Bullet Points: Born Killer
If there is one Ted Prior movie every action fanatic should see before they die it is 1987’s Deadly Prey.
If there are two Ted Prior movies every action fanatic should see before they die, that second one may very well be 1989’s Born Killer…
- Paintball Enthusiasts: Our movie begins with some city dwelling paintball enthusiasts heading out to the country for some paintball style war games. There’s a pick up truck full of guys and convertible full of gals and the competitive juices are flowing as they are shooting paintballs at each other’s vehicles… with the windshield being a favorite target. The gals do a real number on the windshield of the pick up, giving the driver, Trapper (Durrell Nelson) near zero visibility and forcing the pick up truck to go wildly off the road and nearly running over some prison guards who were supervising a chain gang breaking rocks… The prison guards surround the pick up with their guns drawn, and one of the guards is especially peeved and orders Trapper out of the vehicle where the guard proceeds to deliver a beating to Trapper, before ordering him back in his vehicle and telling him to get the hell out of there… perhaps next time Trapper will try the windshield wipers or pulling over to the side of the road where he could safely clean off his windshield.
- Chain Gang: Things are about to get worse for our hard ass prison guards when two of the prisoners, Spencer (played by Ted Prior of Deadly Prey and Karate Warrior 2 fame) and Anderson, decide to make a break for it after Anderson pulls a gun that was stashed in the rocks and kills one of the prison guards… How did the gun get there?!?! Why didn’t they make a run for it when all the guards were distracted by the paintballers?!?! These are good questions that Born Killer is not going to waste time answering. Anyway… total bedlam erupts, prisoners are being shot, prison guards are being shot and Spencer and Anderson are now in the wind. Anderson thinks they should get as far away as possible, but Spencer wants to pull a Samantha Fox and “have some fun” first.
- War Games: We then catch up with our paintball enthusiasts as they are about to officially start their paintball weekend, but first Trapper takes a moment to punch Victoria (Francine Lapensée, Alien Private Eye) in the kisser for forcing him off the road… because again, he could not use the windshield wipers and/or simply pull over to the side of the nothing happening country road. Up next is some riveting paintball action… after a while Trapper and his boy Nick (Fritz Matthews, Killer Workout) decide to take a weed break, and that’s about the time they get knocked the eff out by Spencer and Anderson… when they wake up, both Trapper and Nick find themselves laying on the ground in nothing but their tighty whities and socks. Trapper and Nick are faced with two options, roam around the woods in their undies or put on the clothes left behind by the convicts. Prison blues it is and that’s about the time the authorities show up…
- Mistaken Identity: The man hunt for the two prisoners is led by Sheriff Stone (played by
Ted TurnerTy Hardin), Stone has a posse full of deputies but seems to either be lacking information on the identity of the escaped prisoners or he just doesn’t care. Stone and his deputies take a shoot first and ask questions later approach which really doesn’t do them any favors… that is why when they come across Trapper and Nick (two Caucasian males) they just start firing at them, even though one of the escaped convicts, Anderson, is an African American. Realizing they are screwed Trapper and Nick decide splitting up is the best option. Nick with his prior military experience (something established via flashbacks) will go after Spencer and Anderson, while Trapper tries to evade the cops and call for some sort of help… preferably from some cops competent at their jobs.
- Born to Kill: This was the point in the movie where everything got taken to the extreme… Trapper found himself hiding from the law in an old mine, covered in roaches… Nick finds himself captured and forced to watch Spencer rape Victoria… But Nick has his chance for revenge, when he turns his paintball gun into a fireball gun that ends up killing Anderson… Sheriff Stone says to hell with the law and he decides he’s just going to hang everybody before some shotgun toting local yokels show up and call Stone on his bullshit… And then the movie ends with Nick and Spencer popping off their shirts and engaging in some good old fashioned hand to hand combat while everyone who survived to the end watches on.
Born Killer was like Deadly Prey: The Remix… it shared a lot of the same cast and characteristics of Deadly Prey but to me Born Killer didn’t quite measure up to the ultimate cult classic level. But I can say with confidence that if you are a fan of Deadly Prey you are going to be a fan of Born Killer too.
I can also confidently say that if you are a fan of Bonus Bullet Points you are going to keep reading…
- Required by Law: I am going to write to my Senator and see what he can do about making it mandatory that all tattoo parlors in the country hang the movie poster above in their place of business.
- Directed By: Born Killer was one of two movies directed by Kimberley Casey. Her second film, 1990’s Deadly Dancer, features Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quinones of Breakin’ fame and is now on my wishlist.
- Crank That: When Spencer gets wind that Nick fought for his country, he immediately begins referring to Nick as “Soldier Boy” and continues to call Nick “Soldier Boy” to the bitter end.
