Silent Rage Year: 1982 Director: Michael Miller Written by: Joseph Fraley Threat: Reanimated Healing Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Fists or Axe Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish's Reviews
When my bald friend brought a copy of a Chuck Norris movie for our bi-weekly Horror flick get-together, I was skeptical. Apparently my pal was a big bald Norris fan when he was a boy, and he assured me that this was the appropriate genre. He didn't tell me whether Silent Rage (sort of a non-descript title, isn't it?) was a good film or not, though.
Chuck Norris plays a tough, sure sheriff who gets called to the scene where a big ugly psycho has just killed two people with an axe. They fight, and after quite a struggle, the psycho is shot repeatedly. Whisked away to the hospital, his overconcerned doctor (Ron Silver) tries to blame everything and everyone but the psycho. Regardless, the killer dies, and Sheriff Norris beats up a bar full of bikers and goes to bed with the doctor's sister (though not in that order). But the movie is not over yet, because unscrupulous doctors at the hospital inject the psycho with an experimental serum called Mitogen. It not only reanimates the corpse, but makes him invulnerable in the process. Before Norris can do the doctor's sister three more times, the Mitogen hits the fan.
Honestly, I've never seen a Chuck Norris movie before. I'm not a fan of martial arts films in general and though I grew up around rednecks, I don't consider myself one, so there's that. But it's not hard to see why people would love this movie (and the genre if this is typical)--it had lots of violence, lots of scumbags, lots of breaking glass and wood, and copious amounts of nudity.
The killer is a big, skinny, cavemanesque Ron Perlman-lookalike and it wasn't hard to want him dead (again). Chuck Norris isn't a talented actor, but he is likable and exudes a kind of macho affability which is hard to argue with. His skinny love interest was only slightly more likable than the murderer.
There weren't a lot of special effects (mostly practical), but when they demonstrated the psycho's Wolverine-esque healing factor, I had no idea how they pulled it off. There was a lot of character development, extensive dialogue, and a little bit of comic relief provided by deputy Stephen Furth.
There were no scares, some unintentional laughs, but the movie wasn't awful. It was mostly just light, silly Eighties kitsch. And yes, it was Horror. Sort of.

Total Skulls: 11

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?