jellopuke
This movie has one of those soundtracks that literally describes what is happening on screen, but its all cheesy 80's music so it's awesome. There are loads of aerobics montages with gratuitous crotch shots and zoom ins on the girls in skimpy outfits which I guess is cool if you're into that. The plot is standard and the gore isn't much to look at, but it's a corny fun that makes this worth watching.
Scott LeBrun
As "Killer Workout" opens, a young model named Valerie learns that she's been hired for a major shoot, but that night, when she uses a tanning bed at a health & fitness spa, there's a bad accident, causing the machine to burn her. Years later, her twin sister Rhonda (Marcia Karr) is running her own spa, and the clientèle soon start to get killed by some psycho.As a low budget slasher designed to cash in on the fitness craze of the 1980s (and this movie just screams 1980s throughout), this would make agreeable viewing, alone or as a double feature with the equally silly "Death Spa". Overall, it's not as outrageously tacky as one might wish it to be, nor is it as hilarious in its awfulness as would be appreciated. Still, people looking to have a bad movie night would likely have a good time with this one.There's plenty of padding, but it's padding of the kind that many audience members will appreciate, with leering shots of well choreographed dancers grinding along to some insidiously catchy 80s style pop. The ladies are lovely, and the men are studly; their performances add a bit to the fun. Karr is entertainingly bitchy, while David James Campbell ("Scarecrows") is the required weary detective on the case. Ted Prior, brother of writer / director David A. Prior, and Fritz Matthews co-star; they also did "Deadly Prey" for David A. P. the same year as this. Teresa Van der Woude ("Night Visitor") and Joel Hoffman ("Pumpkinhead") have smaller roles.The much too talky finale and the resolution are not terribly satisfying, but getting there is still enjoyable.Six out of 10.
Master Cultist
Highly entertaining slasher movie, that is the quintessence of 80's American horror. A gym full of lithe young things is being terrorised by an unknown killer. Could it be that it's a plot device to excuse lots of gratuitous shots of Lycra clad cleavage and backsides? Of course it could. The acting is rudimentary, if I'm feeling generous, and the scripting and direction roughly equivalent, but we don't expect miracles from cheap slashers, surely. That's about all there is to it. The gore quotient is fairly minimal, but the death scenes are effectively filmed, and tension is applied on occasion. I enjoyed it. Know that I shouldn't.
bfan83
**SPOILER WARNING!* I LOVE this movie! It is quite possibly the cheesiest slasher to come out of the 80s, but that's what is so irresistible about it! The plot concerns Rhonda (Marcia Karr) an overall unpleasant woman because several years earlier she was accidentally baked inside of a tanning bed while trying to get a tan so she could be on the cover of cosmopolitan. Due to this horrifying traumatic incident, she starts killing off the clients of her gym because she is jealous of their beauty! Talk about totally cheesy 80s slasher plot. KILLER WORKOUT also features the best weapon of choice - a large safety pin used to off the client's one by one! The acting is, of course, really atrocious. But it still maintains the neat 80s charm. The bad music, the bad fashions, the bad hair. I could go on and on. It was obviously made on a shoestring budget. But like I said, all of that gives it its charm. You must seek it out at once! If not for the atrocious acting and the unbelievable plot, then for it's totally awesome soundtrack! Only You Tonight has to be the best 80s pop song out there!
AD
