically cut short, having made nine films, at the age of thirty. Another Son of Sam is a curious footnote in this group, of many just from the seventies, but its existence paints a picture to say the least, even if the results will be a head scratcher. With most of its cast baring a couple of names, like the memorable one of Larry Sprinkle, not even going on to extra roles in other films, this their only credit, this feels intimate as much as it is, from that title, a lurid reflection of trends and obsessions of the day.

Abstract Spectrum: Dreamlike/Psychotronic

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

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1) Another Son of Sam's IMDB trivia page.

2) A 17th October 1975 article from the Lakeland Ledger newspaper on Johnny Charro.

3) A Lakeland Ledger article, from 2nd September 1977, of Johnny Charro reflecting on the death of Elvis Presley.