Leofwine_draca Take a string of beautiful Polish women, all more than willing to go nude for their first film appearance; take the killer from Mario Bava's giallo masterpiece BLOOD AND BLACK LACE; take one amateur film-maker with aspirations to be Dario Argento and what you have is Roman Nowicki's abysmally bad FANTOM KILER. Never has a film been more offensive than this misogynistic rubbish, plot less drivel which is basically an excuse to showcase copious amounts of naked female flesh and indulge in Nowicki's perverse imaginings. Whilst the female cast members are undoubtedly attractive (obviously picked for their looks) none of them can act and their lack of skill shows throughout. The men are even worse, badly playing up stale caricatures of janitors and policemen. When half of the film's scenes consist of two such janitors imaging the women who pass through a railway station in the nude you know the people who made this are desperately reaching for ideas.Supposedly "artistic" direction consists of too many closeups of eyeballs, a laughable phone flying out of one in one bad dream scene, lots of wiggling cameras, and an overload of predictable music to accompany the action. The murders are all depraved (and ALL require the female victim to lose her clothing) but the fake gore effects - little more than a few splashes of fake blood - counter any real horror which might have come from them. The average murder lasts for about twenty minutes (!) so there's no room for any plot in between - just a couple of scenes of policemen discussing the murders. And the Polish humour which proliferates this movie - including some bizarre antics involving a wooden spoon - is definitely something that doesn't translate well to a foreign audience. Incredibly, many sequels followed, which disturbingly shows that there is a market somewhere for this garbage and somebody actually gets a kick from this trash. All discerning fans should avoid it like the plague.

BA_Harrison Horror and sex have always gone hand in hand with each other, but rarely does a film combine these two elements so blatantly as in Fantom Kiler, a British made movie hiding behind a fake Polish identity. Reputedly made by UK horror aficionado Trevor Barley (under the pseudonym Roman Nowicki), filmed in Poland, and starring a bevy of beautiful silicone enhanced strumpets (most likely Euro-porn-stars), this film is part giallo, part soft-core porn, part misogynistic slasher and part comedy.The Fantom Kiler of the title is a mysterious mask-wearing psycho who is stalking and carving up hot nubile women, who prefers to attack his victims in a sexually violent manner. This generally means that he likes to get them butt nekkid first, and then proceed to stick sharp objects up their 'holiest of holies'.With more bare top-quality female flesh on display than you can shake a stick at, and plenty of nasty killings (although, surprisingly, very little in the way of graphic gore), Fantom Kiler is a pretty poor film technically, but quite entertaining for fans of sleaze and exploitation.Shot using digital cameras on rather cheap-looking sets (swathed in coloured light and smoke to give a suitably tacky vibe), this movie is hard to find offensive since all involved are obviously having a blast making it. There are several silly 'comical' interludes which break up the intensely violent scenes (including one humdinger which offers up a bizarre twist on the legend of Excalibur) and the whole affair is so OTT that one would have to be a real stick-in-the-mud to get in a lather about it.

Stu Chandler (chanelit-1) Good old Trevor Barley (hiding behind an alias, Roman Nowicki). Clearly spotting a gap in the market, he made this, an erotic horror about a serial killer murdering young women. Even though it was all made in the UK, fearing the authorities, Barley set it in Poland and hired Polish/Russian actresses who speak in their native tongue in the film, thus it's dubbed and looks like it comes from Poland. Clever!Anyway, the film itself is pretty unremarkable and technically inept - the killings are mysogny to a whole new level with buxom babes being stripped completely before being killed in cruel and unusual ways (one is raped by a knife!).How anyone can compare this to the works of Fulci or other great Italian directors is beyond me - this is a very cheap and nasty film that is only passable as entertainment and just not that shocking. The ideas certainly are, by the way its made dilutes it so much that you end just watching the screen for the sake of it.Best to borrow a friend's copy first and see what you think - you may enjoy it, but you may not. I for one, didn't really; it was viewable but could have been so much more with a little more time, effort and money.

zen007master There's been much confusion as to whether Fantom Kiler and its two sequels were shot in Poland or the UK. Well I can tell you that Fantom Kiler was made in England. It was directed by Trevor Barley. He shot it on digital video in his warehouse in Stoke Newington, London, England. He then edited it on his home PC and went to a friend of his, who works as a VT operator in London, to get a few thousand VHS copies done cheaply. You can actually see pictures of his friend adorning the walls in the train station scenes in Fantom Kiler 1 and 2 (actually shot in Barley's office). The women in the films are Russian models/porno actresses and many of Barley's friends and family helped with the production. His brother actually appears wearing a fake moustache. Barley himself can be seen in the outtakes section on the Fantom Kiler 2 DVD walking past the camera wearing a black jacket and hat.Why the Polish connection? Well Mr Barley has a Polish girlfriend and visits there regularly. He took a few exterior shots of cars, the outside of police stations etc and edited them into the final film. He is also worried about the local constabulary taking an interest in the film and wants to maintain interest by adding an air of mystery and therefore generating more sales. In fact the first time most people heard about the film was in a fanzine called Sinerama which raved about the movie and contained a two page spread with pictures. No surprise then that the writer/editor of Sinerama was none other than Trevor Barley himself - promoting his own film! Most people with any connections in the UK horror scene know about his involvement, but strangely have kept quiet.