Mr_Ectoplasma The cover art for "Mountaintop Motel Massacre" may mislead you— its presentation of a wild-eyed grandma peeking outside a hotel door evokes feelings of madwoman slasherdom and maybe even something akin to "The Shining"— "Mountaintop Motel Massacre" is neither of these things. The film revolves around an elderly woman, Evelyn, who is released from an institution and returns to the motel she once ran. After a local storm puts travelers out, they come one by one to Mountaintop Motel, and so does Evelyn a'knockin', one by one.This backwoodsy micro-budget picture is more of a thriller than a conventional slasher by any means. Our antagonist is a bonkers old lady, after all— think Tobe Hooper's "Eaten Alive" without alligators, and factor in a loony, doe-eyed grandma— but there is something inarguably charming about this film in its earnestness. Filmed in Louisiana back country in the early eighties, the film was not released until 1986, and became a staple of mom & pop video stores' horror sections. The film begins almost as a psycho-drama, with Evelyn returning home and brutally murdering her daughter after catching her dabbling in witchcraft in their basement. Things spiral out of control from there when Evelyn re-opens her motel, which is in all actuality more a series of rundown cabins nestled in the backwoods— but hey, this is an eighties drive-in flick, so I can work with it. Travelers arrive one by one: a carpenter, a couple of freewheeling hippie girls, a music executive— quite the cast of victims.The pacing picks up about midway through the film, and there are some really inventive sequences featuring underground tunnels that run between the motels (premonitory of the 2007 thriller "Vacancy"), and a bizarre and eerie score punctuates the hacking amidst the torrential downpour. The setting here leaves a bit to be desired in terms of excitement; the motel cabins are claustrophobic, but not exactly the greatest spaces to be photographed, and the cinematography is fairly unexciting overall. Even so, I found this film incredibly amusing. It's a clean-cut example of eighties motel horror flicks at their most low-budget, yet it still retains a sense of self-respect that is admirable. A bit light on slashing and cinematic flair, but we've got a motel, a crazy old lady with a sickle in hand, and— snakes! 6/10.

Leonard Smalls: The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse "Mountaintop Motel Massacre" will appeal to those horror fans like myself who often have to see a movie just because of the ridiculous title. Sometimes we get snowballed and the movie sucks but other times, we are treated to a semi-entertaining gem that stands out from the rest. "Mountaintop Motel Massacre" stands out.The whole setting of the movie is creepy as hell, kind of a mix between Tobe Hooper's "Eaten Alive" and "Motel Hell." Mountaintop Motel is in the country, off a dirt road, itself a collection of small 'cabins' and they are all linked together by an underground passageway. The lady who runs the joint is a psycho, she offs her kid in the beginning of the flick and then proceeds to off some guests in her cabins.My only complaint is that this movie takes way too long to get going. If it had the pace of the final twenty minutes during the entire movie, it would have been amazing. But hang in there, you won't be disappointed in this one. Some nice, genuinely creepy scenes and some decent gory killings.5 out of 10, kids.

slayrrr666 "Mountaintop Motel Massacre" is a somewhat decent if problematic slasher.**SPOILERS**Following her nieces' death, Evelyn, (Anna Chappell) recently released from an insane asylum, enlists local preachers Bill McWiley, (Bill Thurman) and Reverend Crewshaw, (Major Brock) to help her fix her house into a motel. After opening up for several years, a rainy night brings together strangers Al, (Will Mitchel) Tanya, (Virginia Loridans) her friend Prissy, (Amy Hill) and newlyweds Mary, (Marian Jones) and Vernon, (Gregg Brazzel) at the motel. Staying there as the roads are washed out, they feel something is strange there but are left with no choice. As the night lingers on, they suddenly start missing, and eventually find that there's a series of traps which allow for a serial killer to stalk them all, forcing them into a deadly battle to prevent them from continuing on their quest.The Good News: When this one tries to, there is some rather good stuff in here. The atmosphere isn't that bad, which is mostly due to several key factors. The raging thunderstorm makes for several really great scenes. The wandering back-and-forth between the different cabins with the falling rain in the background and the occasional blast of lightning work nicely. The location is another one, with the individual, isolated cabins out in the middle of nowhere help that along immensely, and even the design of them is really neat, making the later trick of it appearing out of the different sections with a rather nice sequence of events to get it to a rather unexpected feeling. This one also manages to get some nice gore in here, mainly through the use of the rarely used hand scythe. Used for all the kills, this one puts them into most of the traditional places, including stabs in the chest, throat, neck and slicing into many of those same areas is pretty bloody. It's not anywhere into the gory realms, but it does have some blood flow and it's not that bad. The real big plus, though, is the final chase at the end. This one is really good, utilizing a unique location with a dark feeling to it and a claustrophobic sense that really makes it look and feel really great. The added bloodshed is only a plus, and makes it really feel nice. These here are what really help the film.The Bad News: This one here isn't that great, with some really big flaws in it. The most obvious and crippling one is the extreme boredom that the film exhibits. This one here takes an eternity to get going, using most of the first hour to get everything laid out and a few creepy moments here and there. This is just too much, as the endless scenes of them wandering around the cabins talking about the situation, and when the bodies turn up, there's just more endless talking going on that really ruins the film's flow. This one uses up so much time on the talking scenes and this just gets really tiresome at the end. From the moment that the killing takes over is well into hour into the film, and so all the moments before that are just plain boring as the following around of the victims is just purely aggravating. The film also could've used a more varied killing weapon, allowing for some diversity. Having the scythe used for every single one of the kills makes it seem that the killer lacks any ingenuity and makes them really non-threatening. The last flaw is that there's really no way to make any sense of the plot. From the failing to notice that the crimes have been committed by an ex-mental patient, the apparent murder rather than suicide and the mental instability of the patient are just too many of the excuses used, and really should've been answered rather than ignored. Otherwise, this one would've been fine.The Final Verdict: When it really gets down to the slasher goodness, this one here has some really good moments but is too uneven to do anything more. Really only for the slasher die-hards, while just about the rest out there will find some good moments but won't feel too big on it overall.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Nudity

randymil First of all I would like to start this off with an apology to the creators of silent night, deadly night. I made that movie sound like the worst movie ever and in reality mountaintop motel massacre makes it look brilliant. This so far is the worst movie i have ever seen! I watched this movie for 2 reasons, because i have always had a fear of creepy hotels and the cover looked scary. This movie did not make my fear any worse and in fact I am probably less afraid of hotels. This movie is slow and boring and the only reason i watched all of it was to give a review. We didn't even get to know the characters and I for one didn't care what happened to them. They were morons and this was the worst acting ever. I know most of these movies have bad actors but i have honestly seen better and more believable actors in elementary school plays. And what was with the killing scenes? The victims had their heads turned and you couldn't even see what was being done to them until after it was done. I love scary B movies but if you are thinking of adding this to your collection, I hope you don't make the same mistake as i did and ignore the reviews. Don't say I didn't warn you.